Pre-Intensive
Blog Assignment
Section 1
McKeachie and
Svinicki (2014) suggest that in order to make a difference in class, the instructor
must possess the ability to manage the activities of the class effectively. It
is noted that simple teaching techniques get the students involved so that they
can get to work and learn. New
teachers are advised not to worry about discussing theories of learning and
teaching rather they should learn simple skills to get through the first few
weeks of class. The new teacher who learns techniques for breaking the ice,
encourages class participation and gets the course organized will be likely to
get off to a good start.
Lingering Question
This question
related to collaborating with the students to develop a syllabus. At what
academic level can students be involved in the creation of a syllabus? How
would this process be initiated and how long would it take to get it ready?
Section 2
West (et al.,
2013) suggests, because students do have textbooks, which of course they are
expected to read for themselves, lecture should not be done in a formal
presentation that repeats what the students have read in the textbooks.
Presentation should be an informal lecture: lecture discussions that concentrate
not on the information but rather explains why the information matters and
elaborate the meaning of information and discuss how it should be used.
Lingering
Question
When I read West’s
chapters 3-6, I noticed it covered a sub-topic on Multicultural counseling
which was very interesting to me and aroused a question that I have asking
myself since I have been a doctoral student at Liberty. Why is Liberty PhD
program not offering a course (s) in multicultural counseling?
Section 3
Sorenson,
Derflinger, Bufford, & McMinn (2004) suggests, if professors want their
conceptual integration model to be remembered by students, they must have a
relationship with students. In other words, the students need to sense the
professor’s on-going personal relationship with God. Sorenson (et al., 2004)
proposes that attachment principles relate not only to emotional health but
also to student’s learning of integration and applied skills.
Lingering
Question
Garzon and Hall
(2012) raised a key about how attachment can be fostered between instructors
and students in long distance learning programs that have expanded integration
pedagogy domain since attachment is suggested to be so crucial in cultivating
mentor relationships.
Section 4
Finds suggest
that certain instructor behaviors can create a motivating learning environment.
For example, a professor’s organization and clarity regarding learning
intensions objectives have been pointed out as key to effective learning
(Hattie, 2011; Lowman, 1996; Pepe & Wang, 2012, cited in Malott, Hall,
Sheely-Moore, Krell & Garacioto, 2014). West (et al., 2013) posits that
learners need good teaching that is based on deep obligation to help students
learn.
Lingering
Question
How can
counselor educators create an effective learning environment especially with
the typical large classes in the counselor education?
Section 5
West (et al.,
2013) suggests that the first step in implementing homework, in order to get
the students engaged in the learning process should begin with the
student-instructor relationship. “For the homework to promote and cultivate
learning, a student must be engaged in the assignment (p.75). And it is the
professor that helps students to engage in the homework process.
Lingering
Question
What would the
most effective way to assess the online students’ performance?
References
Garzon, F. & Hall, M. (2012).
Teaching Christian Integration in psychology and counseling: Current status and
future directions. Journal of Psychology
and Theology, 40 (2), 155-159.
Malott, K., Hall, K.H., Sheely-Moore, A.,
Krell, M., & Cardaciotto, L. (2014). Evidence-based teaching in higher
education. Counselor Education and
Supervision, 53, 294-305.
Svinicki, M., McKeachie, W. (2014). McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies,
research and theory for college and university teachers.
West, J., Bubenzer, D., Cox, J., &
McGlothin. (2013). Teaching in counselor
education: Engaging students in learning.
Section 2 Lingering question:
ReplyDeleteI pondered a similar question recently. Upon thought and discussion with various professors, two rational for not having a stand-alone Multicultural Counseling course emerged. The first rational is supported by Hills and Strozier (1992), that a majority courses on a PhD level have issues of multicultural counseling infused throughout. This has become an accepted way to address multicultural counseling, to have all courses address multicultural considerations course specifically, as opposed to having one general course. Abreu, Chung and Atkinson (2000) also recommend an integrated model of multicultural training, where the topic is infused in the entire curriculum, integrating didactic and experiential training in every subject of the program. The other consideration is volume of courses that are needed to meet CACREP standards and the unavailable space to insert a Multicultural Counseling specific course.
