Laboratory to Classroom: The Practical Application of IPR in a Master's Level Prepracticum Counselor Education Program

This controlled study analyzed the comparative effectiveness of two prepracticum methods on the subsequent interviewing skills of candidates for a master's degree in counseling. One method was based on a theory of counselor developmental tasks and was implemented by a specific use of the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) technique. The other, a more traditional prepracticum, consisted of an overview of counseling theories and practices and made extensive use of group discussion presentation and critiques of prerecorded audio- and videotapes. The results of the study indicate that it is possible to incorporate media techniques into a training model within the financial and time limitations of an ongoing master's level program. The IPR training procedures studied were run entirely by advanced graduate students, using one video-recording facility and no faculty time. The statistically significant results of the present study are especially meaningful because they replicate the positive findings of previous studies, and also because the results were obtained in an ongoing course offered by the university and not in a laboratory or special training setting.