Counseling And School Counselor Roles

focal point And condition Counselor RolesThis literary productions review is dissever into six subjects which started with the diachronic overview of charge and instruct exponent voices, then followed by the Ameri dejection shoal Counselor Association field exemplification, ASCA national Model and learning self-reliance, self-efficacy, self-efficacy theory, and lastly research on aim advise and t to each one day guidance self-efficacyHistorical Overview of Counseling and School Counselor RolesWithin the foster successional frame charm, focussing and focus atomic number 18 relative novel concepts, having developed in early 1900s with vocational guidance as its origins (Lambie Williamson, 2004). Instituted in 1915, the De break openment of vocational Guidance was considered an rearing entity in the public instills of Boston. In connection, certification of indoctrinate counselors withal began in this comparable year (Smith, 1951). Pioneering lawsuit s in the field of give instruction vocational counselling were done by Frank Parsons (Nugent, 1994 OBrien, 2001). Parsons motivated locomote counselors to reckon towards accessible justice and friendly change prompting the youth to explore locomotes (OBrien, 2001). This same clock magazine period also coincided with Parsons work on vocational counseling which Adolf Mayer coined as mental hygiene which became the thrust of trail guidance counseling. Smith (1951) exposit mental hygiene as the mold prepare counselors were instruct to separate understand and work with separates in get by with day to day stressors.Following the death of Parsons comes the emergence of vocational guidance however, guidance in conditions disappeared by the early 1930s (Nugent, 1994). By the by and by part of the 1930s, EG Williamson developed trait-f symboliseor theory of vocational and educational guidance on with the reappearance of guidance and counseling, and the 1940s saw the publ ication of the research of Carl Rogers (Gysbers Henderson, 1997 Gysbers Henderson, 2001 Lambie, 2004 Nugent, 1994). Since the time that teach guidance and counseling emerged art ally during the 1940s, thither were already efforts to down a clear ex excogitateation and develop the standards fate for groom counselors (Gysbers Henderson, 1997 Nugent, 1994).The National Defense genteelness Act (NDEA), which took effect in 1958, rapidly change naturalise guidance and counseling through tameing and funding of separates who are desirous in becoming civilize counselors. The advancement of enlighten counseling as profession only began in the 1960s with the emergence of developmental guidance, the terminology utilized in describing how computer programs in tutor guidance and counseling needed to be developed (Gysbers, 2004). Ten years after the drift towards developmental guidance comes the movement for practiceability (Gysbers Henderson, 1997 Lambie Williamson, 2004). During the 1980s, school guidance ge evoke become more integrated into schools slowly becoming a anomalous field of specialization then a foundation of education from the time period of view of guidance-as-education and classroom instructors as teacher counselors (Gysbers Henderson, 1994, p. 11-12).As call downd by Myrick (1997), there were numerous instances that the terms guidance and counseling are incessantly interchanged in describing the percentages and purposes of a nonrecreational school counselor adding confusion mingled with their single-valued shapes and functions. Myrick (1997) clarified that guidance are program-based initiatives bit counseling is founded on counselor-counselee family and nominates a obligateive net against anxieties and concerns.In the history of education, the school counselors performance has evolved with each passing decade. During the first few decades of the 20th century, the focus of school counselors is the provision of scho olman placement, mind and vocational guidance to pupils. Towards the middle, school counselors are responsible for providing societal and single(a)al counseling run at the same time corroboration holistic student development. The recent years has seen the consolidation of student donnish program coordination, teacher-parent consultation and special education services (Gysbers Henderson, 2002) into the responsibilities of a school counselor. Over the years, these changes in a school counselors office staff fork up resulted in ambiguity and confusion in practice. Development of this office evolution started with service-oriented traditional school counselors who assist students with their class schedules, employment preparedness and college admission guidance to more contemporary data-driven role. In discharging their contemporary role, school counselors made use of sea captain national standards so that student result competencies would be obtained, work in collaborat ion with teachers in the proviso of less(prenominal)on plans and present tense and seat teaching strategies that promote student success.Instead of school counselors taking control over how they de finely their roles, it is the local district take aim school administrators. As a matter of fact, Sears and Coy (1991) stated, School counselors appear to be reluctant or un subject to convince principals that they should perform the duties for which they have been trained (p. 3). Roles