Theories IN School Counseling PDF

Preview

Summary

The document gives a brief introduction about school counselling, its major areas and the various theories that explain how school counselling works....

Description

SCHOOL COUNSELING Introduction School Counselors provide comprehensive programs and services that help students develop their personal, social, and work lives. School Counsellors involve parents, teachers, other school personnel, and members of the community in assisting students' development into effective members of the community. More specifically, School Counsellors use the guidance curriculum and individual and small-group counselling to help students develop aptitudes such as: • • • • • • •

Skills in communicating, cooperating, and resolving conflict. The ability to engage in behaviors that foster good physical and mental health. Skills in planning and making decisions, resulting in higher self-efficacy and a sense of personal responsibility. An awareness of resources about educational and vocational opportunities and ways to access those resources. Positive attitudes toward one’s self, as both a student and a potential worker. An awareness of and appreciation for both genders and the contributions of cultural diversity in society. A comprehensive plan for school and work experiences through high school and beyond.

School Counselors work with the school community to •

Help create a positive school climate in which children can learn.

•

Assure a coordinated team effort to address the needs of all students.

•

Help ensure student access to school and community resources.

The school counseling role comprises much more than simply handing out class schedules, dealing with disciplinary problems, and helping students apply to college. An academically focused form of counseling, in this position, the counselor provides enrolled or prospective students with support, guidance, and follow-up with academic stressors, as well as with emotional or relationship issues that may develop during the student’s academic career. School counselors typically use a combination of therapeutic models to support the student body, including: • • •

Small-group counseling Individual counseling Core curriculum lessons regarding issues addressed in counseling

Goals Academic Development •

Students will acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and across their life span.

•

Students will complete school with the academic preparation essential to choose from a wide variety of substantial post-secondary options including college.

•

Students will understand the relationship of academics to the work, and to life at home and in the community.

Career Development •

Students will acquire the skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions.

•

Students will employ strategies to achieve future career success and satisfaction.

•

Students will understand the relationship between personal qualities, education and training, and the world of work.

Personal and Social Development •

Students will acquire the attitudes, knowledge, and interpersonal skills to help them understand and respect self and others.

•

Students will make decisions, set goals, and take appropriate action to achieve goals. Students will understand safety and survival skills. LEVELS OF SCHOOL COUNSELING

School counselors are all dedicated to helping their students thrive, but their responsibilities differ according to the level of education in which they work. Different levels of schools counseling are mentioned below: Elementary School Counseling Elementary school is a crucial intellectual, mental and emotional developmental period in the human lifespan. Children are developing a stronger self-concept and learning how to communicate and interact with others, social behavior in groups, and their attitudes toward school, friends, and teachers. This is also an age where learning disabilities and difficulties, family issues, challenges with social skills and problems obtaining basic necessities (such as food and clothing) may become clear. An elementary school counselor can help students with these challenges by arranging to provide support and extra instruction where appropriate. An elementary school counselor is able to provide help in different areas, some are listed below: • • • • • •

Bullying Anger management Gender identity Phobias Development or learning issue Socialization

Secondary School Counseling High school can be challenging for even the most well-adjusted teenagers. It’s a gateway to adulthood, with all the attendant pressures. Students are still establishing their identities, and generally place more importance on the feedback and feelings of their peers than their families or

authority figures. In addition, they are facing academic pressures such as placement tests, college applications and decisions about work or vocational training. • • • •

Secondary school counselors help students to cope with their mental health issues which include anxiety, stress which impact their relationship with others. They help students develop their educational and post-secondary plans. Counsel individual students and groups with personal problems or issues and much more. Ultimately, a secondary school counselor can help high school students to become responsible, productive and fulfilled individuals, citizens, workers and community members.

American School Counselor Association (ASCA) guidelines recommend that school counselors spend 80 percent of their time allocated to direct and indirect student services. •

Direct services include helping students identify and plan for future goals, and offering one-on-one or group counseling, both in ongoing and crisis situations.

•

Indirect services involve working on behalf of the student by providing referrals for additional counseling assistance, meetings and consultations with parents and educators, or arranging access to other community or educational resources. HOW A SCHOOL COUNSELOR WORKS?

