The SUNY Assessment Initiative: Initial campus and system perspectives

The State University of New York (SUNY) is in the process of implementing a remarkably ambitious and collegial system-wide assessment of general education and academic majors across its 64 campuses. The SUNY Assessment Initiative is founded upon a balanced view of assessment as both accountability and improvement as well as the utilization of best assessment practices. Another fundamental component is the critical role of faculty governance in the assessment of student learning outcomes, at the campus and system levels. This paper explains the rationale underlying the SUNY Assessment Initiative, describes specific procedures and processes involved in its implementation, and provides a preliminary report on its status.     

School Counselors' Participation in Continuing Education Activities

All certified school counselors in Wisconsin were surveyed in regard to their participation in a variety of professional development activities during a 12-month period. Results reveal that while many counselors were actively involved in such activities, others were only minimally so and some completely uninvolved. The latter tended to be older males with several years of counseling experience. Implications for maintaining counselor effectiveness in a changing society are discussed.     

An Atlas Has More Than One Map: A Reply to Our Commentators

Current trends in research on motivation in the classroom are based on theories that focus on the individual's intrapsychological traits or his or her cognitive and/or affective functioning. In contrast to this individualistic perspective, social constructivist theory provides a framework for conceptualizing motivation as socially negotiated by the participants in the classroom. In such a conceptualization, motivation is inseparable from the instructional process and the classroom environment. The culturally determined joint activity between student and social context results in an internal state of interest and cognitive and affective engagement, and motivated behaviors, both of which can be considered cultural norms. Implications of this perspective for understanding motivation, classroom instruction, and research are discussed.     

Hope, Confidence and Democracy

ABSTRACT Social hope, shared hope which relates to the future of communities, is distinguished from personal hopes. Democrats, it is claimed, cannot entertain the kind of social hope found in the Marxist and Christian traditions. However, they do need hope in democracy. Social hope depends on the closely related value of social confidence. Therefore democrats need confidence in democratic values to support their democratic hopes. In school social confidence in democratic values can be promoted by the process of framing whole school policies, as well as by the policies themselves.     

Myths of Supervision: Identifying the Gaps Between Theory and Practice

Seven myths about counselor supervisor roles and activities are identified. These include myths about theory, roles, process, and professional issues. Suggestions are given for improving the congruence between supervision literature and actual practice.     

Evaluation of Staff Development Methods for Measuring Client Products

This article reports the results of a study seeking to: (a) develop, validate, and implement in-service methods designed to teach program development and evaluation based on measured client products to guidance personnel; (b) determine which in-service methods were most effective; and (c) evaluate the attitudes of guidance personnel toward accountability and program evaluation based on measured client products.     

Development of Listening Skills in Students in Special Education Settings

Children in special education settings often lack appropriate listening skills. Two programs identified with developing listening skills, a music program and a storytelling program, were implemented by teachers with students in special education settings over a 30 week intervention period. A battery of tests measuring different aspects of listening such as receptive vocabulary, phonological processing, and listening comprehension, was administered to the students prior to the intervention period, at the end of the intervention period and again several weeks later. The results from the tests indicated that participation by the students in these programs had a positive effect on the development of their listening skills. The effects of the music and story‐telling programs were not apparent until the postpost‐pretest period suggesting that a longer time‐period is required for a statistically significant music effect or story effect on the listening skills of students in special education settings to show.     

Use of the Collaborative Drawing Technique in School Counseling Practicum: An Illustration of Family Systems

According to the extant school consultation literature, counselors can effectively use brief family interventions and family assessment procedures in schools as part of a collaborative consultation approach. School counselors, however, often lack training in family systems theory, because counselor training programs tend to use individual counseling models. When used in a school counselor practicum course, the Collaborative Drawing Technique (CDT; G. M. Smith, 1985) introduces counselors‐in‐training to family systems concepts and lays the foundation for postgraduate training in family systems. The authors use a case illustration to explore paradigmatic shifts in trainees' case conceptualizations as a function of their use of the CDT with a family.     

The Collaborative Team as a Training and Therapeutic Tool

Within the field of systemic family therapy, the collaborative team is emerging as a powerful training approach as well as a valuable therapeutic tool. This article presents the collaborative team as a method of counselor supervision and training. Issues around the developing team process and potential pitfalls are elaborated. Finally, examples, which serve to integrate discussion of training and clinical applications, are presented.