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.     

Co-counseling Supervision in Practicum

Two groups of 12 trainees were exposed to either monitor-modeling or immediate-feedback supervision in their practicum. Ten-minute individual counseling sessions with coached clients were taped before and after the practicum. Three independent judges rated the tapes, using Carkhuff's scales for gross ratings of facultative interpersonal functioning (Carkhuff 1969). Results indicated that (a) the judges' mean ratings from pretest to posttest increased significantly for the monitor-modeling group but not for the immediate-feedback group; (b) although the results approached significance (p < .09), there were no significant differences on the posttest; and (c) the amount of growth from pretest to posttest was significantly greater for the monitor-modeling group. The data supports the relative effectiveness of monitor-modeling supervision. Additional, more extensive evaluations are suggested to more fully assess the relative value of such team approaches to supervision.     

Understanding Art

The new curriculum in art establishes two elements in the study of the subject in schools; one active, a doing and making element, and one more cerebral not necessarily involving the making of works of art. This second element has been designated ‘knowledge and understanding’ and ideally should be related to the practical activities in the classroom, but it raises the question how understanding is achieved in art and what form such understanding might take. So far as knowledge is concerned the matter is fairly straightforward for it is easier to itemise the things that can be known about art. With ‘understanding’, however, we have to ask how it might be judged or recognised; how it might manifest itself. Does it manifest itself in discussion about works of art, or in the making of works of art, or are there other phenomena which might indicate the presence of understanding?     

A Format for Case Conceptualization

The authors developed a format for case conceptualization to foster the systematic collection and integration of clinical data. The format is intended to complement training in counseling techniques.     

TOWARD AN IMPROVED MEASURE OF REMOTE ASSOCIATIONAL ABILITY

A lack of satisfaction with existing measures of creativity and the need for a more theoretically sophisticated approach to measurement in this area were identified Mednick's remote association theory of creative behavior was reviewed, and Mednick and Mednick's operationalization of that position, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), was analyzed both logically and empirically. An alternative measure of remote associational ability, the Functionally Remote Associates Test (FRAT), was offered as a more logical extension of Mednick's theory. Empirical data were presented which suggest the superiority of FRAT to RAT as a measure of creativity.