Professional Development Schools: New Opportunities for Training School Counselors

The authors examine how counselor educators can become involved in professional development schools to create enhanced training opportunities for school counseling internship students. The benefits of collaboration between university and public school faculties are explored, and research opportunities are discussed. Counselor educators' expertise in research and program evaluation, combined with school counselors' pragmatic experience in dealing with real‐life issues, may promote best practices in the schools and improved training for school counselors and can set the stage for collaboration as an educational team at the preservice level.     

Philosophical and Situational Issues Relating to the Objectives of Counselor Education

Counselor education, through its formal organization (ACES), is in the process of examining its standards for program accreditation used for the past decade. This discussion examines current educational forces, such as social change, political conditions, and learning process developments as a basis for a new look at the standards for counselor preparation. Based on these influences, four categories of situational and philosophical issues are postulated: educational and psychological assumptions, outcome behaviors of the counselor education graduate, outcomes of counselor education programming, and outcome behaviors of professional guidance personnel. It is recommended that outcomes of counselor education should be considered in performance terms before instructional strategies are developed.     

Extending Counselor Supervision

This article proposes that supervision of the counselor trainee be extended into the trainee's first employment setting following completion of his master's degree program. This extension would be of benefit to the producer (counselor training program), the product (counselor trainee) and the consumer (local school or agency). The proposed model is suggested as also being relevant to the training of counselor supervisors.     

Reimagining Counselor Education with Diversity as a Core Value

To move diversity from the periphery of counselor preparation to its core requires effort beyond the 1 or 2 “special” courses that have been the mainstay of multicultural counselor education (T. E. Midgette & S. S. Meggert, 1991). The authors describe the processes and outcomes of a systemic reimagining of Auburn University's counselor education doctoral program, as well as community agency and school counseling master's‐degree programs that incorporate diversity as a core value. The development of diversity‐supportive department policies and procedures, curricular and cocurricular changes, and environmental considerations are discussed and evaluated.     

A Modularized Counselor- Education Program

Counselor-education programs may be enriched through the use of modularized learning experiences. This article notes several recent articles on competency-based counselor education, the concepts of simulation and modularization, and describes the process of developing a modularized master's program at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Such an approach to counselor education offers a flexibility and individualization not often available in traditional programs and integrates theory and practice. The program consists of 26 one-credit modules of 10 contact hours plus practicum. The modules include a statement of instructional experiences, resources, and performance criteria for evaluation. The modules in the program are grouped in four levels of application taken sequentially: didactic, simulation, performance, and experiential. A discussion of experiences with the program is included.     

Developmental counseling and the educational process

Summary This paper has presented a model that includes a cooperative effort of the teacher and the school counselor. The goal is a more productive and healthy learning environment for the child in school.First, a recognition that today's emphasis is on remedial and orises situations was discussed. Second, although many persons are responsible for a child's learning, efforts are often fragmented and lack continuity. Finally, a model was presented in which the teacher and the counselor act cooperatively as a team, each one assuming the active or supportive role according to the needs of the child and the recognized expertise of the adult.     

Adapting Secular Post-Graduate Education in Counseling to Meet the Needs of Ministers

As the demand for counseling within a religious setting increases, clergymen are expressing a need for more counselor education. If pastoral counseling is considered distinctly different from other counseling, then pastoral counseling education is the province of the seminaries. If the pastoral counselor is not considered basically different from other counselors, a secular counselor education program can serve the needs of ministers as well as other counselors by having a central core of required professional courses and then optional branches for specialization in counseling. Finding appropriate instructors for the pastoral counseling courses could be a problem. Candidates for pastoral counseling should be as carefully screened and tested as other graduate students in counseling. The counseling program should offer ministers the opportunity to learn about group work and, ideally, the opportunity for supervised practicum work in several different settings. There should be some provision for individual and group therapy for the pastoral counselors themselves as a means of enhancing their own effectiveness. When a secular institution feels that it cannot adapt its regular program to fit the needs of pastoral counselors, it can be of service by arranging special workshops and conferences for the clergymen of the area, and counselor educators can be available as consultants to seminaries and churches that request assistance.     

CLIENT 1: A Computer Simulation for Use in Counselor Education and Research

CLIENT 1 is an interactive program that was designed to simulate client behavior in an initial interview and to provide a standardized environment for training and research on counselor problem-solving strategies. Through interaction with the computerized client, counselors attempt to facilitate client movement toward the goal of verbalizing a specific problem statement. Client movement is a function of the appropriateness and accuracy of counselor statements, the threat value associated with both client and counselor statements, the strength of the relationship between the counselor and client, and an index of counselor expertise. The uses of the simulation in counselor education and research are discussed.     

Cognitive Load Theory as a Tool for Expertise Development

This special issue is dedicated to recentdevelopments within cognitive load theory (CLT)and identifies some instructional implicationsof the interaction between informationstructures and cognitive architecture. Thepresent article discusses the different studiesin this special issue. An important conclusionis that recent CLT research recognizes thelearners' level of expertise as an importantfactor mediating the relation between cognitivearchitecture, information structures, andlearning outcomes. In this context, we discussthe role of expertise in CLT research and therole of CLT in expertise research. Based onthis discussion, the use of CLT as a tool todevelop expertise is identified as a verypromising approach.     

