For this study, four classes in grade 1 of K and W middle schools in Daegu Metropolitan City were selected as experimental groups after obtaining consent from each school and student. The number of subjects in each experimental group (class) was similar, ranging from 35 to 37 (Table 1). The florist experience programs (FEPs) was conducted in each experimental group during the “Career and Occupation” class.

The research team (two florists) and teachers conducted one designated FEP three times for each of the four classes (Table 1). Groups A and B participated in a succulent planting program to analyze gender differences, while Groups B, C, and D participated in three different FEPs to examine differences by program type for female students.

We selected three activities to reflect core domains of retail floristry practice used in professional curricula: (1) hand-tied bouquet (wedding/personal flowers), (2) floral frame (interior décor/display), and (3) succulent planting (living plant design/biophilic retail). This mapping aligns with commonly recognized strands such as Arrangements, Personal Flowers, and Design Techniques/Mechanics (AIFD, 2026).

Each class completed three weekly sessions (45 minutes each) during the regular ‘Career and Occupation’ period. Sessions were co-led by two licensed horticulture/floristry educators together with the classroom teacher. Standardized safety guidance, slide-based instruction, and a short Q&A were provided in each session. Materials were standardized by activity (Table 1): succulents (2 rooted plants/student), potting sand and soil, a 10-cm plastic cup, a cup carrier; for floral frames, two epiphytic orchids, a rigid frame, black mesh, and floral wire; for hand-tied bouquets, 8–12 cut flowers, floral wrap, and wire.

To minimize timetable disruption, we used intact classes and class-level assignment. One boys’ class (Group A) and three girls’ classes (Groups B–D) participated. Each of the four groups completed one florist program: Group A and Group B planted succulents, Group C created floral frames, and Group D made hand-tied bouquets. The sequence reflected classroom logistics and material availability. To safely and consistently deliver a short, school-based FEP under routine constraints (schedule, indoor space, limited follow-up), the boys’ cohort was assigned to a succulent-planting module, which is beginner-friendly, quick, and low-maintenance relative to hand-tied bouquet or orchid-frame modules. Accordingly, effects for the boys’ cohort were interpreted as activity-specific and compared with those of the girls’ cohort completing the same succulent activity; future iterations prespecify counterbalancing across genders and replication across additional domains and settings.

The FEP consisted of three phases as follows.

The first step was a 10-minute slide presentation on florists and floristry, covering the origin of the job title, a general job description, the aptitudes and interests required for the role, education and career paths, and practical tips, followed by a Q&A with the students.

The second step was the experiential activity period that allowed participants to explore whether floristry was a good fit for their interests and aptitudes through the overall job experience. Floristry tasks were classified into three domains, and each experimental group received the corresponding FEP (Fig. 1): succulent planting (living plant design/ biophilic retail items), floral frame (interior/floral décor; orchid frame), and hand-tied bouquet (wedding/personal flowers). We selected these three activities to represent the dominant practice domains of retail floristry taught in professional curricula; specifically, they map onto widely recognized floristry-education categories—Arrangements, Personal Flowers, and Design Techniques/Mechanics (AIFD, 2026).

The third step was a Q&A session, where the students’ free questions and the researchers’ sincere answers improved their understanding of florists and satisfied their curiosity, which increased their interest in exploring careers and dreaming of career design.

Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s ω for the total and section scores; we also report mean inter-item correlation (MIIC) as an index of within-section homogeneity (Whiston et al., 2017; Thomas and Larwin, 2023). Given Likert response formats, ordinal (polychoric-based) α/ω were calculated as sensitivity analyses. For the two-item Section C, in addition to α, we report the inter-item correlation (r₁₂) and the Spearman–Brown reliability.

This research program was conducted once a week from November 3 to November 17, 2023, with each c lass participating in one program over three sessions. Surveys were administered before and after the FEP. In order to investigate the changes in various perceptions of middle school students after the FEPs, a questionnaire with the same items before and after the experience program was used as a test tool (Table 2). The questionnaire consisted of five subsections: general awareness of flowers and plants (floriculture), general awareness of florists, understanding of current career programs at school, awareness of floristry as a career, and awareness of the need for vocational education, with a total of 25 items. The survey took 10 minutes to complete and respondents were asked to identify their gender.

