An Evaluation of the Getz - Roanoke County School Division's School Counselor Peer Group Clinical Supervision Program

• Main Author: Agnew, David T.
• Other Authors: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: clinical supervision; school counselor
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/30534; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-42998-10212/

(G-PGCS) was designed and implemented for K-6 school counselors. G-PGCS began in the fall of 1994 and has continued to the present; however, there have been no studies on the effects of the program. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative evaluation of G-PGCS. The evaluation participants included current Roanoke County K-5 school counselors, and selected administrators. The sources of data for the evaluation were interviews, an informal observation, program documents, Semantic Differential Scales (SDS) designed for this evaluation, the Job Satisfaction Blank (JSB; Hoppock, 1935), a counselor burnout SDS (Cummings and Nall, 1983), video tapes of G-PGCS sessions and responses to an anonymous memorandum. As a result of participation in G-PGCS, the K-5 counselors interviewed reported gains in counseling skills, positive professional changes, and personal growth. JSB and burnout SDS means of the G-PGCS counselors indicated that they have a high job satisfaction and low counselor burnout levels. G-PGCS could have contributed to high JSB and low SDS burnout scores, but further study is needed in this area. Strengths of G-PGCS were increased peer support and self-awareness, learning new counseling techniques and skills, G-PGCS supervision feedback, and a greater sense of professionalism. In addition, administrative support, training, and structure were cited as strengths. The SDS also confirmed the gains and strengths of G-PGCS. Group membership and/or dynamics was cited as a weakness because some of the counselors wanted to change group membership periodically. The other two weaknesses were the lack of adequate time for clinical supervision and the need for more clinical supervision training. No weaknesses of G-PGCS were found in the statistical analysis of the SDS. With administrative support and modifications, G-PGCS can be replicated to meet the clinical supervision needs of school counselors. Further research including an experimental pre- and post- observation study is needed to find specific G-PGCS program gains. === Ph. D.