A radical change in counselor education and certification

The new Washington state certification plan for school counselors includes promising innovations. The plan calls for behaviorally stated performance standards related to client outcomes. Resulting programs for in-service as well as pre-service counselors are developed in a partnership among professional associations, school districts, and university counselor education personnel. Professional identity and involvement are encouraged through counselor self-assessment against specific performance criteria, individualized training and self-renewal programs, and lifelong professional development plans. A new role is developed of a counselor staff development specialist who functions as a school training consultant and counselor educator.     

Reducing disruptive behavior through consultation

A university laboratory school counselor was consulted by a fourth grade teacher in order to resolve disruptive classroom behaviors of one student who did not stay seated and frequently spoke without permission. A behavioral approach in the classroom enabled the counselor to help. The teacher was instructed to pay attention to the child only when he remained seated or raised his hand for recognition. The student's behavior improved substantially. This study illustrates how the counselor can be effective as a consultant.     

Consulting for Change: Anatomy of an Effort That Failed

Theoretical issues concerning the process of change and the phenomenon of resistance are highlighted in this analysis of opposition observed during in-service training of high school and junior high school counselors. Behavioral examples are examined with reference to the principles found in current change theory-theory that suggests generalizations and practical considerations for the would-be change agent, whether counselor, consultant, or social psychologist.     

Training teachers in behavioral consultation and therapy: An analysis of verbal behaviors

This study evaluated the relative effectiveness of two teacher-training packages under two analogue consultation conditions in a 2 × 2 completely randomized factorial design. The subjects were 56 elementary school teachers in an urban school district in Arizona. The conditions included a training package of classroom behavior modification and consultation, a training package of consultative service procedures, and general multidisciplinary team processes (a nonspecific control). The consultation conditions included one variant in which very specific consultant questions were presented, and a second in which much more general, somewhat vague, consultant elicitors were presented to subjects in problem-identification, problem-analysis, and problem-evaluation behavioral consultation analogue interviews. The effectiveness of these training packages was evaluated in respect to knowledge of behavior modification principles and concepts, and the frequency of specific categories of consultee verbal behaviors. The results indicated that the experimental training package was effective in increasing teachers' knowledge of behavioral procedures and in increasing the frequency of teacher verbalization regarding overt child behaviors and behavioral intervention plans during the problem identification and problem analysis phases of consultation. It was also found that even after training, specific consultant questions were important in eliciting consultee statements related to environmental conditions surrounding behavior. The use of more general consultant verbal behaviors resulted in significantly more vague, unspecified, and irrelevant types of consultee verbalizations. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The identification of resources and constraints influencing plan design in consultation

The present study investigated the effects of consultant verbalizations on consultee verbalizations reflecting consultee resources that might be used in plan implementation and constraints potentially limiting the nature of plans implemented in consultation. Interviews of 50 consultants trained in behavioral consultation and participating in a field experience with public school teachers were analyzed. Plan-tactic-elicitors verbalized by consultants were shown to have a positive effect on the incidence of resources as opposed to responses not reflecting resources or constraints. Other types of consultant elicitors all had a negative impact on resource incidence when compared to the incidence of other types of consultee responses.     

The impact of consultant,consultee, and organizational variables on teacher attitudes toward consultation services

The current study investigated relationships between consultant, consultee, and organizational characteristics and teacher preferences for school-based consultation versus traditional referral services. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that principal initiating structure, number of years of teaching experience, and number of years teaching at the current school each made statistically significant, although weak, contributions to predicting teacher attitudes toward consultation. Initiating structure and number of years of teaching experience were negatively related to consultee preference for consultation, while years of teaching at the current school correlated positively.     

Shared student self-evaluation

This article describes an innovative, child-oriented, self-development project that gives the child major responsibility for assessing his own developmental needs. With the child at the core of the process, the traditional counselor-teacher consultation model is given a new twist. Although the age-old concept of understanding and relating to the needs of children is viewed as necessary, it is not seen here as sufficient in promoting an atmosphere of self-growth. In this alternative model of counseling, the counselor acted as a consultant to the teacher and the child, rather than as an active agent of change.     

The Counselor and Student Discipline: Suggested Roles

The problem of role definition for counselors relative to discipline problems has been persistent. Difficulties in defining and adopting appropriate roles in discipline have been exacerbated by conflicting expectations between and among administrators, counselors, and faculty. This article provides a short summary and analysis of the literature on the counselor's role in school discipline; possible counselor roles are grouped into six categories: mediator, ombudsman, consultant, psychological educator, special program developer, and counselor. From the variety of roles defined and discussed, counselors may find one or a combination of several roles that both satisfy the needs of their students and are appropriate to their own personalities and/or skill levels.     

Behavior consultation in a barrio high school

Behavioral consultation with a counselor was used in this study to help an English teacher in an inner-city high school deal with his students' “lackadaisical” attitude toward the completion of assignments. Over a period of weeks, the behavioral approaches that were experimented with were found to facilitate the changes that the teacher had hoped for.     

