Accountability has become a key issue in the delivery of human
services, and counsellors have been challenged to demonstrate that what
they do makes a difference and that what they do meets the needs of the
system in which they work. Thus proponents of the consultancy model such
as Dinkmeyer (1973) have urged counsellors to move from the crisis-oriented
approach in which only a few benefit from counsellor services to a
consultative role which involves the counsellor with the total system.
In 1979 the author was appointed to the Metropolitan West District of Sydney. This is an area with many social problems such as high
unemployment, single parent families and families receiving social welfare
benefits.
Many students attending school are adversely affected by their home
environment. To compound the problem a difference in value systems exists
between home and school, which is a source of frustration to both teachers
and students. As a result many children were referred for counselling
because they were behaviour problems in the classroom. It was not possible
for the counsellor to see all the students referred so other strategies
needed to be employed.
From discussions with teachers concerning the management of
students who were behaviour problems it became apparent that teacher
training had left them ill-equipped to deal with the student behaviours they
were facing.
A Classroom Management and Interpersonal Skills programme was
designed and presented to a group of Primary school teachers in one of the
schools to which the author was appointed.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme was based on the
statistical analysis of pretest and post-test measures of teachers and
students of those teachers participating in the programme.
In addition to reporting on outcomes of the programme this study
provides a theoretical rationale for its development.
The statistical evidence does not strongly support the effectiveness of
the programme. However there are some trends, particularly in the
teacher data, which suggest that the programme was effective in bringing
about teacher attitude change towards students.
Teachers' written evaluations of the programme, together with
informal feedback, indicate the programme was successful in providing
some of the answers to behaviour problems which occur in the classroom.
A corollary to the presentation of the programme has been a
reduction in the number of children referred to the author as "behaviour
problems".
This has provided more time to work with infant children and parents,
both counsellor functions which the administrative staff see as significant,
and to continue in the role as a consultant to teachers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218865 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Crossing, Helen, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Helen Crossing |
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