The School Counselor's Role in Special Education

The purpose of this study was (a) to survey school counselor preparation and perceived and projected role in serving special education students in the southwestern region of the United States; and (b) to determine the status of counselor education programs throughout the nation in preparing counselors to effectively serve exceptional students. The results indicated that 50 percent of the school counselor sample advocated additional involvement with exceptional students, 43 percent felt inadequately prepared to deal effectively with exceptional students, and 60 percent would be more willing to serve exceptional students if their training in special education had been more extensive.     

校本教师教育的认识与实践

教师继续教育的重心下移、阵地前移,“为了学校”、“在学校中”、“基于学校”的“校本”理念在广泛的传播并逐步落实到行动之中。形成自主意识、提高专业化水平、生成教育智慧、成为专家型教师成为“校本教师教育的目的”;为了实现这一目的所制订的“校本教师教育内容、措施、制度”构成了校本教师教育的体系。     

A Model for Retooling School Counselors

If school counseling is to continue as an ongoing dynamic profession, counselor educators must address their attention to the improvement of practitioner competencies as well as toward counselor preparation. The development of a program designed to accomplish both tasks must be dependent upon the needs of counselors, counselor educators, and considerations emanating from the environments in which they work. The purpose of this paper is to share one educational approach which can facilitate movement toward achievement of these desired needs.     

Counselor Education Courses in Program Evaluation and Scientific Research: Are Counselors Being Prepared for the Accountability Press?

Counselor education programs listed in Counselor Preparation 1980 were surveyed to determine the proportion of required coursework devoted to instruction in scientific research and program evaluation. Regardless of area specialization, department size, or academic unit in which the program is housed, responding counselor education programs were found to devote approximately twice as much required instructional time to scientific research as to program evaluation. A rationale and suggestions for change are presented.     

Preparing School Counselors to Work With Students With Disabilities

Recent literature has demonstrated increasing roles for school counselors who work with students with disabilities, but it has also suggested that school counselors are not being adequately prepared to work with these students. In this research study, the authors investigated current courses and experiences focusing on disabilities offered in school counselor education programs. Results from the 137 participants suggest that school counselor education programs are incorporating more disability content into their training programs than they were in the past. Some disability content areas are included significantly more frequently in disability courses than in counseling program courses. Conclusions and implications are discussed.     

Developing Instructional Consultants: From Novice to Competent to Expert

The development of instructional consultants requires both an understanding of the essential elements of instructional consultation (IC) and a conceptual model for development of skills. IC is a collaborative stage-based process that focuses on academic and behavioral concerns from an ecological perspective. It also emphasizes the importance of language and working relationships in the consultation process. In the first level of development, novice consultants develop awareness and conceptual understanding, as well as limited skills. Competency is achieved through application of skills in school settings with supervision that focuses, with the assistance of audiotaping the consultation sessions, on language and relationship issues as well as content. Advanced skills and proficiency emerge during extended opportunity for practice, supervision and research among those individuals who become interested in developing expertise in this domain of practice. Most training programs provide limited opportunities for competency and expertise to be developed past the novice level. It is essential to enhance educational opportunities and options if consultation practice is to achieve its full potential.     

Consultation Training Program for School Counselors

In order to increase counselors' effectiveness in cooperative and systemic approaches to problem solving, a large school district offered an in-service consultation program. Two successive training designs were piloted and evaluated. Evaluation of the first training model led to a shortened, revised model that was more efficient and as highly rated by counselor trainees as the earlier, lengthier model. This training program was associated with significant increases in counselor collaboration with faculty and staff. Several recommendations are proposed for further improvements in the training design.     

Does Empathy Predict Instructional Assignment-Related Stress? A Study in Special and General Education Teachers

The role of empathy in the teaching profession has been vastly investigated in relation to its effect on students, but research on how teachers’ empathy affects their own well-being at work is limited. This study investigated empathy and instructional assignment-related stress factors of primary school teachers serving in general or special education; moreover, it investigated if empathy predicted instructional assignment-related stress. Data were collected from 190 primary school teachers using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Inventory of Job-related Stress Factors. Teachers reported moderately high levels of perspective-taking and empathic concern and lower levels of fantasising and personal distress. Also, they reported moderate to low levels of stress regarding instructional assignment-related factors. General and special education teachers did not differ in their reported scores on empathy or stress-related factors. Finally, it was found that instructional assignment-related stress factors can be predicted by personal distress and fantasising; however, the core empathy skills (empathic concern and perspective taking) were not found to be strong predictors of the stress factors tested.     

Special educators’ knowledge of high-leverage practices: Construction of a pedagogical content knowledge measure

Teachers who draw upon specialized knowledge in their instructional practice can be drivers of positive student outcomes, especially for students classified as having special educational needs. Although there are generally agreed upon characteristics of high-quality instruction that can be measured with well-constructed instruments (e.g., Danielson, 2011), supporting the development of teachers with specialized credentials (e.g., special education teachers)—whose instructional practice is grounded in a qualitatively different professional expertise—necessitates measurement tools that reflect that unique practice. Given the field’s recent agreement that special educators should possess deep knowledge of 22 High-Leverage Practices, there is a need for well-constructed tests that can be interpreted to support teacher capacity building in this body of knowledge. This study describes the construction of the Teacher Knowledge of HLPs, an instrument that measures special educators’ knowledge of High-Leverage Practices, and initial validity evidence for instrument use.