Los contenidos de formación de los profesionales de la orientación educativa desde la perspectiva de los propios orientadores

Authors

Daniel Anaya NietoSalto de línea Juan Carlos Pérez-GonzálezSalto de línea José Manuel Suárez RiveiroSalto de línea UNED. Facultad de Educación. Departamento MIDE II. Madrid, España

DOI

10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2011-356-053

Abstract

School Counselor’s Training Domains from the Practitioners’ Point of View

This study explores educational guidance practitioners’ opinions about the importance of diverse training areas in preparing highly competent school counsellors. It focuses also on the training needs currently felt by these professionals. The study is based on a nationwide Spanish sample composed of 568 educational guidance practitioners currently working at the pre-school, primary school, compulsory secondary school and non-compulsory secondary school levels. The data collection tool is a new instrument specifically designed for this study, the Counsellors’ Training Needs Scale. Correlation analysis, factor analysis, descriptive statistics and mean differences are employed in data analysis. According to our results, practitioners assign the greatest importance to the training domain of the treatment of diversity (i.e., an approach to teaching that pays attention to how to address students’ individual differences and cultural diversity), mainly the specific training domains of treatment of students with behavioural problems, treatment of students with mental, sensorial or motor skill disorders and treatment of immigrant students. Likewise, in order to prepare highly competent school counsellors, practitioners also appreciate the importance of the following training domains: guidance of learning and personal development; family counselling; occupational guidance; methods and resources for educational diagnosis; and programme design, application and evaluation. The training needs currently demanded by practitioners basically focus on the treatment of diversity, with special emphasis on students with behavioural problems and immigrant students with no knowledge of Spanish. The results highlight the priorities to be followed in order to design undergraduate education programmes for school counsellors within the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and to offer continuing education plans that answer these professionals’ training needs.

Keywords

Counsellor training, undergraduate education, continuing education, career development, educational counselling, school guidance, school counsellor.