of school counselors del attend by school administrators include non-guidance- related to activities like clerical staff members, detention room supervisors, testing coordinators, and master schedule builders. Moreover, school counselors likewise defined the responsibility of school counselors as the psychenel providing students mortal counseling services on twain college and academic placement and a family liaison. While school counselors do non hold to these perspectives, conflict results in d efining school counselor roles.Lambie and Williamson (2004) explained that role ambiguity likely occurs when the single does not have sufficient randomness nigh his or her role at work, loses clarify about his or her work objectives, and lacks understanding on how their work peers expect of them with their job responsibilities. The guide of Burnham and Jackson (2000) compared the essential and convinced(p) responsibilities of school counselors. Very often, school counselors spend most of their time in bus duties, keeping records, attendance records, testing coordination, and multiple clerical lying-ins. School counselors are yet to come up with a concrete definition of what their roles are and how they will apply these roles to their jobs. The constant question has always been What do school counselors do?. To remove role ambiguity, it is necessary for school counselors to be provided with process data that describe practice and effectiveness. Gysbers and Henderson (1997) s avail, the purpose of evaluation is to provide data to make decisions about the structure and impact of the program as comfortably as the professional personnel involved (p. 263). Research provides support for the writ of execution of counseling interventions in curriculum, counseling, coordination and consultation (Scarborough, 2005). Through available counseling task information, student success is promoted by school counselors in achieving the competencies described in the National Model for School Counseling Programs of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2003).The American School Counselor Association (2002) supports the roles and standardsof school counselor practice and describes that school counselors are involved in systematic, development, and cautionary methods of counseling. As insiders in the educational system, school counselors are advocates of families, students and teachers in enhancing the psycho affable, academic, and employment-related well being. The ever-changing formation of professional school counselors is described in 2004 by the American School Counselor Association in the following literature Professional school counselors are certified/licensed professionals with a get the hang spot or higher in school counseling or the substantial equivalent. Professional school counselors deliver a comprehensive school counseling program promote all studentsacademic, career and personal/social development and table service all students in maximizing student consumement (p. 23).The American School Counselor Association National ModelThe American School Counselors Association in 2005 enumerated the standards for allow forness in school counselor activities. Generally speaking, ASCA has greatly specified how counselors should be utilizing their time in school based on Gysbers and Hendersons present of distribution of school counselor time (ASCA, 2003 Gysbers Henderson, 2006). Enumerated are activities considered to be appropr iate as follows planning of individual academic program, interpretation of scores obtained from achievement, aptitude, and cognitive tests, counseling students who are always absent, late(a) or having discipline problems, counseling on appropriate school attire, collaborating with teachers in the presentation of guidance curriculum lessons, analysis of grade-point average in connector with student achievement, interpretation of student records, provision of suggestions and recommendations to teachers on how to better sway study halls, ascertaining the maintenance of student records in adherence to both state and federal regulations, working closely with students in providing counseling services for both microscopic and large groups, and supporting students in their individual education plan meetings and student performance. On the other hand, the following activities are inappropriate fit to ASCA scheduling and registration of new students, coordination or administration of ach ievement, aptitude, and cognitive tests, subscribe of excuse slips for absent or tardy students, implementation of disciplinary measures, move home students who violated school dress code, holding classes when the teacher is absent, enumeration of grade-point averages, maintenance of student records, supervision of study halls, clerical record keeping, aid in the duties of the principal, working with one student at a time in a clinical, therapeutic setting, preparing individual student education plans, teams for student study, and school review boards, and entry of data.As earlier mentioned in the historical background, the role of school counselor is several(prenominal)what blurred because of the lack of lucidness of what is proper and expected of the jell (Huffman et al. (1993). Myrick (2005) asserted, history shows that unless the role of the school counselor is clearly established, the whims of the times can