Tutors’ stories of personal development training – attempting to maximize the learning potential

Abstract

This paper uses a narrative approach to examine some of the dilemmas that counselling trainers face when designing and running personal development activities as part of a Diploma in Counselling training programme. The research emerges from a focus group discussion by the tutors involved in piloting and evaluating an experimental personal development training programme. The themes examined include: the strengths and weaknesses of unstructured group work; whether structured activities helped quieter members to participate and learn more; how trainers can evaluate and assess students learning in relation to personal development in order to maximize student learning potential. The aim is to invite debate and further re-tellings from other counselling trainers and practitioners in the field.

Keywords:

• Personal development
• counselling training
• assessment
• narrative approaches