A school counselor is a member of the education team, and is someone who gives valuable assistance to students, helping them with their academic goals, their social and personal development, and with their career development. They work in public or private elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. School counselors assist students at all levels, from elementary school to college. They act as advocates for students’ well-being, and as valuable resources for their educational advancement. School counselors typically do the following: • • • • • • • • •

Help students understand and overcome social or behavioral problems through individual and group counseling Provide individual and small group counseling based on student needs Work with students to develop skills such as organization, time management, and effective study habits Help students set realistic academic and career goals and develop a plan to achieve them Evaluate students’ abilities and interests through aptitude assessments and interviews Develop strategies with teachers, administrators, and parents to help students succeed Teach classes on topics such as bullying, drug abuse, and planning for college or careers after graduation Identify and report possible cases of neglect or abuse Refer students and parents to resources outside the school for additional support

The counselor involve parents, teacher and student combinedly in a counseling process after assessment of problems. The main areas focused by the counselor are:

Improving School Climate Schools with positive school climates have teachers and others who are seen as warm and caring, have educational policies that foster educational and personal development, and recognize students’ efforts and accomplishments. School counselors can improve the climate of their schools by advocating for policies that promote rather than detract from the personal and educational development of students. They can do this by conducting in-service training of teachers and administrators to teach them basic communication skills, and methods of affirming students’ importance and providing encouragement to them. School counselors can also help develop a positive school climate by sponsoring and conducting awards programs. Students who are working to improve their achievement, extend support and assistance to others who are striving to improve, exert energy to achieve even if the results are not exemplary, all need recognition. For example, awards can be given to the scholars of the week, the most improved students in math, science, language arts, etc., students who contribute the most to the achievement of others, the peer tutors of the week award, and so forth. Direct Interventions One intervention that has been used for more than a quarter of a century is behavioral contracts. Unfortunately, this intervention has not been properly applied and has not had the results that many teachers and counselors expected. Other direct interventions that are frequently employed by school counselors include study skills groups, time management training, classroom guidance units aimed at improving test taking skills, and achievement motivation groups. Achievement motivation groups are led by the counselor but involve input from the teachers and support for increased achievement from the students in the group. School counselors also establish preparation courses, peer and volunteer tutoring programs, homework support networks, and refusal skills groups. Refusal skills groups are aimed at helping students resist the pressure often applied by low achieving students on achievers to minimize their academic achievement. Counselors can facilitate the development of educational and personal goals by engaging students in individual and group activities that focus on goal setting. Involving Parents Research supports what educators have long understood: parent involvement is an important factor in student achievement (Brown, 1999). Parents who have a high level of commitment to their children, set high standards, maintain a stable home environment, support achievement and become upset when grades are low, suggest that academic achievement brings honor to the family, and monitor their students’ progress continuously have children who do better in school. On the other hand, parents who accept the absolute authority of the teacher, maintain homes in dangerous neighborhoods, are poor, and are not proficient with the English language, have children who achieve at a lower level than other students. Counselors can involve parents through parent consultation, parent education classes that teach parents how to support their children in schools as well as parenting skills, and by advocating for parents and students when students are not treated fairly by the educational establishment. They can also help to keep the parents of children who are having difficulty in school apprised of their children’s progress by encouraging teachers to communicate more frequently with parents than once per grading period.

ASSESSMENT TOOLS USED IN SCHOOL COUNSELING These are the assessment tools mostly used by school counselor. • • • •

Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale ( ADHD-RS) Human Figure Drawing (HFD)

The Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) The Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) is an assessment tool for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A checklist is used to identify non-adaptive behaviors. It is capable of providing how an individual “Looks” in comparison to others. This checklist reflects an individual’s challenges to respond appropriately to daily life situation. The ABC consist of 57 questions about a child’s behavior, designed to be answered independently by a parent, teacher, or caregiver; a trained professional scores and analyzes the results. The ABC has questions grouped into five subscales: Sensory behavior, Relating behavior, Body and Object Use behavior, Language behavior, Social and Self-Help skills. The items are mostly scored from 1 to 4 according to the impairment degree. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), now called the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, is a parent report form to screen for various emotional, behavioral, and social problems of a child. It was first developed by Thomas M. Achenbach. It is used with children aged 6 to 18. It consists of 113 questions, scored on a three-point Likert scale (0=absent, 1= occurs sometimes, 2=occurs often). The time frame for item responses is the past six months. It assess internalizing (i.e., anxious, depressive, and overcontrolled) and externalizing (i.e., aggressive, hyperactive, noncompliant, and under controlled) behaviors. Several subareas are also measured including social withdrawal, somatic complaints, anxiety and depression, destructive behavior, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, aggressive behavior, and delinquent behaviors. Both versions of this checklist are used: the one designed for 2 to 3-year-olds and the other for 4 to 18-year-olds. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Rating Scale ( ADHD-RS) The ADHD-RS, is an eighteen item questionnaire mostly filled by parents or teacher of the child to identify the presence of ADHD. It is also helpful in identifying the subtype (predominantly Inattentive, predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive, and Combined) of the disorder. It is mostly use for children age ranging from 5 to 17 , takes about five minutes to complete. Each question measures the frequency of the behavior, in which the respondent is asked to indicate whether the behavior occurs “always or very often”, “often”, “somewhat”, or “rarely or never”. The first nine items ask questions about behavior related to inattention (e.g., "has difficulty organizing task and activities"). The second set of nine items ask questions about behavior related to symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity (e.g., "talks excessively"). The last question asks if the behaviors were present before age seven or not. Human Figure Drawing (HFD)