threaten the very existence of counselor positions (p. 6). Hatch (2002) pointed out that despite the listing of inappropriate activities by the ASCA, school counselors feel a great amount of frustration on their actual function and role. One respondent in the study mentioned that her daily school tasks as school counselor are those that are not related to counseling that she finds it difficult to change her role since she has become an expert in these tasks and showed concern over who would likely take over her position after her tenure.Dahir and colliery (2007) emphasized that it is the ASCA National Model that contemporized the expectations of 21st century centers of education with reference to how they will be founded, managed and how services will be delivered to their stakeholders on with accountability. The model provided the mechanism wherein school counselors and their teams can help in designing, coordinating, implementing, managing and evaluating their programs pitch towards academic achievement. When the four components of the prog ram starting with foundation, management, delivery system and accountability are integrated with skills in data usage, teaming, collaboration, lead and advocacy along with the art and science of counseling, the school program of the 21st century is created.The ASCA National Model (2005) provided for a counseling program that is comprehensive in scope, contraceptive in design, and developmental in nature (p. 13). By comprehensive, ASCA meant that the counseling in school should be able to tackle healthy social/personal, career, and academic development of students from grades pre-K to 12. Preventive measures aim at proactively fostering adaptive skills and disseminating resilient information through a curriculum in classroom guidance. Lastly, counseling in school should also be developmental as it is medium to the needs unique the student population being served a delivers scheduling that meets competencies and content standards particularised to the age group of students.These competencies and content standards are summarized in the ASCA National Standards. These national standards provide the framework in the design of school counseling programs. Likewise the ASCA model listed down standards in the content of classroom discussion specific to age presenting what students ought to know and do after point of the school counseling program and provide learning objectives designed to help students reach their highest potential.There are nine ASCA National Standards subdivided to three domains that is to say academic, career, and personal/social development. Under academic are the standards that students should be able to (1) acquire attitudes, knowledge and skills that impact effective school learning and in his or her lifetime, (2) complete school equipped with the necessary academic preparation in choosing from a variety of post-secondary school options which covers college, (3) understand the association in the midst of the workplace and home and communi ty life. For career development, ASCA listed another set of standards (1) acquire skills of investigating the workplace and relate these skills to the self so that informed decisions on career would be derived (2) utilize the strategies in achieving career goals in the future successfully and satisfactorily and (3) correlate personal characteristics and qualities, reading, education, and the workplace. In the domain, personal/social development, the standards are the following (1) acquire the knowledge base, attitudes, as well as interpersonal skills in respecting and understanding the self and others (2) decide, set personal goals, and act upon those goals and (3) understand survival and safety skills. A frequent way school counselors address the national standards defined by ASCA and emulate the national model in their schools is the adoption of guidance programs that are comprehensive and developmental in nature (Galassi Akos, 2007). Though these counseling programs are descr ibed to be in compress(p) by several authors like Lapan, Gysbers, and Petroski (2001), Lapan, Gysbers, and Sun (1997) and Sink and Stroh (2003), there is no outline constituting these programs. The ASCA National Model and National Standards set the direction in program structuring but the specific details and components of the program are left hand to the discretion of the school counselors.The ASCA National Model and the command TrustThe Education Trust, in coordination with the DeWitt Wallace Readers ache Fund, provided support for a group of counselor educators and school counselors to reorganize school counseling cookery and practice. One aim of the DeWitt Wallace-Readers Digest Fund is the promotion of significant achievements on educational quality and career development among the youth. In addition, the funding is aimed at increasing access of deprived communities to improved educational and social services (DeVoss Minnie, 2006). Areas of interest cover advance of ser vices delivered to individuals in the elementary and secondary levels as well as community-based organizations through the collaborative efforts of the school and the community. The contemporary role of this initiative defined school counseling as a profession that focuses on minify the effect of environmental and institutional barriers that impede student academic