Teaching our Traveller children to read: an action research project

In both Ireland and the UK, Traveller children reportedly suffer the lowest rates of educational attainment of any group. This study aimed to promote evidence‐based practice in the teaching of reading to Traveller children and thereby to raise their levels of achievement. This involved teachers delivering an evidence‐based intervention over a specified time frame (three months) and collecting pre‐ and post‐intervention data. The project involved 11 teachers in ten settings. There were seven primary and two secondary schools and one Youthreach project involved in the study. Participants were in the age range 6–17 years. Research findings indicated that participants made very significant gains in reading, and their rates of progress compared well with best international standards. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Counseling for Pain Control

New techniques are being developed that enhance the effectiveness of psychological forces in controlling bodily reactions. Old oriental techniques of the same kind are being rediscovered by the Western world. All of them are powerful tools for the psychological control of pain. This article reviews such techniques and addresses itself to the contributions that counselors—as behavioral scientists and human relations experts—can make to alleviate physical pain, be it of organic or psychogenic origin     

The Counselor Educator Crunch: Anatomy of a Faculty Search

When this 25-year-old counselor education program found itself with two faculty vacancies to fill, interesting experiences ensued. To determine whether those experiences were unique or comparable to those in other institutions with similar geographic, demographic, and economic characteristics, a survey of institutional vacancies in counselor education was taken. The results indicated that there seems to be an impending shortage of qualified counselor educators.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF AN EXTENSION OF ITEM SAMPLING WHICH YIELDS INDIVIDUAL SCORES1

The sampling procedures were designed so that the full matrix of item variances and covariances could be estimated. Three subtest sizes were investigated- subtests of size five, nine and sixteen items. In each of these implementations a double cross validation was used yielding two predicted scores for each individual. Discrepancy measures were also computed showing the difference between the observed and the predicted scores. The prediction of individual scores was accomplished within various ranges of error. The correlations between predicted scores and observed scores ranged from the .70′s to the .90′s, depending on the number of predictor variables used. The procedure is applicable in situations in which large numbers of individuals are tested or in situations where multiple measures are taken.     

Counselor Education 2000: Extinction or Distinction?

The supply of qualified counselor educators is diminishing in proportion to present and future demands. The authors explore historical perspectives, present concerns, and potential solutions to this growing problem.     

Exploring the Content and Structure of Cross-Cultural Attitudes

This article describes an instrument designed to assess the content and structure of cultural attitudes. Derived from Kelly's (1955) Role Construct Repertory Test, the technique elicits the personal meaning and organizational properties of the individual's cultural value system. Methods of administration are described and analyses are illustrated by a case example of one counseling student before and after an introductory course in cross-cultural counseling. Applications of the instrument to issues in research, counseling, and cross-cultural training are also discussed.     

School Counselor Field Supervision: A Model

Little attention is devoted, in literature, to posttraining supervision. Collective bargaining procedures have produced a need for systematic approaches to the field supervision of practicing school counselors. A supervision model based on a ten-month counseling contract is described.     

Counseling Women: A Graduate Master's Degree Specialization for Training Mental Health Professionals to Work with Women

This article describes a unique master's level specialization for counselors of women and highlights the rationale for instituting this specialized training program, the training format, the program curriculum, and the evaluation methods employed. Also included is a discussion of the systemic implication of such training as it affects those being trained, the training institution itself, and the delivery of mental health services.