The results of a case study that examines specifically the principal and school counselor working alliance will be presented. The elements of trust, recognition of role-differentiation, and a student-centered focus were primary factors that impacted the successful working alliance between the principal and counselor relationship that was studied. A collaborative principal and school counselor model emerged as a result and will be displayed and further discussed. Implications of this model for use in school counselor training will be explored due to its potential to enhance overall program development. Inter-professional collaboration is critical to overall program health and future vitality in counselor education programs. The presenters plan to facilitate this important discussion that emerged from their examination of the case study.
The positive aspects of perfectionism and their function in creating self-directed learning strategies for school adjustment in K-12 students has also not been studied. Two hundred ninety three students in South Korea completed the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism, the Self-Directed Learning Strategies, and the School Adjustment. While the positive aspects of perfectionism were significantly correlated with self-directed learning strategies, the negative aspects of perfectionism demonstrated no significant result. Self-directed learning strategies were found to be a significant mediating factor in the relationship between the positive aspects of perfectionism and school adjustment. These findings signify the importance to address both multidimensional perfectionism and self-directed learning strategies in school adjustment.
Service learning provides an opportunity to integrate culturally relevant pedagogy and community service to enhance student growth. The presentation will provide an overview of a service learning project that was implemented in an alternative school setting to encourage the development of group facilitation skills in graduate students. Qualitative content analysis was conducted to determine themes related to the experiences of the graduate students and how the project impacted the development of group facilitation skills. Implications for counselor educators will be given.
School counselors are stretched for time to meet with students individually at every level. As a result, some school counselors dismiss training in counseling theories because of application issues. As school counselors’ caseloads become larger, a new method for addressing the needs of all students is necessary. The toolbox approach to training future school counselors is a framework for educating school counselors-in-training on counseling theories that focuses on practical applications. In this presentation, we will present the toolbox approach as an integrative strategy for preparing school counselors-in-training to apply theories in real-world settings.
Myers et al. (2002) discussed that the deficiency of a clear professional identity interjects confusion among counselors. School counselors use data to advocate for counselor roles and responsibilities in the schools (Young & Kaffenberger, 2011). However, school counselors also state "a lack of confidence" in working with data (Topdemir, 2013). A modern research approach such as community-based participatory research, otherwise known as "action research", can be an instrument to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice. The purpose of this presentation is to enlighten counselor educators, supervisors, and counselors-in-training some of the latest research and resources to help strengthen school counselor identity.