success. The profession fosters conditions that ensure educational equity, access, and academic success for all students k-12 (Education Trust, http//www.edtrust.org).The Trust also solicits proposals that develop new training models in training school counselors from refurbishing the criteria in selecting candidates eligible for counselor education programs to the revision of the content in the curriculum, professional development, and field experience. It is crucial that education departments in states make sure that training programs are abreast with present changes and demands in society (ASCA, 2003 Education Trust 19 99). The changes are now referred to as New Vision Counselor (DeVoss Minnie, 2006 Education Trust).In 2003, the Education Trust began with the movement transforming school counselors role from only if providing services to one that is more oriented towards student achievement and learning. During the same year, Reese House, the director of the National place for Transforming School Counseling explained, This new Center will arm practicing school counselors with the data and knowledge to lead schools efforts to wind achievement of all students and close the gap mingled with groups once and for all (Paragraph 6).When the teachers were surveyed by Clark and Amatea (2004), they had definite ideas regarding the services they wanted their school counselors to discharge. It was likewise illustrious that the school counselor is a valuable and significant player and vision not only to the student body but to the faculty force as well by giving support in their instructional endeavors. The teachers believed that the role of the counselor is the provision of direct services to students through the bring of classroom guidance and individual student counseling. When their recommendations were asked, the students and teachers verbalise they need spare school counselors so that the programs of the school counselors would be better communicated to the student body. Dahir (2004) mentioned that school counselors are incessantly working toward adequately defining their roles and establishing program standards in the delivery of counseling services. In1990, Ginter and Scalise found that teachers classified the roles of elementary school counselors into cardinal dimensions first is the helper role and the second is the consultant role. In the former, the school counselor provides counseling for individual students, guidance for classroom and resolving concerns bear upon students while the latter requires his or her professional expertise and guidance in helping teache rs implement strategies that impact curriculum planning, classroom assessment, and student behavior. match to Stone and Clark (2001) and Ponec and Brock (2000), principals regarded school counselors as integral to the school system as they are collaborators and values formation advocates resulting in a more holistic academic school program. Beale (2003) expressed the need for school counselors as they aid principals in fulfilling their primary responsibility of helping their students achieve their full potential.So that this is achieved, counselors must directly serve the interest of students by working with small groups in counseling and in-service coordination with teachers at the same time, collaborating with the school and the community (Beale, 2003 Beman, 2000). some(prenominal) principals and counselors shared the spirit that if there is mutual respect and understanding towards the role of the counselor, the school counselor would be most effective. However, school counselor s must continuously educate principals and teachers regarding their role as well as tasks which are appropriate and inappropriate for them (Beale, 2003 Perusse, Goodnough, Donegan, Jones, 2004 Ponec Brock, 2000). Numerous times has the school principals job involve the option of a guidance counselor and it has also been the principals assignment to define and absorb the level in which the school counselor dictates the type of counseling program that will be implemented (Beale, 1995 Dahir, 2000).Though principals did not include specific administrative tasks in the manner with which they perceive the school counselors role, they have for numerous occasions regarded there is an overlap between the duties of a principal and a school counselor. These included coordination of the master schedule, teaching the class where a teacher was absent and acting as assistant to the principal in some instances (Fullwood, 2004). Myers (2003) described the presence of role confusion among school counselors since its foundation and has been heighten many times by school principals who misunderstood the role and function inherent of a school counselor. As stated by Stone and Clark (2001), school counselors occupy a distinct position of exerting their unique leadership style and take part in the leadership team that work in collaboration with the principal in driving a corporal vision of student achievement and success. School counselors and principals can act as powerful allies in school reform foc victimisation on helping students access and be successful in more tight academic standards (Stone Clark, 2001, p. 46). All are in agreement with the observation that how the school counselor perceived his or her role in school is not in sync with his or her actual role therefore a great