Unit information: Professional Issues in Educational Counselling in 2013/14

Unit name	Professional Issues in Educational Counselling
Unit code	EDUCM5195
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Professor. Tim Bond
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Education
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit provides an opportunity to critically reflect on professional issues encountered by counsellors in educational settings and the professional norms that inform the responses. It will consider cultural factors; professional ethics; inter-professional collaboration; counselling supervision; and, continuing professional development.

This unit aims to:

• Provide an overview of the core professional issues and infrastructure involved in offering help by the use of counselling skills in educational settings

• Enable students to develop a critical appreciation of different approaches to providing counselling support in educational settings

• Identify on the basis of reasoned analysis a set of professional strategies and infrastructure, including ethics, appropriate to the culture, educational context and purpose of the service in which the student intends to work

• Develop students’ experience and evaluation on the use of counselling supervision

• Enable students to make realistic plans for their on-going professional development

Intended Learning Outcomes

The students will be able to:

• Identify the appropriate professional requirements and infrastructure for the service in which they intend to practice

• Demonstrate ethical-decision making skills relevant to their cultural and institutional context

• Develop a basic competence in the use of counselling supervision and an ability to evaluate this

• Undertake a learning needs analysis for their application of counselling skills and produce a plan for their on-going professional development

Teaching Information

A variety of approaches to learning and teaching will be used including: tutor input, small group discussion, experiential work particularly focussed on the use of supervision, case studies, student led seminars and presentations, the use of audiovisual materials.

The needs of a wide range of students, including those with disabilities, international students and those from ethnic minority backgrounds have been considered. It is not anticipated that the teaching and assessment methods used will cause disadvantage to any person taking the unit. The Graduate School of Education is happy to address individual support requests as necessary.

Assessment Information

Students will undertake a number of preparatory exercises during the unit to prepare them for this assessment which will be supported by group discussion and formative feedback.

The assessed work will consist of the equivalent of a 4,000 word assignment which examines a professional issue in depth by setting out the context, analyses theoretical and practical dimensions of the selected issue informed by examples, and makes recommendations on the basis of reasoned argument on the optimum way of managing the issue. The topic will be agreed in advance with a tutor.

Reading and References

• Bond, T. (2nd ed.) (2000) Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action. London, Sage

• Campbell, E (2003) The Ethical Teacher. Maidenhead, Open University Press

• Claxton G., Pollard A. and Sutherland R. (eds.) (2003) Learning and Teaching Where Worldviews Meet. London, Trentham Books

• Hawkins, P. and Shohet. R. (3rd ed.) (2006) Supervision in the Helping Professions. Maidenhead, Open University Press

• Lago, C. (2nd ed.) (2006) Race, Culture and Counselling: the ongoing challenge. Buckingham, Open University Press

• Trahar, S. (ed.) (2006) Narrative Research on Learning: comparative and international perspectives. Oxford, Symposium Books