Theoretical counselling orientations of teachers in Hong Kong

Thirty-seven Chinese teacher-counsellors in Hong Kong were assessed on their theoretical orientations using a 45-item self-report checklist at the beginning of their advanced training and at the end of a course on counselling theories. Based on their ratings on nine theoretical orientations, it could be inferred that the beliefs and values of these teachers were most congruent with those of the Person-Centred approach. With ratings above a cutoff score as endorsement, teachers were found to endorse more orientations in the post-course assessment, reflecting an increase in flexibility in approach. Despite the fact that teachers’ reported self-efficacy toward helping significantly increased in post-course assessment, teachers’ membership in low, medium, and high self-efficacy groups did not have any bearing on teachers’ changes in flexibility in approach or changes in primary approach. Implications of the findings for understanding teacher-counsellors’ process of finding an integrative approach personally meaningful for their future practice are discussed.     

Perceived emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong

One hundred and fifty-eight secondary school teachers were assessed on their perceived emotional intelligence (Schutte et al., 1998) and general self-efficacy and self-efficacy toward helping others ( Schwarzer, 1993). An item factor analysis yielded four dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence, leading to the construction of four corresponding empirical scales. Teachers scored most highly on positive utilisation and emotional appraisal, followed by empathic sensitivity and positive regulation. Using the four components of perceived emotional intelligence as predictors of self-efficacy beliefs, positive regulation emerged as the significant predictor in predicting general self-efficacy whereas empathic sensitivity emerged as the significant predictor in predicting self-efficacy toward helping others. Implications of the findings for exploring the relationships between various components of perceived emotional intelligence and various specific self-efficacy beliefs for different groups of teachers and the need for further studies using longitudinal data are discussed.     

Scottish secondary school teachers' attitudes towards, and conceptualisations of, counselling

This paper presents the findings of two independent questionnaire studies that examined Scottish secondary schools teachers' attitudes towards, and conceptualisation of, school counselling. Seventy-one teachers in a first study, and 33 teachers in a second study, responded to a range of qualitative and quantitative response-format questions that were designed to elicit their feelings and attitudes towards school counselling, and their notions of what counselling was. Results from the two studies confirm previous findings in this area, suggesting that teachers are generally positive in their attitudes towards counselling; valuing, in particular, the independence and expertise of the counsellor. A small minority of teachers, however, were found to hold strongly negative views towards counselling. Teachers also expressed concerns that students might abuse the counselling service, and that the service might not fully integrate with existing guidance arrangements provided by teachers in schools. The study also found that a high proportion of teachers conceptualised counselling in terms of advice-giving.     

The influence of Confucianism: a narrative study of Hong Kong teachers’ understanding and practices of school guidance and counselling

School guidance seeks to promote the whole person growth of students. It is regarded as an integral part of an educational programme. In Hong Kong secondary schools, a team of teachers are responsible for school guidance. This article examines how guidance teachers made sense of their caring work in general and specifically the counselling services they offered to students. With the use of a narrative analysis and personal experience methods, the study explores the experience of guidance teachers in counselling. Twelve in-service teachers who had enrolled in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education were interviewed. The influence of the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, emerging as a theme from the data, was prominent, as its key principles were incorporated into the teachers’ personal systems of counselling. The findings illuminate the influence of Chinese culture in Hong Kong schools. Implications for the promotion of culturally responsive approaches to counselling and culturally competent practices for helping are discussed.     

Role of personal endorsement of outgroup members' distinctive values and need for cognitive closure in attitude towards the outgroup

The present study was designed to examine the role of the perceived culture of the outgroup and the perceiver's cognitive style on the intergroup process. We conducted a survey among mainland Chinese college students to discover the role of their personal endorsement of Hong Kong Chinese's distinctive values and need for cognitive closure in predicting their attitude towards the Hong Kong Chinese outgroup. Results showed that mainland Chinese who gave a higher endorsement of Hong Kong Chinese values were more likely to show a positive attitude towards Hong Kong Chinese, especially for people with a higher need for cognitive closure. These results were discussed in terms of the function of shared social reality on the formation of positive intergroup attitude. Future directions for intergroup research were proposed based on these findings.     