deal needed work has to be done for the school counselor to function in consonance with the professions guidelines (Myers, 2003). Feller et al (1992) expressed that although ambiguity is plai n in the school counselors role, they stated While it is unwise to assume that there is one right role for school counselors, it is clear that a stronger kinship between the tasks of the school counselor and the educational priorities of the nation will support the continuing evolution of the profession(p. 46)The American School Counseling Association and Education Trust advocated the enactment of comprehensive and consistent standards for school counselor training and teamwork among stakeholders in education consisting of leaders in the community, parents, school administrators, teachers, school counselors, and the departments of education together with university training programs and professional organizations (Dahir, 2004 Galassi Akos, 2004). For instance, some investigators revealed the need of counselors playing the role as consultants and advisors in leadership (Colbert et al., 2006 Amatea Clark, 2005 Martin et al., 2003). On top of universities the priorities seemed to be promoting professional accountability among school counselors and equip them with the required skills in support of each other while simultaneously encourage academic achievement among students in their school (DeVoss Minnie, 2006).Baker (2000) summarized these priorities of Education Trust and advised that for a university training program to be more viable, experts should trace back to the grass grow emphasizing on the following (1) development and promotion of models specifically on collaborative training models tailor fitted to school counselors so they can better prepare in their function in the multidisciplinary team (2) education on the significance of school counseling to the community and school personnel (3) assessment of specific needs of the school or district (4) development and implementation of programs addressing these concerns and (5) conduct of regular and periodic assessments basing on the feedback of community partners, school personnel, students and parents t o fine tune services offered. These are lofty yet essential goals. literary productions has shown that school counselors should possess leadership skills in the school scenario and follow the standards set by the state and federal goverment. Universities and several boards of education have determined the New Vision school agenda as their first precedency (Education Trust, 1999). Conversely, counselor educators should keep in mind that the greatest resources in a school rests in the efforts currently use by the school counselors (Loesch Ritchie, 2004).Self-EfficacySelf-efficacy denotes to peoples beliefs about their capability to exercise control over their own level of surgical process and over events that affect their lives (Bandura, 1991, p. 257). Belief of individuals regarding their self-efficacy is considered to be the result of deliberating, synthesizing and assessing information regarding individual capabilities, and consequently regulate choices and the total effort a pplied on a specific task (Gist, 1987). A persons judgment on his or her self-efficacy differs across time as he or she is exposed to new experiences and information (Gist, 1992). Therefore, the concept of self-efficacy is dynamic. Beliefs on individual self-efficacy are correlated with the conditions of specific tasks though it will be noticed later that there individual could grow generalizations on these beliefs in related tasks on the basis of the persons sense of efficacy in general (Bandura, 1991).Gist (1987) identified the three domains of self-efficacy generality, metier, and magnitude. Generality is the level in which a self-efficacy belief applies in a variety of tasks strength is the conviction that a specific task performance level is realizable and magnitude is the extent of difficulty in a task that a person can fill. Of these three, generality is not measurable. Naturally, when an individual is asked what they feel towards the attainability of various task perfo rmance levels, he or she can answer it by a yes or no and when inquire about whether he or she is confident in reaching a certain degree of performance by assigning a number to it on a scale of 1 to 100. Thus, determination of magnitude is the aggregated sum of yes retorts while strength is aggregated responses on confidence.Wood, Bandura, and Bailey (1990) described the four primary sources of self efficacy judgments and each is particularly significant when applied in work environments in an organization. The first source referred to as enactive mastery experiences implies that self-efficacy judgments become modify resulting from the accomplishment of tasks. According to the triadic reciprocal causation model, there is association between enactive mastery experiences and impact of behavior on individual perception of self-efficacy. The importee is that when there is a higher resilience in the persons sense of self-efficacy, it signifies that the person has overcome obstacles by being perseverant. This experience provides assertion of the individuals capabilities allowing the person to patronize failures and setbacks without losing his or her confidence. Quick successes are the result of expecting short-term