School counsellors' and teachers' perceptions of their students' problems: Shared and divergent views

Abstract

Primary objective: This study investigates how school counsellors and teachers perceive their adolescent students’ problems and identifies the professional practices that allow them to understand and deal with these problems. Methods and procedures: An open-ended questionnaire was administered to 38 Israeli senior-high school counsellors and to 38 homeroom teachers working in educational institutions representing a variety of Jewish Israeli student populations. Results: Learning problems were identified by the counsellors and teachers as the main challenges for the students. The majority of the counsellors attribute students’ problems to the individuals themselves relying mainly on teachers’ reports. Teachers base their perceptions and assessments on direct observation of their students’ behaviours. Conversational techniques are the most preferred professional practices for tackling students’ problems. Conclusions: The importance of collaboration and team work between school counsellors and teachers and the parameters relevant for developing and promoting this collaboration more effectively are proposed and discussed.

Keywords:

• Counselling practices
• counsellor-teacher collaboration
• school counselling
• students' problems
• teachers' perceptions

Notes

This research was presented at the Association for Counsellor Supervision and Education (ACES) Conference that was held in October, 2007, Columbus, Ohio.