Effects of Verbal and Vocal Cues of Counselor Self-Confidence on Clients' Perceptions

The authors found that vocal—but not verbal—cues of counselor self-confidence were related to client perceptions of expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and associated satisfaction.     

A NOTE ON "ACCURACY" AND "PRECISION"

The terms accuracy and precision are consistently differentiated in the literature of engineering and the "hard" sciences. Precision shares a common core of meaning with reliability as used by behavioral scientists. Accuracy and validity have a similar semantic overlap. A review of the literature in educational and psychological measurement reveals an interchangeable usage of accuracy and precision in defining reliability, To help beginning students distinguish between validity and reliability, this paper advocates the use of precision, rather than accuracy, in describing reliability.     

Toward Performance-Based Counselor Certification

For the past four years the Georgia Department of Education has been involved in a statewide effort to establish standards and procedures for certification of educational personnel based on competency demonstration. As part of this effort, a project was commissioned to develop a performance-based system for the certification of school counselors. This article presents the premises, procedures, and products of the model which was developed.     

Counselor Candidate Personal Change and the Communication of Facilitative Dimensions

This study related counselor candidates' propensity for personal change prior to training and personal change assessed during training with the level of facilitative dimensions communicated by the candidates after training. As hypothesized, the results showed that candidates who provided higher levels of facilitative dimensions subsequent to training had been more open to personal change prior to training and had experienced more personal change during training than did students who communicated low levels of facilitative dimensions. Explanations of the findings and implications for counselor education are discussed.     

Physical Dimensions of Counseling: Perspective for the Helping Professions

Fifteen graduate students in the helping professions registered in a course that teaches helpers to use physical fitness as a counseling medium. The enrolled graduate students were matched with controls in four relevant areas, and both groups were pretested on 7 physiological and 11 psychological variables. The experimental students were given a 10-week treatment of physical fitness training, counseling in health habits, a life-style of well-being, and instruction in how to deliver these kinds of treatments to clients. For eight weeks the students used the skills in working with real clients. The experimental and control groups were posttested on the same variables; and multivariate and univariate analyses revealed significantly positive changes made by the experimental group. This article reports implications for graduate programs in the helping professions.     

A Study of Change in Perception of Self and Ideal Self

A Q-sort was used to examine the self-percepts and ideal self-percepts held by counselors-in-training at the beginning and end of a quarter in which they received formal instruction. The aim was to determine the change, if any, as a result of instruction over this period of time. The results indicate no significant difference or change in perceptions of self and ideal self. The high level of congruence between and among the sorts suggests a measure of adjustment by the counselors-in-training. Several interpretations of the relationships are offered.     

DETECTING IMPACTS OF CURRICULAR DIFFERENCES IN ACHIEVEMENT TEST DATA

Standardized tests are designed to measure broad goals. But many professionals have been concerned with the lack of fairly specific matches between items (or objectives) on a test and the curriculum (instruction). This study assessed the differences in standardized test scores resulting from curricular differences in two school systems. The degree of curriculum-test match for reading and math in grades 3 and 6 was based on ratings of that match by qualified district personnel. Further, results of using different textbook series were analyzed. The dependent variables of test and subtest scores were analyzed using a two-factor MANCOVA where textbook series and school personnel ratings were the two factors, and pretest scores and percent eligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) were the covariates. None of the multivariate F tests were significant at the .05 level. It was concluded that neither the curricular match as judged by district personnel or the textbook series used had a significant impact on standardized test scores.     

Professional Identity: Effects on Evaluation of Helper Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of guidance counselors, rehabilitation counselors, and social workers accurately to distinguish low-, medium-, and high-functioning helpers when the helpers were identified as being from the participants' own or the other two professions. One hundred eight graduate students, 36 from each of the three disciplines, were asked to rate a standard series of 28 interaction sets on total level of functioning. These interaction sets differed only in helper identity and level of functioning. A three-way analysis of variance was conducted, the variables being professional identity- of the rater, professional identity of the helper, and helper's level of functioning. Results showed that significant main effects were accounted for by helper's level of functioning rather than helper's professional identity. Implications for training and supervision of students are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research.     

Incorporation of Computer Algebra into an Undergraduate Course in Open Channel Hydraulics

Modern computer algebra systems have wide-ranging mathematical capabilities and user-friendly interfaces, which make them ideal tools for research and education. To demonstrate the applications of computer algebra for teaching, this paper reports on its successful incorporation into a senior, undergraduate, civil engineering course in open-channel hydraulics. Computer algebra is particularly useful for this course, since many hydraulics problems are non-linear and have traditionally required laborious solution techniques. The advanced capabilities of computer algebra systems also make them ideal tools for the design of hydraulic structures.