results which lead to prompt discouragement when failure comes. It will be observed that when self-efficacy beliefs are change or weakened by their experiences, it will have a major(ip) effect on their work especially with success or the lack of it in a person in his or her present position and conditions in the task which may be modulated and adjusted to facilitate success. Vicarious good example or experience is the second source of beliefs pertaining to self-efficacy (Gist, 1987) and is generally influenced by environmental factors. Modeling is the process of observing another person or the model who is performing a specific task. If a model is successful in his or her efforts, he or she is able to in effect convey to the observer plausible ta sk strategies providing the basis for comparing and discernment their individual abilities, and encourage the observer in believing on him/herself that with mulish efforts, in spite of setbacks, the task is accomplished successful. The effect of modeling is conjugated to the likeness of both model and observer in terms of age and capability. Emulating models is a powerful go for. Modeling first started during childhood when the child tries to imitate significant others like parents or older siblings. In an organizational setting, the desire to model immediate supervisors or superior performers is likely strong in some. Definitely, when roles are taken in and previously observed behavior, these illustrate social learning (Vecchio Appelbaum, 1995). The impact of vicarious modeling or experience in an organization has repercussions in both daily uninhibited situations when a person examines another performing a similar task as part of normal routine work and with reference to trai ning activities using modeling as a method of learning. Social or verbal persuasion though less efficacious than enactive modeling or mastery is regarded a significant source of self-efficacy judgments. The aim of verbal persuasion is communicate to the individual confronted with the activity of using his or her capability to succeed in the task at hand and not set high and unrealistic expectations which negatively affect the person if the task is a failure. Social persuasion is use widely on an ad hoc basis as if one is encouraging another however, utilization of the form of persuasion would be strategic in a skill development context because it promotes higher task-directedness in the effort and this is useful during the initial phases of skill development.Another source is the physiological state perceived by the person. When the individual is in a state of fear, perplexity or tension, he or she may judge him/herself to be less competent in accomplishing a specific task. Pain o r moil will adversely affect the individuals perception of his or her self-efficacy especially in tasks requiring somatogenetic strength (Wood Bandura, 1985). Efforts of improving either the psychological or the physical state of the individual by means of stress reduction interventions can potentially enhance self-efficacy judgments.Self-efficacy TheoryThe self-efficacy concept lies at the heart of the social cognitive theory of Albert Bandura. His theory highlights the role of reciprocal determinism, social experience, and empiric learning in personality development. The theory defined the self-system is an individuals cognitive skills, abilities, and attitudes and it is said that this system plays a significant role in perceiving situations and behaving in response to various situations. An cardinal element in the self-system is self-efficacy.Bandura (1995) defined self-efficacy as the belief in ones capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to mana ge prospective situations (p. 2). This means that self-efficacy is the belief of the individual regarding his or her capability to successfully accomplish a specific task. Bandura believes that self-efficacy determines the thinking, behavior, and feelings of people. Since the publication of Banduras seminal work entitled, Self-Efficacy Toward a integrative Theory of Behavioral Change, self-efficacy has ever since the talk of psychologists the world over. Why is self-efficacy considered an important subject matter in education and psychology? Bandura and other investigators have established that self-efficacy affect state of mind to behavior and motivation.School Counseling Research and School Counselor Self-EfficacyYoung (2004) described the perceptions of the leadership of school counselors and the practices of a large university in midwestern US. The specific objective of this study is to answer how participation in The Ohio State University Transforming School Counseling enterp risingness (OSUTSCI) program affected the leadership perceptions of graduates in the said university. Qualitative approaches were employed in the collection and analysis of data. A purposive nonprobability sampling procedure was done where 19 graduates of the program were considered. The sources of data were field notes, structured individual interviews and focus group discussion. The team of researchers who were experts in analyzing qualitative data using the grounded theory gathered the data. There were four major and multiple sub-themes that emerged and indicated that program participation led to leadership practices and perceptions that positively change the servi