Project Activities
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Product: The project team will develop Powerskills Game Lab, a game-based intervention for high school students to develop career readiness abilities in communication and adjacent intrapersonal and interpersonal domains. The intervention will include modules on different career readiness topics (clear and effective communication, personal and social awareness, work ethic and professionalism) and will address specific skills, active listening, accountable talk, adaptability, assertiveness, conflict management, cultural awareness, empathy, initiative, integrity, self-management, and self-efficacy. Components of the intervention will include diagnostics for covered skills; practice games with anchored instruction, leveling, feedback and coaching; and scenario-based performance games that combine multiple skills in different real-world contexts. The intervention will be integrated into the existing Hats & Ladders Career Readiness Platform, which includes a student-facing app and educator-facing dashboard. Performance data and other implementation supports will be available through the dashboard.
Project website:
Supplemental information
Video Demonstration of the Phase I Prototype: https://youtu.be/Z33sOTehrJE
In Phase II of the project, the developers will create additional career readiness skill modules for topics in the domains of personal and social awareness, clear and effective communication, and work ethic professionalism. The team will also develop videos and games, diagnostic assessments, individualized reports on student progress, and training for teachers to integrate the intervention within classroom practice. After development concludes, researchers will conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the intervention to increase career readiness skills. The researchers will collect data from 600 high school students and 30 classes, with half of the classes randomly assigned to use the intervention over 2 months and the other half to use business-as-usual activities with exposure to the same content. The researchers will use and modify existing scales (measures of assertiveness, active listening, and self-efficacy) and during phase II are developing additional measures for assessing knowledge and application of the target skills (accountable talk, adaptability, initiative). Costs will be calculated based on the actual per student and class wide implementation costs.
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To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