Human Figure Drawing (HFD) is a projective personality or cognitive test used to measure nonverbal intelligence or to screen emotional and behavioral problems. It took about 10-15 minutes for administration. The subject is provided paper and pencil, and one of a number of test instructions, for example, “draw a whole figure, not a stick figure,” or provided three sheets of paper and asked to “draw a man, a woman, and yourself.” QSS (quantitative scoring system) was used to evaluate intelligence. QSS analyzes fourteen different aspects of the drawings (such as specific body parts and clothing) for various criteria, including presence or absence, detail, and proportion. Researchers have also found HFD effective in assessing neurological intactness, visual-motor coordination , cognitive development and learning disabilities. THEORIES IN SCHOOL COUNSELING Alfred Adler’s Theory The central belief of the theory is that people are social creatures, they must learn to cope effectively as members of a community of others. It is aimed at gaining an insight into self by learning to live effectively in school and in other social settings. Methods of Adlerian Counseling in School It is designed for use with preadolescent students. The type of problem behaviors normally addressed using this approach can be divided into four groups: 1- Attention seeking- Children who need attention can be reinforced with positive attention only when behaviors occur in the appropriate context. 2- Power struggles with adults- Students who insist on entering a power struggle with teachers and aides of a school can be given choices between two positive possibilities, such as, “I would like you to do either ...or ...Which do you want to do?” 3- Revenge- It involves behaviors designed to hurt others. Clear class rules about hurting others and punishment by natural consequences (making the punishment fit the crime) for inappropriate behaviors are recommended. 4- Inadequacy- Child’s feelings of hopelessness and despair due to the belief that he is stupid or unable to perform at normal levels. Counseling these students requires an empathetic approach in all one-to-one sessions. It should be paired with positive experiences of success like helping out in the office. Behaviorism The core understanding in behaviorism is that actions and behaviors of children happen as a result of experiences they had with the environment. Methods of Counseling in School It majorly utilizes the concept of Operant Conditioning which states that children are likely to repeat an action or behavior (operant) that is closely followed by a pleasant outcome. Key points in this system are that: • •

The reward must be contingent on the behavior occurring first. The reward must be one that the child desires.

Reinforcer and its types If the reward is powerful and can change behavior, it is referred to as a reinforcer. • • •

Positive Reinforcer- A reward that increases the probability of a desired behavior. Negative Reinforcer- Removal of an annoying condition following the desired behavior. Extinction- Behaviors that are never rewarded diminish in frequency and extinguish eventually.

Rogers’s Person- (Child)-Centered Therapy The focus of this theory is on the immediate world of the child and how the child views and understands what he or she is experiencing. Methods of Rogerian Counseling in School The goal of counseling is to assist the child to reach a point described by Rogers as congruence. That is a match between the child’s knowledge of him or herself as a person and the ideal image he or she wishes could be achieved. If a difference occurs then it is incongruence, and it represents a source of anxiety, frustration, and maladaptive behaviors. •

•

According to Rogers, all children are able to make constructive change in their lives and strive to be fully actualized. Change can best occur when children are self-directed and provided opportunities to make wise choices and decisions. Children being counseled move toward improvement when the counselor is nonauthoritarian, warm and authentic, congruent, and an excellent listener; provides unconditional acceptance of the client; and views the child as competent.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Albert Ellis believed that psychological problems are the product of misperceptions and irrational cognitions that lead to inappropriate and self-destructive patterns of responses. He proposed that rational thinking leads to appropriate emotions and behavior patterns. Methods of Counseling in school The two linked goals of REBT are; first to have the child recognize how his or her thinking is not rational and the conclusions being reached are wrong. The second is to reeducate the child in new thinking patterns and a more rational way of seeing the world around him. Ellis proposed a series of steps for the counselor to follow in helping the child: A. B. C. D. E.

Identifying the activating event Identifying irrational beliefs or cognitions about step A Identifying the consequences for the irrational beliefs (emotions and feelings) Disputing the irrational beliefs Employing effective, new, more rational thinking about the original activating incident

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Aaron Beck’s approach to therapy is assisting the client in setting goals for interacting in the world and then reaching them by changing the distortions in cognition or automatic thoughts. Methods of Counseling in school • •

• •

The core of the counseling is teaching the student-client to challenge inaccurate beliefs. A technique is to teach students in therapy how to think like scientists. For example, in a case of the student who believed he was being laughed at, the counselor would ask the student h...