Introduction
The educational system presents many opportunities and challenges for consultation, from the diversity of the classroom and school cultures to varying problems, needs, and goals of teachers, parents, and students. Therefore, school psychologists and counselors need to be prepared to provide consultation and yet, there is some evidence that suggests that the current state of consultation training for school psychologists and counselors may not be sufficient and prepare them to be skilled consultants. Newman, Barrett, and Hazel conducted the study School Consultation Practices in the Early Career: Does Training Matter? This study investigated the link between school psychologists’ consultation training at the pre-service level and the enactment of the consultant role in schools during the early career (Newman, Barrett & Hazel, 2015, pg. 327).
Summary
The authors began the article with providing their readers with a substantial amount of information about the current state of consultation training, this included a literature review regarding the research that suggests that the current state of consultation training is deficient. The literature that the authors shared was descriptive research, and in that research, it was exposed that the participants in all of the studies felt that they were not adequately trained consultants.
Newman, Barrett, and Hazel then provided their readers with the idea that maybe consultation skills can be generalized from other domains. For example, it is understood that common counseling skills such as open vs. closed question asking, summarizing, unconditional positive regard, empathy, reflecting feelings, and active listening are useful in consultation practices (Nystul, 2016; Scott, Royal & Kissinger, 2015). However, this idea is quickly disputed. The authors then wrap up their literature review by reiterating that there are significant gaps in educational consultation training and that there is a need for more up-to-date training on this topic. The authors also introduced the research question for their study and their hypotheses. The research question was, “How does pre-service-level consultation training impact current consultation practices, if at all?” (Newman, Barrett & Hazel, 2015, pg. 330).
Sample
After the research question and hypotheses were defined, the methods of the study were presented. The sample included 262 school psychologists who had worked less than 5 years. On average, participants had practiced 3.76 years (SD=1.37), were between 26 and 30 years old (58%), were predominately White (89%), female (87%), had non-doctoral degrees (83%), and worked full time in the public school setting. Not every state was represented in this sample. Most of the participants were from the southern states (Scott, Royal & Kissinger, 2015, pg. 332).
Procedure
The participants were then sent a link to an electronic survey, depending on their organization they were either sent the direct link or the link was sent to their organization and the organization distributed the survey to the appropriate participants. The survey included informed consent, which explained the purpose of the study and provided the definition of consultation that was used to develop the electronic survey. A follow-up message was sent two weeks later to all of the participants/organizations who had not completed the survey. In hopes to increase the response rate, the participants were promised that one dollar would be donated to the NAS Minority Scholarship Fund for each completed survey. Additionally, participants could enter an anonymous drawing to win one of two copies of all four volumes of NASP’s Best Practices in School Psychology book series (Newman, Barrett & Hazel, 2015, pg. 333).
Survey Development
Items and scales were developed based on prior research from the field of consultation training. In addition, experts in school consultation provided feedback and the researchers conducted cognitive interviews to get feedback regarding how participants understood and responded to the survey items. Changes were made fittingly. Then, an 8-point Likert scale was developed to assess the pre-service level of consultation training. The survey also measured the frequency of consultations over one academic-year, confidence in current consultation practice, and perceived ability to achieve change in clients, consultees, and systems (Newman, Barrett & Hazel, 2015, pg. 333-334). Descriptive statistics were evaluated and five separate regression models, one for each variable (frequency of consultations over one academic-year, confidence in current consultation practice, and perceived ability to achieve change in clients, consultees, and systems), were estimated to answer the research questions.
Results
The authors explain that this study and its results provide a descriptive overview of the current state of consultation training. In brief, the study’s results reported that the lack of pre-service-level consultation training does impact current consultation practices.
MacKenzie’s Critique & Response of Article
Critique
Overall, this study was completed well, however, there were some limitations. The one that seems most prominent is the fact that the survey was conducted via email. This is a limitation because of the many disadvantages that go along with online surveys. Disadvantages include higher rates of dishonesty, differences in understanding/interpreting the questions, lack of personalization, and unopened questions (Dubois, 2016).
Response
This article found that many educational consultants, specifically early school psychologists, are not adequately trained in consultation. However, from texts like Counselor as Consultant, we know that an extensive knowledge of consultation models, stages, skills, and context are necessary to be a competent and confident consultant. With that being said, more training and education in consultation is essential to create these competent and confident educational consultants. Now, the big question is, what does more training and education in consultation look like?
Ingraham (2017) emphasizes more intensive supervision once consultants in-training begin working with real consultation cases. Supervision could include consultation feedback with recorded consultation sessions. The purpose of these sessions is to create a supportive learning environment, as well as provide scaffolding for consultants in training (Ingraham, 2016). This idea is very similar to a counselor in training recording sessions and then receiving feedback from their supervisor. She also suggests the idea of deconstructing the consultation session. This is when the counselor in training analyzes the consultation session by asking themselves multiple questions regarding the consultee’s needs, the consultant’s ability to help, and potential outcomes after the session is complete (Ingraham, 2016).
Another big concern that came to mind when reading this article was if early consultants do not feel properly trained and educated; should they be consulting? The ACA (2005) would tell the consultant to not take on roles that he or she does not have the expertise, training, education, or experience to do. With that being said, perhaps consultants who do not feel confident and competent should stop providing consultations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this article presented information regarding early educational consultants and their lack of training and education. This research shows the lack of consultation education and training does impact the consultant’s consultation practice. The research had minimal limitations. In addition, the utility of this article is that it demonstrates a need for more education and training supports for consultants in training and/or pre-service consultants.