PRE-PRACTICUM SERVICE-LEARNING IN GRADUATE COUNSELOR EDUCATION: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY

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Date

2010-05-24

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[Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University

Abstract

Service-learning blends community service and academic learning. In graduate counselor education programs, the use of service-learning prior to practicum training is rare. However, given counseling's values, mission, and ethics, service-learning seems amenable to graduate counselor training. Previous studies of pre-practicum service-learning (PPSL) in graduate counselor education indicated that PPSL opens student counselors' eyes to the realities of professional counseling, promotes student counselors' self-efficacy, and enhances student counselors' awareness of themselves in relation to others. The present study used qualitative interviews and document review to explore PPSL within a particular graduate counselor education program. Participants from a western university included counselor educators who taught a graduate-level counseling course integrating PPSL (n = 2), counselor education doctoral students who coordinated PPSL (n = 3), and alumni of the counselor education master's program who carried out PPSL in at least two of three graduate counseling courses (n = 7). Four themes emerged from participants' accounts: direction, involvement, ways of learning, and time. Direction related to the structure and clarity of PPSL. Direction also pointed toward a perceived outcome of PPSL, particularly that PPSL informed student counselors' subsequent academic and professional decisions. Involvement referred to how PPSL and practicum training were experienced by student counselors along three areas: level of participation, feelings of responsibility, and supervision. Ways of learning spoke to the ways that PPSL was understood and experienced differently than non-field-based pre-practicum training and practicum training. Time referred to the ways in which participants' perceptions and experiences of PPSL were shaped by time. Interview and document data also provided insights into the research questions that guided this study: (a) specific aspects that define PPSL, (b) perceived effects of PPSL on student counselors' overall development, and (c) comparisons of PPSL and practicum training. Further research of graduate-level service-learning was recommended, particularly studies that reflect an appreciation of ways that undergraduate service-learning research informs and does not inform service-learning in graduate training. It was also suggested that future research examine other models of PPSL in graduate counselor education in order to appreciate the various ways that PPSL can be conceptualized and practiced.

Description

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2005

Keywords

service-learning, counselor education

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Doctoral Dissertation