Reducing Psychological Distress in a Genetic Counseling Consultation for Breast Cancer

High levels of cancer specific distress have been found before and after genetic counseling for breast cancer. This study investigated the process of reducing distress during 111 genetic counseling consultations for familial breast cancer. Consultations were audiotaped, transcribed, and a detailed coding system developed to measure cues of emotional distress from the patient, and consultant (clinical geneticist or genetic counselor) behaviors before and after the cues. At least 1 emotional cue was given in 64 consultations, with a median of 1 cue per consultation. More emotional cues of distress occurred when the consultant responded empathetically to the first cue of distress. Satisfaction outcomes were largely positive regardless of the consultant's attentiveness to distress. Postconsultation depression scores were significantly reduced if more empathic responses were given, but anxiety remained the same. These results are discussed and recommendations are made for improving patient care.     

Multicultural Issues in Consultation

In this article the authors examine the historical development of consultation and superimpose multicultural theories and models onto several traditional consultation models. Included in this article is a selective review of literature from consultation, communication, and education as they relate to multicultural issues. An ethical imperative for the consultant is made to acknowledge, validate, and implement multicultural sensitivity.     

Consultation in family therapy

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of the use of consultants by experienced family therapists. The authors discuss the need for consultation under different circumstances and review a number of models currently being utilized. Emphasis is placed on preparing the clients for the consultation, providing background information to and preparing with the consultant for the session(s), and transferring “power” to the consultant and back again to the primary therapist.     

How effective is school consultation?: A review of recent research

This paper reviews the results of 29 studies on the effectiveness of school consultation published between 1972 and 1977. Twenty-two of the studies reviewed (76%) reported at least one or more positive effects resulting from consultation interventions. Behavioral consultation was found to be particularly effective. Several methodological limitations of the studies which reduce the generality of their findings are discussed. These include lack of appropriate experimental control procedures, failure to control for individual consultant and consultee characteristics, infrequent use of multiple dependent measures assessing both attitudinal and behavioral changes, and the absence of follow-up data. Despite the problems entailed in measuring consultation outcomes, the practice does appear to be effective. Further research investigating the influence of specific consultation models and processes is recommended.     

The counselor-consultant and the effeminate boy

This article presents a case study of an effeminate boy in an elementary school. Rather than counseling the boy directly, the counselor consulted the child's teachers regarding strategies for change. Following experimental procedures, significant changes were recorded in behavior and attitude as measured by pre- and post-experimental measures: playground behavior, lunchroom behavior, physical education activities, class sociogram, and a Semantic Differential. The case demonstrates how deviant children, such as this effeminate boy, can be aided through consultation with teachers and through learning experiences within the regular school program.     

Multicultural Issues in School-Based Consultation Conceptual and Research Considerations

In this article, we review literature relevant to multicultural issues in school-based consultation. Specifically, multicultural literature in the counseling and psychotherapy fields is presented as it relates to consultation. Ways in which culture may affect the consultant, consultee, and client are suggested. Because of the paucity of multicultural research in consultation and lack of major break-throughs in multicultural research as related to consultation, a conceptual framework related to the utility of multicultural issues is presented as a new paradigm for future investigations.     

The Counselor as Consultant in the Collaborative School

A collaborative work environment has been consistently cited as a characteristic of schools that effectively respond to the diverse needs of students. Because of their role and related skills, counselors seem uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the development or enhancement of team structures and staff relationships within a collaborative school. Educational collaboration and its relationship to school consultation as a structured planning, decision-making, and problem-solving process is described. Characteristics of a collaborative school and its organizational structures are identified. Roles and related skills the counselor can use in providing leadership in developing and implementing collaborative teams in the school are articulated.     

Organizational factors influencing consultation in schools

A key variable in successful consultation is the consultant's skill in assessing the organization in which he is working or contemplating working. This paper presents a framework for gathering and organizing data related to organizational phenomena in a school or school district. The implications of these data for the consultant in determining priorities, assessing strengths and weaknesses, generating problem-solving strategies, and predicting consequents are discussed. In addition, the dilemma of the school psychologist, caught in complex and rapidly changing environmental pressures, is explored and some alternative role models are suggested.     

Potential roles of the medical ethicist in the clinical setting

The medical ethicist is a fairly recent addition to the clinical setting. The following four potential roles of the clinical ethicist are identified and discussed: consultant in difficult cases, educator of health care providers, counselor for health care providers and finally patient advocate to protect the interests of patients. While the various roles may sometimes overlap, the roles of educator and counselor are viewed as being more congruent with the education and training of medical ethicists than are the roles of consultant and patient advocate.     

Effects of behavioral and medical models of consultation on teacher expectancies and instruction of a hypothetical child

Sixty first- and second-grade teachers were randomly assigned to one of four conditions representing variations in consultation where they were required to teach a hypothetical child to add. The first condition involved face-to-face behavioral consultation in which the consultant cued a teacher to verbalize antecedent and consequent conditions that might affect learning and prompted the teacher to specify the kinds of capabilities that the child would need in order to master the academic task targeted for instruction. In the second type of behavioral consultation, face-to-face consultation was augmented by a task analysis report specifying prerequisite skills. The third type, medical model consultation, involved face-to-face consultation focusing on temporally remote environmental circumstances accompanied by a traditional psychological report specifying that the child was of low ability. The control group was asked general questions about the school. Results suggested that behavioral consultation with task analysis was associated with significantly more teaching success than was control, medical model, and behavioral consultation without task analysis. Moreover, behavioral consultation without task analysis was better than medical model consultation. Implications for psychoeducational assessment are discussed within the context of teacher expectations and instruction.