Reflection 5:
Bradley and colleagues (2013) stress the importance of complementing as a skill within solution focused evaluation. This skill, complementing, stood out to me because I have found it somewhat uncomfortable to receive, personally. However, over the past few years I have come to realize the value of complements, and this reading made that value all the more important when applied to the classroom setting. Complementing students on their qualities and strengths fosters a supportive and collaborative classroom environment, allowing students to actively engage in identifying and challenging their weaknesses through personal evaluation. Therefore, I will try to be intentional in utilizing this skill in and out of the classroom.
Question 5:
In theory it seems “easy” and some might say even rational to expect students to focus “on learning rather than on grades” (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2014, p.134). But most, if not all-counseling programs use grades as a measure of competence, skill, and success for counselor educators/professors and students; anxiety is almost a natural result that stems from grades and grading. How then should I as a new counselor educator/professor encourage students to focus more on the learning process rather than fixating on outcomes/grades?
References
Bradley, L. J., Froeschle, J., Parr, G., & Hendricks, B. (2013). Using solution focused evaluation to engage students in the learning process. In J. D. West, D. L. Bubenzer, J. A. Cox, & J. M. McGlothlin (Eds.), Teaching in counselor education: Engaging students in learning (p. 139-150). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Svinicki, M. D. & McKeachie, W. J. (Eds.). (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (14th ed., pp. 125-135). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
John, your question goes to the core of the dilemma that standards-based education poses in its goal to ensure that institutions assess the counseling “students’ knowledge, skill, and professional dispositions” (CACREP, 2015, p. 16) through a variety of measurements conducted over time (CACREP, 2015). The current summative grading systems focus on the students’ individual performance on tests and papers (Zagranski, Whigham, & Dardenne, 2008) rather than on their demonstrated mastery of the knowledge and skills stated in the standards. According to Zagranski, Whigham, and Dardenne (2008), motivate students by giving them a final grade that assesses them against the course’s educational standards through formative assessment measures that provide immediate feedback and choices that encourages them to correct deficiencies in knowledge, understanding, and application of the course’s learning goals rather than adding up a number of individual test scores as the final grade (i.e., summative evaluation).
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Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP]. (2015). 2016 CACREP Standards. Retrieved from http://www.cacrep.org/for-programs/2016-cacrep-standards/
Zagranski, R., Whigham, W. T., & Dardenne, P. L. (2008). Understanding standards-based education: A practical guide for teachers and administrators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Thank you for your informative response to my question, Nils!
DeleteI see the usefulness in the writings of Zagranski, Whigham, and Dardenne (2008), allowing students the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and make corrections to not only their work but their thinking. However, since this assessment option was put fourth in 2008 I beg to wonder how many faculty have worked at implementing it in their classrooms? I am yet to sit in a course that offers this method of assessment, i.e., giving immediate feedback, and providing students with the option of correcting faulty thinking.
This all seems good in theory but difficult to implement in practice. Nevertheless, I am open to the idea of trying out Zagranski's et al. (2008) method once I am given the honor of teaching my own class, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Reference
Zagranski, R., Whigham, W. T., & Dardenne, P. L. (2008). Understanding standards-based education: A practical guide for teachers and administrators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
John, your point is well taken. When I arrived at the Chaplain School, they were starting transition to the method described by the Army's ADDIE model for lesson/course development as well as for the experiential model. At that time none of the supervisors understood the ADDIE process very well, and they wanted me to add lessons into the course design that were not part of the standards provided by the task analyst. And, many of the instructors had been taught in the old approach of “I teach and the student learns”. Finally, the students were upset because they had to spend time doing research and searching for knowledge—instead they wanted an absolute answer given for each issue and did their best to avoid having to assume responsibility for learning. Four years later, as I was leaving, the atmosphere had changed and the staff had begun to respond to the task analyst's (i.e., person who wrote down training standards) guidance. Moreover, the new students were already socialized into the learner assumes responsibility for learning model as their peers who had gone through the earlier training had shared their experiences. I discovered that even when mandated to change (as in the Army's case) that people take about 8 to 12 years to accept the changes before they can begin to adjust their behaviors to match the new guidance. You are right, the system sounds difficult, and it is because it challenges everything about education that we have ever experienced as students or as instructors. One of the key complaints that I heard from other instructors was that they were not free to teach the subject matter according to their opinion and experience, they could not understand why standards were necessary. Fortunately, everything that I have read in preparation for this class indicates that the new approach is here to stay, albeit the negative reaction from many educators who are waiting for it to go away (see Zagranski, Whigham, & Dardenne, 2008).
DeleteReferences
Zagranski, R., Whigham, W. T., & Dardenne, P. L. (2008). Understanding standards-based education: A practical guide for teachers and administrators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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