Evaluative Advice in Educational Counseling: The Use of Disagreement in the "Stepwise Entry" to Advice

Abstract

This article analyzes advice giving in counseling within labor market training. A stepwise entry to advice has previously been studied in settings in which professionals display expert perspectives on "officially" recommended courses of action. In these settings, elicitation of the advisee's perspective enables the professional to fit their advice with it, create alignment between the perspectives, and minimize resistance. This article shows how the pattern works in a setting in which the counselor's role is that of a facilitator of learning; 2 variations of the pattern are discussed. The 1st shows how it is used to establish a point that justifies advice concerning the student's career-related decisions. The 2nd variation, the main focus, shows how the counselor uses the pattern to evaluate the student's plans, thus gaining an argumentatively advantageous position for the advice.