Creative Self-Efficacy: Correlates in Middle and Secondary Students

ABSTRACT: This study examined correlates of creative self-efficacy (i.e., self-judgments of creative ability) in middle and secondary students (N = 1,322). Results indicate that students' mastery- and performance-approach beliefs and teacher feedback on creative ability were positively related to students' creative self-efficacy. Creative self-efficacy was also linked to student reports of their teachers not listening to them and sometimes feeling that their teachers had given up on them. Students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to hold more positive beliefs about their academic abilities in all subject areas and were significantly more likely to indicate that they planned to attend college than students with lower levels of creative self-efficacy. Finally, students with higher levels of creative self-efficacy were significantly more likely to report higher levels of participation in after-school academics and after- school group activities. Implications for creativity research and practice are discussed.     

A cognitive developmental perspective on counselling adolescents

Although developmental perspectives on counselling are increasingly popular, difficulties inherent in these perspectives impede their actual use in practice. In this paper, individual counselling is situated within a cognitive developmental (Piagetian) framework. Its major constructs — structure and function, assimilation and accommodation, and equilibration — can profitably be applied to the counselling of adolescents. The implications of these constructs for use by counsellors are presented in the light of the traditional responsive and initiative conditions required of the helping relationship. Thus, a perspective on actual counselling intervention founded on a major direction in developmental psychology is provided.     

Stigma towards psychosis: Cross‐cultural differences in prejudice,stereotypes, and discrimination in White British and South Asians

Public stigma towards people with mental health problems has been demonstrated in Western societies. Little is known about non‐Western cultures and whether cultures differ in their perceptions of people with mental health problems. Aim of this study was to examine cultural differences in prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination towards people with psychosis. Participants were from White British and South Asian backgrounds (N = 128, aged 16–20 years) recruited from two schools and colleges in the United Kingdom. They completed a cross‐sectional survey on affective, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions of stigma. Results revealed significant cultural differences on all three stigma dimensions. South Asians attributed higher anger (prejudice) and dangerousness (stereotypes) to people with psychosis than White British. They also reported lower willingness to help, greater avoidance, and higher endorsement of segregation (discrimination). The effects of ethnic group on helping intentions, avoidance, and segregation endorsement were mediated by anger and by dangerousness. Understanding cultural differences in stigma towards psychosis will be important for designing stigma interventions as well as treatments for people with different cultural backgrounds.     

Configurations of Young Peoples’ Important Life Goals and Their Associations with Thriving

The aims of this study were to determine whether, and how, young people’s beyond-the-self life goals coexisted with other life goals, and whether having at least one beyond-the-self goal was associated with higher thriving (the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development [PYD]) and volunteering, compared to having either no goals, or goals that were only self-focused. The authors conducted latent class analyses among five school cohort groups using data from five studies (combined using integrative data analysis techniques). Across grade groups, the authors identified classes, which can generally be characterized by (1) low endorsement of goals, (2) prominence of helping others and contributing to community goals, (3) prominence of goals related to a good life (e.g., make money, friends, live an adventurous life), and (4) endorsement of most life goals. In the older two grade groups we identified additional classes: a group with a high endorsement of goals oriented at helping others and serving God/higher power in the undergraduate group, and a group with high endorsement of goals to create something new and make the world a better place in the graduate group. There were differences in the Five Cs of PYD and volunteering between the classes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for future research and practice regarding young people’s life goals.     

Applying the principles and techniques of solution-focused therapy to career counselling

Career counselling aims to help clients become more effective agents in solving problems in their vocational aspects of life. To achieve this goal, theorists and practitioners are called upon to form useful helping approaches that can help clients in a more efficient and effective manner. This article proposes an alternative model toward this end by considering and adopting principles and techniques from the solution-focused therapy in career counselling practice. After a very brief introduction of the basic features of the solution-focused counselling, the paper reviews some key theoretical principles of the solution-focused therapy, and connects these principles to career counselling context. It then illustrates several solution-focused counselling techniques that are particularly applicable to career counselling intervention.     