Hills, H. I., & Strozier, A. L. (1992). Multicultural training in APA-approved counseling psychology programs: A survey. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 23(1), 43. doi: 10.1037/0735-7028.23.1.43
Abreu, J. M., Chung, R. H. G., & Atkinson, D. R. (2000). Multicultural Counseling Training Past, Present, and Future Directions. The Counseling Psychologist, 28(5), 641-656. doi: 10.1177/0011000000285003
Trish,
DeleteI am so glad that you brought this issue of multicultural counseling in this discussion. I have also been pondering on it for a while now. As a matter of fact, I almost sent an email to Dr. Sosin to ask why Liberty PhD program has not yet introduced a course in Multicultural to prepare students for a multicultural world that needs competent counselors, capable of providing effective individuals from any cultural group in our society and even abroad as some have expressed they plan to do.
I wonder how we are expected to teach and/or work with people whose cultures differ from ours if the equipping/training institutions, i.e., Liberty University is not yet ready to start the conversation and yet multiculturalism counseling and training is required by CACREP and ACA.
Sue, Arredondo and McDavis (1992) pointed out the following ethical issues that make it clear that counselors without training or competence in working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds are unethical and potentially harmful and actually borders on a violation of human rights.
The provision of professional services to persons of culturally diverse backgrounds by persons not competent in understanding and providing professional services to such groups shall be considered unethical (Korman, 1974, p. 105)
A serious moral vacuum exists in the delivery of cross-cultural counseling and therapy services because the values of a dormant culture has been imposed on the culturally different consumer. Cultural differences complicate the definitions of guidelines even for the unconscientious and well intentioned counselor and therapist. (Pedersen & Marsella, 1982, p. 498)
Based on these two statement on ethical implications on multicultural counseling, one would think that Liberty University would have come on board to address this national and/ or international challenge for mental health providers.
Reference
Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R.J. (1992). Multicultural Counseling Competencies and Standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70(4), 477-486.
Steven and Trish, you bring up some good points regarding the multicultural standards and addressing them through one class or as objectives in many classes. There are some creative ways for students to engage in a multicultural experience as an assignment substitution. For example, I am planning to travel to Ukraine next Spring with a group of students desiring to use their counseling skills to help provide crisis informed and attachment informed psycho-educational interventions to orphans that have aged out of Ukranian orphanages without being adopted. Part of the trip will involve learning about the culture and the itinerary includes one day that is "a day in the life" of a staff member who works with a counseling related ministry that seeks to provide supportive services to these orphans. This is available as an assignment substitution or an independent study for student wanting to gain international counseling experience. In addition, Dr. Brooks is planning to take a trip to Greece for counseling outreach as well, this may also include a multicultural learning opportunity. Of course, there are many other ways to integrate multicultural learning locally, however, if you would like to supplement your multicultural learning with a cultural immersion project please consider some of these learning opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThese trips to other counties, I believe create ample opportunities to learn other cultures first hand for those who have time and cannot afford to travel. I have heard of several opportunities that Liberty provides to students to travel to other cultures, i.e., Rwanda to provide care to victims of the Rwanda Genocide that happened in 1994. I believe these trips are making incredible and positive impact on the participants and I plan to participate in some of these trips in the future. Despite the effort made by Liberty to deliver services to these international cultures, it stills appears like Liberty University is has not yet recognized the need to address the American diversity by training champions for Christ, who possess multicultural competencies to provide counseling and therapy to the American citizens, some of which, come from these counties that students go. United States is a country made of people from Ukraine, Rwanda, Russia and others. These people have made America their new homer and we need to learn how to competently care for them, instead of acting like they do not exist. For these reasons, I support your suggestion that ways of learning multicultural counseling should be integrated locally especially in academic programs like the one we are in, which in my opinion is more fundamental way of learning compared learning it for two weeks overseas.
