Faculty Contact Information:
| mcoleman@faculty.ed.umuc.edu | |
Consultation:
| During lunch breaks and after class. | |
Required Texts and Readings:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, APA.
Neukrug, E. (2003). World of the Counselor. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Neukrug, E. (2003). World of the Counselor Workbook. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. | |
Supplementary Readings:
| 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. | |
Recommended Journals:
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Course Description:
| