SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Consultation in Gifted Education: An Overview

This article provides an overview of the purposes of this special issue, which focuses on consultation services for the gifted and talented. The special issue provides a forum within the professional literature to discuss the ways in which various professionals in the fields of education and psychology can provide consultation services of benefit to the gifted. The articles address the need to increase awareness about the gifted and to provide services that enhance the knowledge base of educational and psychological consultants.     

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE

The annual Community College Futures Assembly is an edutaining experience. This special issue highlights the lessons learned from the institutions that were competitively selected to present at the 2001 Assembly. The theme of the 2001 Assembly was the merger of education, entertainment, and information as driven by digital technologies. Educating attendees was the major purpose of the keynote address and the presentations of the Bellwether Award finalists. Entertainment was available throughout the Assembly through stimulating presentations, enthusiastic camaraderie, and great meals. Information was conveyed to all attendees to spread throughout their home institutions and communities. This introduction focuses on the experience of attending the 2001 Community College Futures Assembly. Over 250 community college trustees, presidents, vice presidents, deans, faculty members, and other decision makers representing 31 states and Canada attended the Assembly, which was held in Orlando, Florida. The Assembly is sponsored annually by the Institute of Higher Education (IHE) of the University of Florida (UF) and cosponsored by numerous organizations identified in this article. The Assembly has provided quality learning experiences since 1995, and it is proud to be an independent national policy forum recognized by the Association of Community College Trustees for its Trustee Education Recognition Program.     

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL CONFERENCE ISSUE

This paper explores the process through which a group of preservice early childhood/early childhood special education students examined their own beliefs about quality teaching and learning within the context of multiple practicum experiences in diverse settings. Students' reflections and actions are illuminated through a careful individual and cross-case analysis of field-based journals.

For these students, different instructional contexts provoked distinct questions. With increased experiences in early childhood settings, participants became more comfortable with the uncomfortable, considered that there are multiple ways to teach and learn, and realized that their own understandings of quality teaching must be informed by the children they teach. They also learned the process of using critical reflection to refine and adapt teaching practices to meet the needs of young learners continuously.

Findings from this study provide a window into the complex and individualized nature of new early childhood teachers' learning processes. By analyzing their journals, we were able to examine how these experiences move new teachers toward understanding concepts that are central to quality performance.     

Constructing Conceptual Change in Consultee-Centered Consultation

A central tenant of consultee-centered consultation is that the consultee is always an active agent in the consultation process, not a passive receiver of transmitted information. Both participants will be constructing new understandings during consultation. The consultant can facilitate consultation by asking questions to illuminate the consultee's current theory of what is causing the consultation predicament. Next, the consultant and consultee might explore how the consultee's theory is inadequate to explain this and other cases. When a new theory is generated, it must be an understandable substitute explanation. It must be an intelligible, coherent, and plausible explanation. Finally, the new conceptualization must be parsimonious and efficacious in working with future clients as well as the current client and problem.     

SPECIAL ISSUE: AGING EDUCATION: PREPARING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY INTRODUCTION

Board and care owners and administrators must find new and innovative ways to meet the training needs of those on their staffs. The authors investigated computer-based instruction as a way to teach injury prevention techniques to these care providers. A computer-based (CB) training program was used that had been adapted from a print-based/instructor-led (IL) program. This article discusses the effectiveness of the CB training as compared to the effectiveness of the traditional IL format. The CB and IL versions of a prevention training program were presented to board and care staff during five sessions. The 78 participants were randomly assigned to either the CB or IL groups. Both the CB and IL groups significantly increased their knowledge scores from pretest to posttest. The CB participants reported that they enjoyed the training and had no difficulty using the computers, even though some of them had never used a computer previously for any activity. Computer-based training can be an effective alternative training technique for this population.     

SPECIAL ISSUE COMMENTARY: Consultation in the Gifted-Education Arena: Old Wine in a New Skin

In this commentary, I provide a brief overview of definitions and types of consultation, as well as a discussion of the distinction between consultation and collaboration. I then apply the information from this review to the four articles on consulting about gifted and talented students. Using Caplan's framework, I argue that these papers contain examples of both case and administrative consultations, and that the focus on students who are gifted and talented takes consultation from a preventative intervention to a promotive one, thus expanding the applicability of the process of consultation. However, it is important to remember that consultation as it is defined in the literature has certain specific features. Therefore, simply labeling oneself as a consultant does not necessarily mean that one is engaging in consultation.     

Supporting New Teachers Through Consultee-Centered Group Consultation

New teachers are often unprepared for the emotional, physical, social, and psychological demands of teaching. Traditional staff development models may not be well suited to meet the needs of these teachers. However, school psychologists and counselors are in an excellent position to facilitate the professional and problem-solving skills of new teachers, using Caplan's consultee-centered group consultation model. In this project, 5 beginning elementary school teachers participated in a biweekly consultation group for 8 months. We found that the new teachers' emphasis on 'self as teacher' was evident throughout the year and that the consultation groups provided the teachers with a forum for engaging in meaningful professional dialogue with colleagues. The findings presented include an example of the consultative problem-solving process, a content analysis of the problems presented, and the teachers' impressions of the impact of the group. Finally, suggestions are provided for school consultants.     

SPECIAL ISSUE COMMENTARY: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Consultation in Gifted Education: Focusing on Practice Issues

This article provides a response from the perspectives of a teacher of the gifted and a trainer of teachers of the gifted. Following a brief summary of the authors' collective experience, the article highlights major issues represented by the four articles and identifies common themes across the various disciplines with respect to consultation and gifted education. A call for needed research and more collaborative work among gifted educators and school support personnel is made.     

Consultee-Centered Consultation: Contemporary Perspectives and a Framework for the Future

ABSTRACT

Consultee-centered consultation (CCC) is a familiar, but historically understudied, model of consultation. This Special Issue of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation summarizes, supplements, and updates the CCC research base; considers the role of CCC in contemporary school and community settings; and calls for and helps guide future CCC research and practice. This introduction to the Special Issue begins with a definition of CCC, individuates the model from its historical roots in mental health consultation, and provides a timeline of significant events in the evolution of the CCC model. Next, each article in the Special Issue is previewed in order to highlight unique contributions made to the CCC literature. Collectively, these articles provide a summary of the current state of CCC, multicultural frameworks for CCC training and practice, and multiple directions for future research.     

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE: Vygotskian Perspectives in Early Childhood Education: Translating Ideas into Classroom Practice

This special topic issue of Early Education and Development is devoted to Vygotskian and/or CHAT (Cultural Historical Activity Theory) perspectives on early childhood education. Although the ideas of Soviet developmental/educational psychologist, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), and those of his followers, are now central theoretical grounding within the field of early childhood education (Berk & Winsler, 1995; Bodrova & Leong, 1996; Bredekamp & Copple, 1997), it is still often a challenge understanding and implementing Vygotskian and neo- Vygotskian ideas in early childhood classrooms. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many of the central constructs within this tradition (i.e., scaffolding, zone of proximal development...) have often been conceptualized and empirically examined at the one-on-one, adult-child level, rather than at the level of classroom processes. Or perhaps the inherent conceptual and methodological complexities of socio-cultural, historical, and semiotic analyses become an obstacle to effective integration of scholarship and practice in this area. Indeed, Vygotskian theory forces us to think about not only the child and his or her current activities, but also about the child's history of previous experiences, the cultural backdrop and meaning that such activities have for the child, the social context in which that particular activity occurs in the classroom, the structure of the larger classroom context and the opportunities afforded by the available tools and cultural artifacts to be found there, and the way that teachers and other children "mediate" children's experiences in the classroom via social interaction and language use. Clearly, it is difficult in both theory and practice to think about and coordinate these multiple levels, but it is certainly worth the time and effort to do so. The goal of this special issue was to compile a selection of both empirical and theoretical papers that would help toward that effort and make a significant contribution to advancing early childhood policy, practice, and applied developmental science by both informing, and learning from, practice in early childhood settings. Although the subtitle for this issue, "Translating Ideas into Classroom Practice," might appear to suggest the existence of a unidirectional path from theory to practice, the Vygotskian dialectical perspective and contemporary applied developmental science in general views theory and practice as being inseparable, intimately intertwined, with each informing the other and both evolving dynamically together over time.     

Intellectual Humility and Morality as Consultee-Centered Consultation Epistemologies

ABSTRACT

Little research examines how epistemological constructs affect the consultation process in schools. We consider how the epistemological constructs of (a) intellectual humility and (b) moral foundations may moderate the effectiveness of consultee-centered consultation. We define the constructs and provide examples of their potential influences on consultee-centered consultation. Then we provide four areas of investigation for future research on the epistemologies of school-based consultation.     

Educating Consultants for Multicultural Practice of Consultee-Centered Consultation

ABSTRACT

Literature about educating consultants with knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work effectively within culturally and linguistically diverse schools is scarce. Research suggests that additional attention is needed on the preparation of consultants to practice with multicultural competence. This article reviews theories and research and presents four educational strategies for preparing consultants for multicultural practice of consultee-centered consultation (CCC). Specific attention is given to ways that educators can teach and supervise learners of CCC by integrating issues of worldview, culture, and different perspectives, thereby scaffolding learning toward the development of multicultural competence in consultation.     

Toward a Grounded Theory of the Conceptual Change Process in Consultee-Centered Consultation

This article argues that a grounded-theory research methodology is a useful and fruitful tool to explore important questions in consultation and to generate new conceptualizations and theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The grounded-theory approach is described and illustrated with examples from Hylander's research on consultee-centered consultation as practiced in Sweden. The result is a substantive theory about change processes. The theoretical research approach presented in this article makes it possible to further explore processes of consultation that have not been previously examined.     

Multicultural Consultee-Centered Consultation: When Novice Consultants Explore Cultural Hypotheses With Experienced Teacher Consultees

Using case study qualitative methodology and naturalistic inquiry, this study investigates how beginning consultants use multicultural consultee-centered consultation (MCCC) to explore cultural hypotheses with experienced teachers. The study involves the conceptualizations and detailed records of 3 ethnically diverse novice consultants who hypothesize cultural issues in the problem situation and use MCCC with teachers of diverse students ages 6-12. Grounded in the multicultural consultation framework (Ingraham, 2000), analyses focus on consultation stages, communication processes, factors associated with success and failure, and their relationship with co-constructing problem definitions with consultees. Results of within-case and cross-case analyses illustrate the complexity of practicing and studying MCCC and suggest several issues that may influence multicultural consultation outcomes. Specific questions for future research are identified.