08/01/2025

Using Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory to Support High School Students

By Angela Rothbauer

Pivotal decision points occur throughout the years in high school. Students may ask school counselors and career professionals for advice on how to make these decisions.  The path to a career choice could be made easier if students had the proper tools to make decisions, regardless of whether they had a career in mind or not.  Though students may change their mind many times during the course of their career development, providing them the learning tools to know how to search for their interests, and link that knowledge to a career adds to their growth development. This approach exercises a way to focus less on predetermined goals and more on being flexible and experience-driven when choosing a career (Paolini, 2019).

When equipping students with the tools for successful career development and exploration, Krumboltz’s’ Social Learning Theory is a helpful key. This concept can be used to assist students with understanding how holistic factors contribute to their career development. According to Krumboltz (Teachers Institute, 2023), there are four main sections that impact one’s career development: genetics, environment, learning experiences, and task approach skills. Career choices are made through childhood experiences, interaction with others, and the way a person approaches challenges (Teachers Institute, 2023).

The Four Parts of Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory

To start, Krumboltz's term genetics focuses on the individual’s natural abilities, personality and predispositions towards certain types of work. The next component of Krumboltz’s theory focuses on the environment, which includes family and societal expectations, the availability of job opportunities, socio-economic status and cultural background.  Krumboltz’ third component focuses on learning experiences. This includes formal education, job training, internships or volunteer work. And finally, task approach skills are the final component that focuses on problem solving abilities, decision making skills, and the ability to navigate through obstacles.  (Teachers Institute, 2023).

Putting Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory into Practice

There are a number of strategies that school counselors and career professionals can use to assist high school students with understanding how the factors mentioned in Krumboltz’s theory relate to career development. One strategy may include the following steps for the practitioner. (Torpey, 2015)

1. Create a brief questionnaire with short open-ended questions. Limiting the questions to three or four per component, here are a few examples. 

1. Genetics: “Do you currently have a job?”, “Do you like the outdoors?”
2. Environment: “Do you have siblings?”, “How would you describe your socio-economic background?”, “Where was the last vacation you went on with your family?”
3. Learning Experience: “What’s your favorite class and why?”, “What is your least favorite subject and why?”  Be specific.
4. Task Approach Skills: “How do you take criticism from a parent, teacher and/or coach?”, “Do you consider yourself a good listener? Why or why not?”

2. Next, have the student, a parent/guardian and a friend complete the questionnaire.  The parent/guardian and friend should answer the questionnaire about the student. This can help to address the environment component of Krumboltz’s theory.

1. After all three questionnaires have been completed, discuss the answers with the student to determine a common theme. Help the student identify similarities or differences.
2. Did the comparisons change the student’s mind about how they perceive themselves now as well as how they may face career development in the future?

3. Next, have the student complete an assessment such as O*NET Interest Profiler or My Next Move. These assessments address the learning experience component of Krumboltz’s theory.

1. Discuss the results by asking the student what they learned from the assessment.
2. Help the student explore any similarities to the results from the brief questionnaire that they and the parent and the friend completed.

4. Then, ask the student to make a list of three possible career choices or courses that would fit the criteria based on the questionnaire and assessment results. This task addresses both the learning experience and environment components of Krumboltz’s theory.

5. After that, ask the student to provide a list of possible colleges/universities and trade schools that would be relevant to the choices they made above. This task also addresses both the learning experience and environment components of Krumboltz’s theory.

6. The final step would be to suggest a micro-internship, job shadowing experience or volunteer work that is relevant to their findings. This step addresses the task approach skills component of Krumboltz’s theory.

Tools for a Clearer Perspective

“Career readiness for teens involves preparing students with the skills and mindsets needed to make informed decisions about their future careers and to pursue those aspirations successfully.” (We Are Teachers Staff, 2023, section 5).

Tools for self-discovery, goal setting, and skills development provide a good foundation for teenagers to begin a career path. Using Krumboltz’ Social Learning Theory with high school students provides a framework to assist students in determining their career paths. This concept incorporates the student’s experiences, socially and academically, the student’s personal environment, and the student’s decision-making capabilities with greater confidence. The student’s confidence grows by providing them with the tools necessary to set goals. By implementing this theory, students are able to get a more well-rounded perspective on their abilities and interests. This gives the student a sense of self-assurance that they might not have had previously, which they can then use to their advantage when making a career selection. School counselors and career professionals can incorporate a student’s exploration of genetics, environment, learning experiences and task approach skills to help them determine their foundation for their career journey. Employing Krumboltz's concepts can encourage students to embrace change and learn from their experiences to gain a clearer perspective of their career and the modern workforce.

References

Paolini, A. C. (2019). School counselors promoting college and career readiness for high school students. Winthrop University. ERIC. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1203651.pdf 

Teachers Institute. (2023, December 26). How social learning influences career choices: Krumboltz’s theory. https://teachers.institute/guidance-counselling/social-learning-influences-career-choices/ 

Torpey, E. (2015). Career planning for high schoolers. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Career Outlook. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/career-planning-for-high-schoolers.htm 

We Are Teachers Staff. (2023,Sep 29). What is career planning for high school students? https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-career-planning/ 

Angela Rothbauer works for the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School in New Hampshire. She is the social studies adjunct instructor. She recently completed NCDA’s Facilitating Career Development (FCD) course. She lives in NH with her husband, daughter and dog. She can be reached at arothbauer1@vlacs.org