Faculty Contact Information:
1. Telephone: 0033-(0)3-88-22-21-10. I live in France and the first two numbers indicate the country code and the following 0 is only used when calling within France. Otherwise, drop the first 0 when dialing. I have an answering machine and will be able to contact you within 24 hours within the week.
2. Email: My email address is: priceb@faculty.ed.umuc.edu. With the number of students in class writing to me about various issues, it may be helpful to include a summary of any previous correspondence to help my memory.
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Consultation:
Consultation is available by either email or telephone, although email is probably more reliable as I will also be commuting a lot.
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Required Texts and Readings:
Whiston, S. (2000). Principles & Applications of Assessment in Counseling. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Zimmerman,M. (1994). Interview Guide for Evaluating DSM-IV Psychiatric Disorders & the Mental Status Examination. East Greenwich, RI: Psych Products Press.
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Supplementary Readings:
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All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students’ research and writing skills.
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Recommended Journals:
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Course Description:
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This course explores the basic concepts of quantifying behavior including validity, reliability, norms, and methods of expressing test scores statistically. The course emphasizes standardized and non-standardized instruments, methods of communicating test results, and planning the school and non-school testing program. Practice in test interpretation is provided. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: GUCO 510 or EDCP 615.
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Course Goals:
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This course is designed to enable students to become familiar with general theories of counseling as they apply to tests and their measurement. It will assist students in preparing for the comprehensive exam and will prepare them for professional practice.
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Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Respond to verbal and non-verbal behavior of clients so as to facilitate the process of assessment,
2. Identify and assess problems presented by the client,
3. Formulate counseling strategy appropriate to the client’s concerns and needs,
4. Use and interpret various interest inventories, aptitude tests, and other measures related to education and career choices.
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Grading Information:
Students’ performance will be graded based upon a percentage of a total of possible 400 points obtained during the course. In general, it will be necessary to obtain a minimum of 90% of the course points to achieve an A, at least 80% of the points for a B, at least 70% of total possible points for a C, and anything below 70% is a F.
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog. Hard copies of the catalog are available in your local Education Center.
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Course Requirements:
The following course tasks will include:
1. Exams (2 total; 40% of total points).
2. Mental Status Exam Exercises (10%).
3. Appraisal Reports (2 total; 20% of total points).
4. Final Project: Mock Testing Service Proposal (30% of total).
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Description of Course Requirements:
Exams (2 total; 40% of total points). There will be a midterm and a non-comprehensive final exam that will each cover roughly one-half of the course and lecture materials, respectively. The exams will contain fifty multiple-choice items and will address equally the information presented in lectures and in the assigned readings. The instructor retains the privilege of reviewing the test items’ discrimination and difficulty indices to determine whether or not they should be retained and students’ test scores will be raised by the number of items not retained.
Mental Status Exam Exercises (10%). Following discussion on this topic, students will choose two vignettes that will be placed on reserve for review and write a brief (one page) mental status exam of the person.
Appraisal Reports (2 total; 20% of total points). Students will prepare two appraisal reports that include the purpose of the appraisal, the type of formal and informal information sought, the summary and interpretation of the result, and recommendations based upon the finding. The first of these reports will be a self-appraisal, based upon the tests assigned to you for to take during the first two weeks of class.
Final Project: Mock Testing Service Proposal (30% of total). This project requires that you imagine that you have just found your first counseling job after obtaining your degree from UMUC (congratulations!). Your supervisor decides that it would be helpful for your new work setting to have a testing service. You are asked to prepare a 15-20 page proposal that would describe how you would establish such a service for the purpose of persuading the appropriate funding authorities. Your proposal should begin with the description of the setting that includes the type of services provided, the population served, including relevant cultural and socio-demographic factors, and the type of appraisals required. You must include instruments from a minimum of four domains of formal assessment instruments that we cover in this course with a detailed review for each instrument with a rationale for their inclusion. One of your test reviews must be at least 8 typewritten pages that includes a minimum of six published references, formatted according to the APA Publication Manual, 5th edition. The following are some guidelines that you should consider when writing your report. Please note that not all categories will apply to each instrument, but note whether or not the information is unavailable or not applicable.
1. Exact title of appraisal instrument
2. Author
3. Publisher
4. Copyright date(s)
a. date first published
b. date(s) of revision(s)
c. date of version being reviewed
5. Description of stated purpose and use
6. Appropriate respondent characteristics (e.g., age, grade, reading level, mental abilities, or physical characteristics)
7. Available forms
8. Current cost information
9. Content
a. categories assessed/measured
b. types of items used
c. type(s) of responses required
10. Administration procedures and requirements
11. Time factors and considerations
12. Administrator qualifications
13. Interpreter/user qualifications
14. Scoring options and procedures
15. Type(s) of scores derived/reported
16. Normative data
17. Validity information
18. Reliability information
19. Statistical information other than validity or reliability
20. Miscellaneous information
21. Your personal evaluation
a. advantages for use in counseling or student development
b. disadvantages for use in counseling or student development
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Course Schedule:
Tentative Class Schedule with Assignment Deadlines:
Weekend One
Topic 1. Course overview; Nature and uses of appraisal
Topic 2. Legal, ethical, and cultural issues; Report writing
Topic 3. Behavioral & Psychosocial Appraisal; Mental Status Exam
Topic 4. Classical Testing Theory
Weekend Two
Topic 5. Basic statistics for appraisal
Topic 6. Reliability
Topic 7. Validity
Topic 8. Appraisal of Intelligence; Midterm exam; Mental Status Exam Exercises due
Weekend Three
Topic 9. Appraisal of Intelligence
Topic 10. Appraisal of Aptitudes
Topic 11. Appraisal of Achievement; Last week to submit project draft
for formative evaluation
Topic 12. Appraisal of Career Interests & Values; Appraisal reports due
Weekend Four
Topic 13. Appraisal of Personality
Topic 14. Appraisal of Mental Health; Wrap-up; Final Examination; Final project due
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Academic Policies:
Please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center.
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Faculty Bio:
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For those of you curious about my professional background, I am a Collegiate Professor, teaching both undergraduate psychology and graduate counseling classes for Maryland. I grew up in the Ozarks of Missouri and have all my degrees from Midwestern institutions (Central Missouri State, University of Kansas, and Iowa State University). This is my fifth year teaching for UMUC in the overseas division, having first taught in Okinawa, then transferring to England where I was the Resident Graduate Professor (a.k.a. faculty advisor) for the Counseling Program until moving to France. Prior to joining Maryland, I was a licensed psychologist providing outpatient counseling and supervising a community mental health services’ program within a medium-sized detention center. My two major professional interests include the interface between mental health policy and law and cross-cultural issues in counseling and psychology. I consider my most significant early adulthood experience being a two-year service in the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic, where I opened the gates to my wanderlust that has not yet retreated.
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