Literature Review Blog #3

1. Visual

2.

Works Cited

Coetzee, Melinda, and Suzanne Bester. "The Possible Value of a Gap Year: A Case Study." Sabinet,   Higher Education South Africa (HESA), Jan. 2009,                             journals.co.za/content/high/23/3/EJC37535.Accessed 4 Mar. 2017.

3. Summary:

This piece is a case study in which 3 students (1 male and 2 female) all from  predominantly middle class backgrounds who took a gap year before attending college. This case study  touches on many different aspects of the experiences of the students before, during, and after their gap year was taken. Three of them being: high school experiences, career exploration, and expectations of the gap year. Towards the end of the piece, there is a segment called "Feelings About the Gap Year" which provides great insight to both the positive and negative parts of the experience that the students reported.

4. Authors:

Melinda Coetzee is an Educational Psychologist at the University of South Africa.

Suzanne Bester of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. She has 16 years of experience in higher education and as an educational psychologist. Doctor Bester publishes regularly in peer reviewed journals and scholarly books, and disseminates her work at national and international conferences.

5. Key Term:

Constructivist Paradigm: learning as an active constructive process. The learner is an information constructor. In this case study, this term is very important because it explains the way in which the students were allowed to construct meaning and portray their personal experiences regarding their gap-year.

Key concept:

Expectation vs Reality: In a section of this piece, the students reflect of various parts of their time off, and explain many differences in what they expected their gap-year to be like and what actually happened. Some differences are greater than others, some are negative and some are positive, but I think this is a very relevant concept for this topic being that you never really know what exactly you are going to get.

6. Quotes:

"The prevalence of commercial gap year companies as well as the large number of young people taking gap years is seen as evidence of the growing popularity of this practice." Page 609

"The three participants all reported an increase in their independence and confidence level,

and having gained insights into their own personality and relationships with others. In addition, they experienced an increase in life-skills related to taking care of themselves, budgeting of their finances, and interpersonal skills." Page 616

"Career exploration is an important and age-appropriate developmental task of the participants

engaged in a gap year, and the career decision-making process is a developmental task linked to the stage of exploration." Page 618 

7. Value
I think that this material will be very helpful in exploring my research question for many reasons, but mainly because it is a case study. I think that the fact that this piece follows 3 real life experiences of students who lived the life of the gap-year will give me some great information to work with.