Items of the questionnaire were adapted from validated student instruments to balance content representation with classroom feasibility during 45–minute periods. For plant/flower attitudes and awareness, we aligned stems with the Plant Attitude Questionnaire (PAQ/PAS; Fančovičová and Prokop, 2010) and the modern plant–awareness framework (PAD; Parsley et al., 2022). For occupation perceptions and program evaluation, we followed the national Free–Semester/Free–Year career–experience formats (KRIVET, 2017) and included 2–4 convergent anchors from Korean middle–school career–maturity/competency scales (Song et al., 2008). All items used a 5–point Likert scale and were age–adapted for middle–school settings. In addition to the authors, a total of 10 individuals participated in questionnaire development, including two PhDs and six graduate students in floral decoration and horticultural therapy. Each statement was measured on a Likert scale of 5 for “strongly agree”, 4 for “agree”, 3 for “medium”, 2 for “disagree”, and 1 for “strongly disagree”. The reverse questions, questions 11, 12, 18, and 23, were scored on a Likert scale of 1 for “strongly agree” and 5 for “strongly disagree,” so that a higher total scale indicates a more positive perception.

The total score showed excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.901), and Section A was likewise excellent (α = 0.929). Sections B–E, designed as brief, multi-facet subscales, yielded modest but acceptable α values (B: 0.667; C: 0.682; D: 0.666; E: 0.634). For the two-item Section C, the inter-item correlation was r₁₂ ≈ 0.518 [from α via r = α/(2–α)], yielding a Spearman–Brown reliability of ≈ 0.682. α/ω/MIIC summaries appear in Table 3.

For homogeneity assessment, baseline (pre-program) comparability across the four intact classes was evaluated using a one-way ANOVA for each subsection and the total score (Table 3a), with the omnibus F test reported along-side degrees of freedom and exact p values. Because group assignment was not randomized and p values can be sensitive to sample size, we also quantified baseline imbalance using the maximum absolute standardized mean difference (Max |SMD|; Cohen’s d), computed across all pairwise group comparisons using pooled standard deviations. Following conventional benchmarks (0.20 small, 0.50 medium, 0.80 large), SMD values were interpreted as descriptive indicators of baseline imbalance and were used to guide sensitivity analyses; when meaningful imbalance was present, we prioritized within-group pre–post change and additionally evaluated models that adjust post-program outcomes for baseline (e.g., ANCOVA). As a result, homogeneity was confirmed between the groups prior to the program implementation.

We embedded a brief qualitative component (3rd step Q&A) immediately after each activity. A subsample (n = 5 per group/module: boys–succulents; girls–succulents; girls–orchid frame; girls–flower bouquet) responded to prompts on novelty/engagement, perceived career fit, and aesthetic/emotional response. Trained RAs recorded anonymized field notes and conducted a rapid thematic analysis with dual coding and consensus.

Data from this study were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 21 software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) to perform means, standard deviations, and independent samples t-tests between the male and female groups before and after FEP. Significant differences among the means of Likert scales by program for girls before and after each FEP were analyzed using Duncan’s multiple range test (p ≤ .05). Because the statistical analysis results of the Likert scales for each question and the sum scales for each subsection are almost similar, we used the sum scales for each subsection in this paper because we believe that presenting the data in a simple way can improve understanding.

The results of the comparison of career awareness between males and females before and after the florist experience program (FEP) (Table 5) showed that overall, female students (82.80) had a higher level than male students (71.77) (p = .002). Among the subsections, girls scored higher than boys on “General Awareness of Flowers and Plants (subsection A, p = .006)”, “General Awareness of Florists (subsection B, p = .001)”, and “Awareness of Floristry as a Career (subsection D, p = .002)”. This suggests that, overall, girls have more positive career perceptions than boys.

Career attitude refers to an individual’s attitude toward career choice and is a process that changes and develops over the course of a person’s life, not at a single point in time, and is influenced by an individual’s experiences and cultural attributes (Kim, 2011). Similar concepts to career maturity include career development, vocational development, career awareness development, and career awareness development, which have been used interchangeably when considering occupation as a subconcept of career. Super (1957) viewed career maturity as an individual’s readiness for the career development tasks expected of him or her at his or her age, and Crites (1961) viewed career maturity as the relative degree of career readiness compared to students of the same age. Higher self-efficacy is associated with higher career maturity than lower self-efficacy (Blotnicky et al., 2018; Ni et al., 2023), and girls’ self-efficacy is higher than boys’ during middle school (Babarović et al., 2020). In the study of Lee (2012), girls’ maturity level of career attitudes (18.06) was higher than boys’ maturity level (17.20). Based on these results, it can be assumed that boys’ maturity level of career attitude is lower than girls’ and that they are less excited and interested in the activities of the FEP than girls.

Another way to interpret gender differences in attitudes toward flowers and florists is that, culturally, women are more likely than men to be interested in flowers and flower-related careers and to have more experience receiving floral gifts (Ben, 1981; Tuchman, 1978). Educationally and socially, women are also more likely to engage in flower-related activities and are generally more aesthetically sensitive than men (Brody and Hall, 2008; Eccles et al., 1990). Women also report more positive emotional responses to flowers (Etcoff, 2007; Haviland-Jones et al., 2005; Missouri Environment and Garden News, 2015). These reasons may explain girls’ higher perceptions of flowers, plants, and floral careers prior to the program.

