An investigation of the utilization of the counselor's time in the schools of Newfoundland and Labrador and its relationship to selected professional criteria

Bishop, Albert Walter (1974) An investigation of the utilization of the counselor's time in the schools of Newfoundland and Labrador and its relationship to selected professional criteria. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The objectives of this study were to examine the actual and ideal roles of the school counselors of Newfoundland and Labrador and to discover any significant relationships between these roles and, the counselor’s professional experience, his educational background in guidance, and counseling, and factors existing within the counselor’s educational setting which might limit performance of an appropriate counselor role. -- From a theoretical background developed from related literature, fourteen hypotheses were presented in null form indicating that no significant differences existed between the counselor’s actual and ideal roles and the counselor’s professional experience, his educational background in guidance and counseling, and factors in his educational setting. Each hypothesis was divided into two sections for the actual and ideal roles respectively. -- The population of the study involved all of the fifty-six counselors of Newfoundland and Labrador and their fifty-three principals. The counselors indicated their professional experience, educational background in guidance and counseling, and rated their actual ideal percentages of time for eight major guidance roles and functions. The principals, in a separate questionnaire, indicated how they believed their counselors should spend their guidance time on the same eight guidance roles and functions. The key findings were: significant differences existed between the counselors’ actual and ideal guidance roles; counselors with different types of professional experience differed significantly in the allocation of their guidance time; counselors with different levels of professional counselor education spent their time differently; the principals and their counselors held similar views on how the counselor should spend his guidance time; and of the five factors considered influential on counselor role within the school setting, three were found to be significant--professional duties, working at one or more than two school levels, and student ratio. Only two of the fourteen hypotheses were fully supported. -- Emerging from the study was the observation that provincial school counselors are not satisfied with some aspects of their roles and a number of counselors are confused over what constitutes an adequate counselor role. It is suggested that the provincial school counselors and their association (School Counselors’ Association of Newfoundland) should work toward defining the role of the school counselor in the province and providing the necessary school atmosphere for an adequate guidance program. In addition, it may be advantageous if all provincial school counselors could be trained at the Master's Degree level in order to achieve a professional level of counselor status and effectiveness in provincial schools.

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