Introduction
This paper will analyze classroom review protocol as an assessment tool for high school counselors. Assessment is an important activity that helps implementers of any given program to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the strategies used in implementation. A proper assessment process must follow predefined steps to test the level of achievement. High school counselors use a number of tools to assess student’s needs as well as the impact of the counseling to their clients.
There is a number of qualitative tools school counselors use to measure the level of student achievement. The tools include; “classroom observation protocols, anecdotal reports, questionnaires and open-ended rated scales Whiston” (2009). In this paper, the writer examines assessment by the tool developers and its reviews by other scholars regarding effectiveness and application to different populations. The relevance of the tool in guiding one on making an informed ethical judgment when using the tool to different groups of clients will also be examined.
Classroom Observation Protocols
Educational policy makers influence huge investments towards the improvement of education. Such investments in the modern days have been more in equipping schools with computers and ensuring internet connection to schools. To justify the huge investments in this sector, there is need to evaluate the impact realized in education as a result of the investment. Classroom observation protocols have largely been used as a tool to evaluate the impact of the various classroom practices.
The tool is carried out through different approaches; Anastasi & Urbina (1997) suggest that “checklists, open minded questions, holistic ratings, rubrics, models and conceptual grids” can be used to carry out classroom observation protocols. As an assessment tool, classroom observation finds wider application in other subjects such as mathematics and sciences. School counselors significantly use the tool to assist students find solutions to both academic and social problems.
Anastasi & Urbina (1997) indicate that in applying classroom observation protocols, counselors examine the student’s general behavior such as; body language, communication skills and skills to cooperate with peers. Eye contact is the most important aspect in regard to body language. Other body language aspects include; facial expressions, gestures and posture. Communication skills assessed include; listening skills, ability to interact well with others, appropriate responses to conversations, giving complements and courtesy. Cooperative skills reflect ones ability to join and fit well in groups.
Teachers are in position to make valuable observations regarding their student’s behavior through classroom interaction. Based on individual learning abilities, teachers should observe, evaluate and diagnose social and psychological difficulties of learners in class. It is by understanding the class dynamics that the teacher can be able to address their needs such as helping them to make informed career choices and solve social problems. Whiston (2009) points out that by observing learners in class, teachers can appreciate the influence of classroom environment to student’s learning.
Bartram (2001) also supports classroom observation protocols as a strategy which teachers can use to provide effective learning to students. Many observers have often faulted the tool as ineffective since there are many environmental and individual factors that may affect learners in a classroom. It is important however that particular important attributes that can easily sampled out can be used to make valuable conclusions and develop an effective solution for the student.
Proponents of this tool support its effectiveness based on the fact that learners are constantly confined to same learning environment; they are under consistent interaction with their teachers. Observation protocol rate highly as pointed out by Reynolds & Kamphaus (2003) learners with excellent or above-average social skills than those with social and psychological problems. Maruish (2004) indicates that teachers spend more time offering correctional measures to students with social problems than guiding them on academic related issues.
Learner’s observable characters such as; concentration can clearly indicate to the teacher whether the learner is learning or not. Lack of concentration in class by learners is largely attributed to diverted attention or boredom as a result of the way the lesson is conducted. There is however a tendency where students loose concentration in class as a result of engaging their mind to other activities outside class.
Effectiveness of Observation Protocols to Different Clients
A school counselor, serves clients drawn from diverse social backgrounds, while assessing the effectiveness of a given tool special attention is focused to its applicability to different clientele. Culture is the main cause of behavior variance among people; a good assessment tool should be established on multicultural approach. As Maruish (2004) points out, most school counselors are not equipped to handle clients from different cultural backgrounds.
Training institutions have tried to integrate multicultural issues in curriculums to make their counseling trainees equipped to competently handle multi-cultural issues. Even with this integration Reynolds & Kamphaus (2003) argue that there is little evidence to suggest that trained counselors are competently equipped to handle issues on multi-culture. The inability by the teachers to handle multicultural issues has largely been established through observation protocols. Often there is little or no change as a result of counseling on multicultural issues.
Bartram (2001) indicates that the ability of counseling teachers to effectively deal with issues of racialism, ethnicity is below average. Problems of attitude on the side of the teachers based on these issues seem to obscure the main goal in counseling. Some counseling teachers have formed attitudes towards particular multicultural issues such as; ethnicity, racialism, tribalism, and other factors of segregation.
Observation protocols provide first hand information with regard to observable human features such as; behavior, cooperative skills and communication skills. It is a tool that does not require any professional skills to apply. All that is required to gather information from a particular subject is keenness in observing changes in particular behavior stimuli. Accurate conclusions can easily be drawn up from observations and appropriate course of action taken to develop a remedy.
Ethical Issues in Classroom Observation Protocols
School counselors work within school settings, often with special offices from where they offer counseling services to students. Besides the office, they also interact with learners in classrooms. Main counseling issues dealt with by school counselors include; career choices, behavior change, vocational advice and social and emotional disorders. Many of these issues are very sensitive; victims of such issues are not comfortable letting others know about them. Counselors are under obligation to assure their clients of confidentiality. They must not at any cost share their client’s issues with other people as this can aggravate the problem even more if the client gets to learn of it.
“The American Psychological Association and Code of conduct” provides guidelines on how counselors should go about to offer counseling services. The code requires that recommendations provided by counselors be verifiable. According to standard 9 on assessment, a counselor should provide the opinion of ones “psychological characteristics only after adequately examining the individual” (American Counseling Association, 2005). This is to ensure that the conclusions and recommendations made are reliable and valid.
The code also provides that counselors use assessment tools that have been tested and are applicable to members of given groups. Observation protocols however find wide application to varied clients. The features that are observed by counselors to establish their psychological characteristics are standardized. This makes it easy to pin point the client’s problems. Defective aspects of communication skills, cooperation skills and behavior are well standardized among human beings and can identified without difficulty.
One of the shortcomings with observations protocols is the tendency for counselors to undermine the need to seek consent from their clients. The ethics code under assessment, standard 9.03 requires “counselors to obtain consent from their clients before administering a test to them” (American Counseling Association, 2005) This is especially necessary in cases where the test results are to be used for purposes of job qualification, law requirement or any such purposes. Classroom observation protocols can be administered to a client without necessarily seeking their consent.
Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated that classroom observation protocols as an assessment tool can be significantly used by school counselors. Besides, the tool is also used for assessment in mathematics and sciences. Observation protocols provide counselors with an opportunity to obtain first hand information about their client’s psychological characteristics. Since teachers are in constant interaction with students, it is easier for them to use observation protocols to assess their psychological problems.
The paper has also established that many counselors are not competent to handle multicultural issues because of personal attitude. It has further been established that observation protocols may highly compromise the ethics code requirement to obtain consent from the clients. The tool can however be universally applied to clients from different background without modification.
Reference List
American Counseling Association. (2005). ACA code of ethics. Web.
Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Bartram, D. (2001). The Development of International Guidelines on Test Use: The International Test Commission Project. International Journal of Testing, 1(1), 33- 53. Web.
Maruish, M., E. (2004). The use of psychological testing for treatment planning and outcome assessment, (Vol. 3, 3rd Ed). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Reynolds, C., R. & Kamphaus, R., W. (2003). Handbook of Psychological and Educational Assessment of Children Intelligence, Aptitude and Achievement. New York: Guildford Press.
Whiston, S., C. (2009). Principles and Applications of Assessment in Counseling (3rd ed.). Belmont: Cengage Learning.