When comparing girls’ and boys’ career perceptions after the FEP (Table 5), there was no overall difference between the two genders (p = .166). However, among the subsections, boys scored higher than girls on “Understanding of Current Career Programs at School (subsection C)” and “Awareness of the Need for Career Experience Classes (subsection E)” (p < .05). It has been suggested that boys generally have a more optimistic view of new experiences or can cope with new challenges more easily, which may contribute to higher satisfaction in new or unfamiliar environments such as work experience programs (Babarović et al., 2020). In this study, the significantly higher satisfaction of male students after the florist experience was likely due to their satisfaction with the novelty of the experience and their retrospective realization of the necessity of the work experience class itself, where they had the opportunity to explore careers based on their interests and aptitudes.

The results of comparing the career perceptions of male and female students before and after the florist work experience (Table 5) showed that overall, male students’ perceptions changed positively from 71.77 to 98.11 (p = .001) and female students’ perceptions changed positively from 82.80 to 92.85 (p = .042). Among the subsections, in subsection A boys increased from 19.14 to 25.77 (p = .001) and girls from 22.88 to 24.34 (p = .045), and in subsection B boys increased from 15.62 to 24.14 (p = .001) and girls from 18.88 to 23.57 (p = .008), and in subsection C, boys from 6.25 to 8.17 (p = .006) and girls from 6.74 to 7.20 (p = .249), subsection D from 16.48 to 21.48 (p = .007) for males and 19.34 to 21.22 (p = .035) for females, and subsection E from 14.25 to 18.54 (p = .006) for males and 14.94 to 16.51 (p = .039) for females, with the exception of females in subsection C, which showed a positive change (Table 5).

Table 5 presents whole-sample and gender-specific descriptive statistics that complement the inferential tests in Table 5. Total scores rose from 80.10 ± 14.15 at pre-program to 94.14 ± 14.90 at post-program (Δ = 14.04). Boys exhibited a larger gain (Δ = 26.34; 71.77 → 98.11) than girls (Δ = 10.05; 82.80 → 92.85), mirroring the pattern in Table 5 that indicates greater pre–post change among boys despite higher baseline scores for girls. The descriptive statistics in Table 6 reinforce the inference that a short, few-session FEP can meaningfully shift student perceptions under routine school conditions. The larger gain among boys (Table 6) likely reflects a baseline “headroom” effect (lower starting values) combined with the novelty of floristry tasks for students with less prior exposure, which is consistent with the gender-pattern rationale and the tests reported in Table 5.

The reason for the overall positive change regardless of gender can be attributed to the novelty and excitement of new experiences and social learning (Hickson and Baltimore, 1996; Mašić et al., 2020; Severiens and Ten Dam, 1994; Thomas and Larwin, 2023). In addition, boys showed significantly more positive changes than girls on all items, which may be due to the base effect of lower awareness of flower-related careers among boys than girls prior to the program.

Gender differences, i.e., why boys score higher than girls on some sections of the post-experience questionnaire, can be found in terms of novelty and interest, the role of gender norms, and social learning and feedback (Hickson and Baltimore, 1996; Mašić et al., 2020; Severiens and Ten Dam, 1994; Thomas and Larwin, 2023). In other words, boys may find hands-on, creative activities such as floristry more novel and engaging, especially if the experience is significantly different from their usual activities. This novelty provides a fresh and unique opportunity to express creativity, which may lead to greater satisfaction and positive changes in their work attitudes. Traditional gender norms often don’t associate men with creative or artistic activities such as floristry. Participating in these programs gives boys the opportunity to break out of these norms, allowing them to explore new interests and skills in a less traditional setting. This can lead to a greater sense of accomplishment and maturity in their work ethic as they navigate unfamiliar territory. During FEPs, boys can receive positive reinforcement and feedback on their work, which can increase their confidence and satisfaction. Positive experiences and success in new areas can increase work maturity as they learn the value of hard work, creativity, and attention to detail.

We divided the female students into three groups (B, C, and D in Table 1) and conducted three different FEPs, including planting succulents, making a rich picture frame, and making a hand-tied bouquet. The results of the comparison of career awareness before the program (Table 7) showed that the subsection B showed a difference between the programs (p = .019), and the hand-tied bouquet making experience group had a higher perception of the florist profession than the other experience groups. Among female students, all three programs showed positive pre–post shifts, with the orchid frame activity exhibiting the largest descriptive gain (Δ = 17.60; 81.74 → 99.34), followed by hand-tied bouquet (Δ = 10.86; 85.71 → 96.57) and succulent planting (Δ = 10.05; 82.80 → 92.85) (Table 8). These descriptive patterns accord with the program-level inferential results in Table 7 (e.g., higher post-program perceptions for more novel/creative tasks).

