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...a developmental counseling and therapy-based consultation model, school counselors can assess how a teacher is conceptualizing a student's behavior, respond to the stress a teacher may feel connected to that behavior, and indirectly effect change in a classroom system.
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The allocation of school counselors' time is among the emphases of comprehensive school counseling program models (e.g., Gysbers & Henderson, 2000). Burnham and Jackson (2000) found that the percentage of time school counselors spend on individual counseling is elevated compared to the recommended percentage discussed by Gysbers and Henderson. Jackson and White (2000) indicated that "requests for individual counseling pose the biggest threat to developmental and preventative counseling programs" (p. 278). Furthermore, they found that teacher referrals for students' individual counseling are frequently guided by the belief that the school counselor's role is to solve students' current behavior problems rather than to prevent future problems. Offering to serve as a consultant to a teacher is one way that school counselors can reframe referral requests into an opportunity to intervene at the systems level and emphasize prevention.
Consultation is an integral activity for school counselors working in comprehensive, developmental programs. They can use consultative techniques to provide both responsive services and system support (American School Counselor Association, 2005). For example, a school counselor can respond to a teacher's request for consultation regarding a student concern, and through that interaction the teacher might gain skills, knowledge, or insight that can help him or her to be better prepared to respond to or prevent a similar situation in the future (Parsons & Kahn, 2005). Thus, consultation can be both a preventative measure (Jackson & White, 2000) and an efficient use of a school counselor's time (Brigman, Mullis, Webb, & White, 2005; Parsons & Kahn).
Through consultation with a teacher, school counselors can target the individual who is most likely in a position to effect change in the classroom environment. If a teacher implements changes that make the classroom system function more effectively, then the frequency or intensity of some student behaviors may decrease (Marzano & Marzano, 2003). Changing the system not only may help a student to make immediate behavioral changes but also might help a student to sustain those changes (Ivey, 1991). Furthermore, classroom management affects not only the student identified in the referral but also the class as a whole and has a substantial effect on students' achievement (Marzano & Marzano; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993).
TEACHERS' STRESS
There is a plethora of literature indicating that students' behavior and classroom discipline are significant sources of teachers' stress (Kyriacou, 2001; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Wiley, 2000). Specifically, student behaviors that are emotionally charged and social (e.g., impulsivity, anxiety, hostility, and aggressiveness) rather than academic in nature are the "most significant and universal of teaching stressors" (Greene, Abidin, & Kmetz, 1997, p. 240). Although there is limited agreement on the definition of stress in the education literature, Wiley, in a synthesis of research on teachers' stress, offered the definition "job related factors [that] interact with the worker to change her psychological or physiological condition such that she is forced to deviate from normal functioning" (p. 1). It may be important to address the stress that some teachers feel in relation to student behavior because stress may impact a teacher's ability to manage a classroom effectively (Wiley).
Greene et al. (1997) hypothesized that the stress teachers experience relative to student behavior is both person-specific and situation-specific. These characteristics of teachers' stress are among the factors that might guide school counselors toward considering developmental counseling and therapy (DCT) as a basis for a consultation with teachers. DCT parallels Green et al.'s hypothesis; the way an individual initially makes meaning and emotionally experiences a situation can be person- and situation-specific (Ivey, Ivey, Myers, & Sweeney, 2005). Applying DCT to consultation is likely to help school counselors respond to the person- or situation-specific emotional experience of teachers while helping teachers to consider alternate ways of understanding and working with student behaviors that may be stressful.
DEVELOPMENTAL COUNSELING AND THERAPY
Developmental counseling and therapy and the assessment of meaning making are grounded in Piagetian theory and the metaphorical interpretation of Plato's allegory of the cave (Ivey, Ivey, Myers, et al., 2005; Myers, 1998). DCT offers a means of clinical assessment and intervention, which has been successfully adapted to serve a variety of populations (Cashwell, Myers, & Shurts, 2004; Ivey, 1991; Ivey et al.; Myers; Myers, Shoffner, & Briggs, 2002). A relevant strength of DCT is the speed through which a counselor who is proficient in the use of this theory can assess how an individual makes meaning of a specific situation and expand his or her understanding, "build a more solid foundation," or "reach more complex ways of thinking" (Ivey et al., p. 140). The theory's strength in developing more complex ways of making meaning out of a situation and the generalization of learning is likely to meet the goals of school-based consultation (e.g., helping teachers to become more self-reliant problem solvers; Brigman et al., 2005). Four primary cognitive developmental modalities are...
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