School counseling practices in Turkish Universities: Recommendations for counselor educators

Türkiye'deki Üniversitelerde yapılan okul psikolojik danışmanlığı uygulamaları: Psikolojik danışman eğitimcileri için öneriler

Özet

Problem Durumu: Son yıllarda, okullara daha zorlayıcı koşullarla karşı karşıya kalırken, okul psikolojik danışmanlığı görevleri daha önemli hale gelmektedir. Bundan dolayı, psikolojik danışman eğitimin önemi daha da artmaktadır. Uygulama ve stajla ilgili tartışmalarda, okullardaki uygulamalara ait alanyazının önemli bir yere sahip olduğu gözlenmektedir. Bu çalışma okul psikolojik danışmanlığı eğitiminde alan yaşantılarının daha iyi hale getirilmesiyle ilgilidir. Daha ayrıntılı biçimde belirtmek gerekirse, çalışmanın amacı Türkiye’de okul psikolojik danışmanlığı uygulamalarında öğrencilerin geliştirdikleri beceri ve uygulamaların ne ölçüde benzerlik gösterdiğini belirlemektir. Araştırmanın amacı: Bu çalışmanın amacı Amerikan Okul Psikolojik Danışmanlığı Derneği tarafından oluşturulan ulusal modelin hizmet sunumu bileşenine göre Türkiye’deki uygulama öğrencilerinin hangi uygulamalar yaptıklarını belirlemektir. Bu uygulamalar (a) psikolojik danışma formatları (bireyle psikolojik danışma ve grupla psikolojik danışma) ve (b) rehberlik formatları (bireysel, küçük grup [yaklaşık 3-5 öğrenci], büyük grup [yaklaşık, 8-12 öğrenci], sınıf rehberliği ve okul konferansı) şeklinde sınırlandırılmıştır.

Abstract

Problem Statement: Recently, as schools face more challenging conditions, school counseling duties have become vitally important. It has been observed that the discussion on practicum or internship has a significant place in the literature of school practices. This study is on the improvement of field experiences in training school counseling. More specifically, the aim is to determine the uniformity of practices and skills of trainees developed through their school counseling internship experiences in Turkey. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to determine which practices intern trainees in Turkey carry out with regards to delivery system component, which was constituted by American Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. These practices were limited as (a) counseling formats (individual counseling and group counseling) and (b) guidance formats (individual, small group [about 3-5 students], large group [about 8-12 students], classroom guidance and school conference). Method: The population of this study was 1000 senior trainees of counselor education departments from 19 different Turkish universities in the 2005- 2006 school year. The sample was 345 senior trainees selected conveniently from this population. These students completed a Demographic Questionnaire and Questionnaire of Guidance and Counseling Applications in Schools. Findings and Results: Participant trainees indicated that they practiced mostly classroom guidance (67%), but conferencing applications were the least applied (27%). The arithmetic mean of individual counseling sessions was 8.85 (SD = 7.97; n = 174) and group counseling sessions was 5.99 (SD = 5.10; n = 105). There is a pattern in most universities that formats are applied in the senior year/spring term (i.e., generally a single-semester internship). The most practiced formats were classroom guidance in the career area and individual guidance in the personal-social area (39% for each of them). The least practiced format is conferencing in the personalsocial area (11%). However, all values were below 50%. Thus, the majority of the trainees seem not to have marked such internship duties. Conclusions and Recommendations: As a conclusion, we cannot strongly claim that trainees can make the best use of necessary school counseling practices after graduation. Furthermore, it is predictable that trainees in this study will encounter hardship in practicing important skills efficiently unless they go through an in-service training. There is a need to develop the national standards in Turkey for counseling competencies and school counseling practices. During the supervision period, skills related to guidance formats as well as counseling formats of the students can be the focus.