Boys,girls, and the school cultural environment: Teachers’ judgment and students’ values

Due to gender socialization, girls are more likely to endorse self-transcendence values (e.g., helping people) compared to boys, whereas boys are more likely to endorse self-enhancement values (e.g., wanting to be in charge) compared to girls. In two studies, we investigated teachers’ judgment regarding the display of these values in school and students’ endorsement of the self-transcendence and self-enhancement values in two contexts: home and school. In Study 1 (N = 240), teachers evaluated a student perceived as strongly endorsing the self-transcendence values more positively compared to a student perceived as strongly endorsing the self-enhancement values, regardless of the student’s gender. In Study 2 (N = 151), boys endorsed the self-enhancement values more than the self-transcendence values at home, whereas the opposite occurred in the school context. Girls did not vary across contexts, endorsing the self-transcendence values more than the self-enhancement values in both contexts. Possible consequences on boys’ school-related outcomes are discussed.     

Dual realities – The search for meaning: Psychodynamic therapy with physically ill people

Abstract

We summarize Kohut's (1971) bi-polar self which enables counsellors to understand and treat narcissistic behaviours and narcissistic personality disorders in a psychoanalytic framework. After Patton and Meara (1992), we describe Kohut's formulations regarding self-development and disorders of self and how such formulations inform critical components of psychoanalytic counselling with particular emphasis on the explicit and implicit strategies and characteristics the counsellor brings to the process. Finally, we suggest that a promising arena for future theorizing and applications of Kohut's ideas is consultation with parents, teachers and other community leaders to help prevent or remedy psychological self-injuries with systemic interventions outside short-term counselling or long-term therapy.

We have suggested that Kohut's self psychology is a good vehicle for understanding what brings a client to counselling: namely, disorders of the self or self-injury. We review strategies and ‘ways of being’ a counsellor must bring to and offer in the counselling encounter if the work is to succeed. We also examine implicit qualities (beyond the achievement of a mature bipolar self) we believe a counsellor or any facilitator must have if counselling or other helping relationships are to be effective. We purpose further conversations and empirical analyses which specifically and conceptually link critical components of psychoanalytic counselling to self psychology and to essential counsellor traits or virtues that seem intrinsic to good counselling practice.     

The effects of classroom teaching on students' self-efficacy for personal development

The personal development of students is an essential component of school guidance and counselling programmes, but no published research on guidance and counselling has investigated the effects of regular classroom teaching on students' self-efficacy for personal development. In this study, questionnaire items were constructed to measure classroom teaching, student self-efficacy for personal development and student use of deep learning strategies. Data were collected from 16,208 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Using structural equation modelling, regular classroom teaching was found to have a direct effect on personal development self-efficacy as well as an indirect effect through student use of deep learning strategies. Implications of these findings for implementing a whole-school approach to guidance and counselling are discussed.     

Les processus de coping et leur association avec l’auto-efficacité perçue chez des enseignants de suisse romande : résultats d’une étude préliminaire

Within the Swiss context of the present study, important on-going school reforms lead to new challenges and constraints for teachers. Thus, it is legitimate to question how teachers can deal with the difficulties inherent to their profession. The aim of the study was to explore the coping responses of 86 teachers (women = 70; men = 16; mean age = 38.9 ± 12.0), and to assess the possible relationships between those responses and teaching self-efficacy. Self-report questionnaires were administered between June 2016 and February 2017, with a return rate of 37.5%. Participants completed two questionnaires: the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) assessing five coping responses (solving problem, social support approbation, avoidance, positive reevaluation and self-blamed), and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) measuring three dimensions of teachers’ self-efficacy (for classroom management, instructional strategies and student engagement). The most frequent coping responses were social support approbation and solving problem. Positive reevaluation seemed to be used as an intermediate coping response for both women and men. Women were more likely to seek social support than men in order to deal with difficulties, whereas men did not report the use of specific process. Participants reported high levels of teaching self-efficacy, without significant difference between women and men. Moreover, teachers with high level of self-efficacy for classroom management and instructional strategies were less likely to use self-blamed and avoidance coping responses. Teachers with high level of self-efficacy for student engagement were also less likely to use self-blamed coping responses. Partial correlations with sex, age and years of experience as control variables were performed, and no variation was found. The findings of the present study demonstrate that social support approbation and solving problem are coping responses commonly used in our sample of teachers. The high levels of teaching self-efficacy and the lack of significant correlation between this variable, social support approbation and solving problem coping responses question us about the protective role of self-efficacy. It could be considered as a coping response, helping to appropriately overcome the difficulties linked to the teaching profession. Due to the important school reforms in Switzerland, pre-service teachers need resources and tools to deal with these new challenges. Further studies are necessary in order to better understand relationships between coping responses and teaching self-efficacy, and their potential protective or damaging effects.     