The reason for this is that the students were able to see the plant materials during the pre-survey, so it is likely that colorful flowers, which are bouquet materials, influenced their psychological state more than green material plants such as succulents and ferns. Humans are naturally interested in and respond positively to flowers that are colorful and fragrant (Etcoff, 2007; Haviland-Jones et al., 2005; Missouri Environment and Garden News, 2015). Specifically, programs that included a variety of flowers were found to increase pre-interest and positive perceptions of the floriculture career.

When comparing career perceptions by program after the FEP (Table 7), there was a significant difference in the subsection C (p = 0.044), with the bouquet making program significantly higher than the succulent planting program. Succulent planting and bouquet making may have been less new to the students because they had already experienced them in various on-campus programs, such as horticultural therapy. On the other hand, students were more satisfied with the professional, creative, and artistic aspect of the program than the other programs in terms of discovering potential aptitudes and personalities. In addition, novelty and interest are more effective in work experience programs for middle school students (Hickson and Baltimore, 1996; Mašić et al., 2020; Severiens and Ten Dam, 1994; Thomas and Larwin, 2023).

A comparison of pre- and post-program career perceptions for the three FEPs (Table 7) shows that, overall, succulent planting increased positively from 82.80 to 92.85 (p = .046), floral framing increased from 81.74 to 99.34 (p = 0.008), and hand-tied bouquet making increased from 85.71 to 96.57 (p = .039). In particular, floral framing increased more than the other programs. Overall perceptions also increased in all five subsections, with significantly higher post-perception scales in all five subsections (A–E), four subsections (A–D), and one subsection (B) for planting succulents.

As a result, it is likely that the bouquet making program had a greater impact on the positive perceptions of the middle school students because it was less experiential than the other programs, which gave students a new and fresh feeling and allowed them to creatively implement their own ideas (Hickson and Baltimore, 1996; Mašić et al., 2020; Severiens and Ten Dam, 1994; Thomas and Larwin, 2023). And bouquet making, although less fresh, may have increased job perceptions due to the creative application of design in the work process or the positive impact of the color and scent of the flowers (Etcoff, 2007; Haviland-Jones et al., 2005).

Within the girls’ cohort, the orchid frame showed the largest improvement (Table 8), aligning with Table 7 and suggesting that highly visual, creative builds may yield stronger short-term changes than more familiar activities. Together, these Tables provide an at-a-glance descriptive scaffold for the inferential findings and motivate future work to test whether task novelty and creative demand systematically moderate gains.

Across groups, a coherent three-theme structure emerged—novelty/engagement, perceived career fit, and aesthetic/emotional response—with anonymized, representative quotes presented in Table 9 to evidence each theme. In practical terms, students frequently described heightened focus and hands-on immersion in tasks that were new or tactually rich (boys–succulents; girls–succulents), while design- and structure-oriented activities served as proximal cues for vocational exploration (girls–frame; girls–bouquet; girls–succulents). In parallel, students reported positive affect and social reinforcement following visible, shareable products (girls–bouquet; girls–frame), suggesting that short-format floriculture tasks can elicit both immediate engagement and emotionally rewarding experiences under routine school conditions. Taken together, these qualitative patterns contextualize the pre–post gains observed in our quantitative analyses by explicitly linking activity type to the nature of student responses (Table 9), thereby providing a descriptive scaffold for interpreting the magnitude and direction of change reported in the inferential tables.

The themes summarized in Table 9 offer a theoretically grounded account of why brief, school-based FEP sessions might shift perceptions: first, tasks that are novel and provide an optimal level of tactile challenge can satisfy basic psychological needs for competence and interest, thereby elevating intrinsic engagement (Ryan and Deci, 2000); second, activities that make the functional and design aspects of floristry salient can render vocational relevance more visible in the near term, prompting exploratory intentions consistent with early career-development processes; and third, arranging and displaying flowers is well documented to evoke positive affect and social uplift, which can reinforce approach motivation for subsequent participation (Haviland-Jones et al., 2005). Convergent signals for succulent planting in both boys and girls (Table 9) further support its feasibility as an entry-level module that is sufficiently hands-on and low-maintenance to produce immediate, observable gains; this aligns with broader evidence that school garden/green modules, when delivered in short, structured doses, can improve engagement and selected student outcomes (Williams and Dixon, 2013). Methodologically, the rapid thematic analysis used here functions as a triangulation layer that connects observed score changes to students’ lived experience; such qualitative integration is recommended for strengthening explanatory plausibility in applied education and intervention research (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Building on these insights, future work should counterbalance modules across genders, test dose–response contrasts (e.g., 1 vs. 3–4 vs. 8–12 sessions), and examine whether the same mechanism profile persists across schools and regions.