Abstract:

The assessment of student progress throughout counselor education training has been problematic in that earlier efforts have focused on content and skill mastery but did not attempt to assess belief or attitudinal change as the result of training. Within the field of counselor education there has emerged some discussions about assessments of the counselor candidates’ dispositions besides their academic achievement. This assertion supported by the 2009 Standards of the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the national accrediting body for programs of counselor training (CACREP, 2009). These standards, to a large extent state that accredited programs are required to establish and maintain “a developmental, systematic assessment of each student’s progress throughout the program, including consideration of the student’s academic performance, professional development, and personal development”. These standards describe an expectation that students in all education-related fields develop dispositions and that these behaviors and attitudes be observed and evaluated in educational settings. The aim of the study was to describe how dispositions in counselor education can be defined, how these dispositions can be developed or enriched, and how they can be assessed. The implication is that such assessment efforts would in some way contribute to effective and competent practitioners in future

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