DeleteTrish and Steven, I appreciate your discussion related to the importance and approaches to preparing counselors and counselor educators to be culturally competent clinicians and counselor educators. There are a plethora of opportunities to use cultural sensitivity and culturally competent counseling approaches, and there is still much left to learn in this area. I do not think there can ever be enough training, even beyond the doctoral level- epistemological humility is important and being a student of other cultures is important. Not only is this an ethical issue and an accreditation issue, but from a Christian world view this is also important. Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Thus, we should seek to train clinicians that can prize and show unconditional positive regard to clients of all backgrounds and that seek first to understand clients with respect to their cultural identity and otherwise (as we learned from Carl Rogers and a person-centered approach).
ReplyDeleteWest, Bubenzer, Cox, and McGlothin (2013) discuss methods for multicultural counseling training (MCT) in counselor education. Since the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) added definitions to the three areas of cultural competencies (awareness, knowledge, and skills) there have been different approaches and training formats for MCT that have emerged. West and colleagues reference that research related to the three multicultural counseling domains of awareness, knowledge, and skills has emerged, however there is still a gap in the literature as to what training approaches are associated with the best outcomes in multicultural competencies (as a side note, this may be a great area of focus for a dissertation).
Some of the strategies used are discussed in an article by Buckly and Foldy (2010) from City University of New York and New York University, respectively. They propose a model to enhance MCT, and indicate some items need to be present for successful training. They emphasize that students need to feel several types of safety including psychological safety and identity safety. In addition, they emphasize that it is important for counselor educators to emphasize that multicultural related competencies involve a lifelong developmental process. They discuss how the percentage of programs that include multicultural counseling courses has increased over time. However, they also note that there has been a focus on self-awareness related to one’s own cultural biases being a deterrent to MCT training. Since self-awareness and reflection can be emotionally exhausting it has sometimes been met with resistance in counseling programs. Buckly and Foldly (2010) also indicate that race has been a missing link in MCT in counseling programs, and they have focused their model on awareness, knowledge and skills related for enhancing race related MCT. Their model is one approach to training and there are other strategies that have been developed as well. This leads me to a lingering question for the class, “As a group of emerging counselor educators and former graduate level counseling students, what strategies have you experienced in the classroom? And which have been most effective at increasing cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, and counseling skills related to working with a multicultural population?”
References
West, J.D., Bubenzer, D., Cox, J.A., & McGlothlin, J. M. (2013). Teaching in Counselor Education: Engaging Students in Learning. Alexandria VA: American Counseling Association.
Buckly, T. & Foldy, E. G. (2010). A Pegagogical model for increasing race related multicultural counseling competency. The Counseling Psychologist, 38 (5), 691-713.
I second what you Trish, Steven and Dr. Knight said, and believe we need a safe and structured space to identify and uncover our own internalized cultural and racial bias during our PhD program. I am black and was a missionary in West Africa for eleven years. In different occasions I was, treated with disrespect or suspicion by new missionaries who thought I was a native. Yet, the missionaries were in Africa because they loved the African people and wanted to share the gospel with them. As Christian counselors, it might be easy to assume that we love every client and that we are culturally competent because we love. Sadly, love might not be enough. Research suggests that when we minimize or deny racism, by declaring that we are color blind, we are more prone to have difficulty dealing with multicultural issues (Johnson & Williams, 2015). Hence, I think a good beginning for us as counselors, independent of the assistance from the program, is to ask ourselves difficult questions concerning race and culture. As we do we can build effective multicultural healing relationships (Kivlighan ,Gelso, Ain, Hummel & Markin, 2015)
DeleteJohnson, A., & Jackson Williams, D. (2015). White racial identity, color-blind racial attitudes, and multicultural counseling competence. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(3), 440.
Kivlighan Jr, D. M., Gelso, C. J., Ain, S., Hummel, A. M., & Markin, R. D. (2015). The therapist, the client, and the real relationship: An actor–partner interdependence analysis of treatment outcome. Journal of counseling psychology, 62(2), 314.
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