We are used to thinking about the key competencies of the New Zealand National Curriculum in relation to classroom teaching, but what do we see when we look at key competency learning in the counselling room?
If, as claimed, they are “the key to learning in every area,” how do the following key competencies emerge in counselling in secondary schools:
• Thinking?
• Using language symbols and texts?
• Managing self?
• Relating to others?
• Participating and contributing?
Three secondary school counsellors, in three different schools, who are part of a team researching their practice in relation to the key competencies, answer questions about their research.
What evidence have you found that key competency learning is present in your counselling work?
For a term each of us recorded every counselling session we held, noting the key competencies that came into focus during that session. Over three hundred sessions were evaluated using a common grid. What we found was that the key competencies were obviously present in every session thus validating the curriculum statement that “people use these key competencies to live, learn, work and contribute as active members of their communities.” Of course the mere fact that we found clear evidence that they were present in our counselling conversations did not automatically mean that learning around those key competences was occurring. We needed to look further.
What did you find?
Our counselling conversations with students fore-grounded one or more of the key competencies which in turn became prime locations of learning and were identifiable as such. For each of us, the key competencies of managing self, relating to others and thinking were recorded as the most common, in that order. We also found that all the key competencies were in evidence both as means – that is, as a way of achieving an outcome – and as an outcome in itself.
How exactly were these key competencies foregrounded in your counselling conversations?
As we focused on what students brought to the counselling, became curious about their experience and empathically asking questions that helped them explore widely and deeply, one or more key competencies emerged. It was never a case of imposing a key competency because there was never a need to do so. Key competencies were embedded in the students’ stories and naturally revealed themselves as they were deeply listened and responded to. The students’ lives and experiences became the curriculum where learning took place. Nor could we pre-guess what key competency would be fore-grounded, based on the problem students brought to counselling because each student’s response to their problem was unique.
To illustrate, when working with a student over a series of sessions around anger, different key competencies were fore-grounded in different sessions according to the unique responses of that student. In session one the counselling conversation explored how anger was impacting class work, the rugby team, friends and family, because that is how the problem was presented by the student – the key competency of participating and contributing. In session two, the student, having explored the destructive effects of anger, asked the counsellor for ideas that would help better control anger. Various cognitive strategies were offered and explored – the key competency of thinking. In session three those strategies were built on in terms of learning ways to respond to others that were not aggressive but appropriately assertive – the key competency of relating to others. A fourth session centred around a particular anger-damaged relationship where a letter of apology and hope was co-constructed with the counsellor – the key competency of using language, symbols and text. The fifth session reviewed all that had been put into practice and its resulting impact – the key competency of managing self. In all these sessions other key competencies were present both as means and ends, but one or two always emerged as the primary ones, around which learning conversations developed.
Is there anything about these (counselling) learning conversations that are transferable to the classroom setting, or are they unique to the counselling room?
Some are unique because that uniqueness is embedded in the counselling/client relationship. For example, the degree of confidentiality available to the student adds a boundary of safety to conversations and encourages a depth of exploration, and therefore learning, that may not happen without it. Also, counsellors are in the privileged position where most of their clients are self-referred – students make an independent decision to come for a specific purpose. This makes voluntary commitment to their learning more likely. The counsellor does not have a disciplinary/punishment role which makes differently rigorous conversations possible. In addition to these role differences, there is a host of specialist counselling skills and knowledge that contribute to the learning that happens in counselling relationships. All these things combine to make the counselling room a unique learning environment in the school. Having said that, there are important aspects of the learning environment in counselling that are transferable in to the more public space of the classroom. We mention four.
Creating an emotionally safe environment enhances learning. This is just as true in the classroom as it is in the counselling room. Fear of ridicule or embarrassment around learning inhibits genuine inquiry. In fact, so much so, that in the counselling situation where going to the counsellor is typically optional, students will not even elect to go unless they think they will be emotionally safe. While turning up to class is typically not optional for students our experience in the counselling room suggests that learning will be significantly compromised if students feel emotionally unsafe due to relationship factors in the classroom.
Conversations with students that identify existing levels of a key competency and, most importantly, explore how this knowledge was developed, empower students by building confidence, motivation and the understanding for further learning. A certain alertness is required to see examples of the key competencies in our students’ lives and explore those with them. Signs of key competences are everywhere, both in the words and actions of our students and are often unrecognised. For example, when we as counsellors begin to view the mere action of a student coming to see us as a possible example of the key competency of managing self, transformative and hopeful conversations will often open up. This was illustrated by a student with depression who made an appointment to see the counsellor rather than cutting herself, which was her usual response to feelings of hopelessness or despair. The sense of utter surprise when she realised that she had broken a usual pattern was the dawning of a hope that she might be able to continue to manage herself differently. From noticing such key competencies in students’ behaviour, and naming them, conversations that strengthen and support a fragile key competency can begin to emerge. Teachers as well as counsellors are in a position to notice key competencies in students and have such conversations.
Exploration that arises from students’ interests is more likely to sustain motivation for genuine and transformative learning. While this may be easier in counselling rooms where it is clients who bring the curriculum, it is increasingly common in classrooms for students to elect topics for research that are of interest to themselves. Our experience in the counselling room of intense student engagement arises significantly from this factor and suggests this is well worth structuring for in the classroom.
Involving students in evaluation of their own learning creates powerful learning. In our counselling students were typically invited into a position of curiosity where they were researchers on their own behaviour and evaluators as to whether what they learned in the counselling room worked in real life and why or why not. The team developed Key Competency Sort Cards, which were used as one way to help students reflect on their counselling learning experience. It was an empowering and enjoyable experience for students as they identified and illustrated from their own life, their learning around these key competencies. In the classroom, external criteria often compete with self-reflection and self-evaluation, the latter often being seen as having far less status in the school system by students. It may take special effort by teachers for students to lift the status and value of self evaluation in their mind but our counselling room experience would suggest that it is worth the effort.
NOTE.
This research was made possible because of a TLRI grant. These research awards require collaboration between university researchers and practitioners. The research team in this project is made up of: Dr Kathie Crocket, Dr Elmarie Kotze, Colin Hughes, Alison Burke and Judith Graham.