Handbook of Counselor Preparation

Constructivist, Developmental, and Experiential Approaches

This definitive single-volume guide is the first of its kind on teaching and developing counselor educator programs that embrace constructivist and developmental theory. Leading scholars and experts offer practical advice on teaching courses in every area of counseling practice. As a result, the book is ideal for current and future counselor educators and supervisors as well as faculty in other helping professions. The authors seek to inspire educators to empower and involve, to risk "losing control" over subject matter, to hear student voices, to pose dilemmas, and to challenge their own assumptions in the presence of their students using constructivist, developmental, and experiential thinking and strategies.

Key Features:

Coverage of the foundations of constructivist and developmental teaching in Part One includes the pedagogies of the classic thinkers in the teaching field, namely John Dewey, Lawrence Kohlberg, and David Kolb, explicit guidelines for teaching, the phases of counselor development, and a primer on six common teaching strategies.

Carefully-crafted guides for teaching in 17 content areas in the counselor education curriculum provide readers with practical "how to" information.

Innovative ideas for counselor education in Part Three offer readers keys to evaluating outcomes in counselor education, expanding technology in the field, and boldly infusing narrative theory into counselor education.

Exercises in constructivist, developmental, and experiential approaches appear in chapters to give readers an opportunity to apply what they have just learned.