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of Trainees' Counselling Skills Performance

The value of self-efficacy as a predictor of counselling skills performance in a graduate counselling class was evaluated with 31 trainee counsellors. Three measurements of self-efficacy were taken: before, midway through, and at the end of a microcounselling skills training programme which was taught over six weekly three-hour sessions. Although there was a wide distribution of self-efficacy reports, none of the estimates of grade were significantly positively associated with counselling skills. Implications for counsellor educators are discussed.     

Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers’ Perceptions of Inclusion Classrooms and Identification of Challenges to Their Implementation

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions and challenges of Seventh-day Adventist teachers towards inclusion classrooms in the United States. For this study, 17 participants were interviewed using two 12-item interview protocols. The analysis of the teachers’ responses revealed five key perceptions. First, teachers have positive attitudes towards inclusion. Second, accommodations help students who are mildly disabled succeed in the regular classroom. Third, inclusion classrooms can be Christian based. Fourth, school personnel need to develop policies for accepting students with disabilities. Finally, Adventist teachers can identify children with special needs. Participants identified two challenges for implementing inclusion classrooms, first, developing policies and resources for use by teachers, and second, providing needed training to help teachers succeed in an inclusive classroom. The article concludes with recommendations for developing a successful inclusive educational program in Christian schools and recommendations future study.     

The therapeutic effect of peace counselling among Nigerian secondary school teachers

This study examines the therapeutic effect of peace counselling among Nigerian secondary school teachers. 450 Nigerian secondary school teachers voluntarily participated in this study; 225 teachers (103 male and122 female) were used as control group while 225 teachers (103 male and 122 female) were exposed to peace counselling. Those in the treatment group participated in smaller groups made up of 25 teachers each. The teachers in the control group were also given peace counselling after the completion of the study. Two research questions were raised to guide the direction of the study. Teaching related Element of Peace Disturbance Scale (TEPDS) was used as the research instrument to collect pre‐ and post treatment data. Analysis of covariance was employed in the data analysis. The results showed that a significant difference existed between the control and the treatment groups with the latter ascertaining a higher degree of peace than the former. Also a significant difference was recorded between the male and female teachers who were exposed to peace counselling in their expressed peace level. Implications for peace counselling among all teachers functioning at all levels of education and their students were discussed.     

“It’s like a charge – either fuses you or burns you out”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of extreme mental states in meditation context

Meditation, an ancient Eastern spiritual practice, is increasingly being practised in the West where its benefits for mental and physical health have been established. Extreme mental states that can be encountered in the context of meditation have also been reported and often have been labelled as psychosis or spiritual emergency. This study aimed for more nuanced understanding of the phenomena. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to explore the meaning-making of three meditation teachers from different philosophical traditions. The teachers described phenomenology of various extreme mental states, explained their nature according to their traditions and discussed ways of helping persons who experience these. Significance was given to having a spiritual teacher to provide guidance and support. The study highlights the importance of acknowledging the diverse understandings of the phenomena and cultivating a non-judgemental attitude towards it, which could help clinicians and meditation teachers work together to support persons experiencing these.     

全纳教育教师职业使命感对工作幸福感的影响：自我效能感的中介效应

为探讨全纳教育教师职业使命感对工作幸福感的影响机制,采用整群抽样方法选取京津冀地区的全纳教育教师共378名为被试,使用职业使命感量表、自我效能感量表和工作幸福感量表进行问卷调查。研究发现：（1）职业使命感、自我效能感和工作幸福感之间均呈显著正相关;（2）职业使命感对工作幸福感有显著的正向影响;（3）全纳教育教师的自我效能感在职业使命感对工作幸福感的影响中起部分中介作用。研究表明,积极塑造全纳教育教师的职业使命感,提升自我效能感,可以有效提升全纳教育教师的工作幸福体验。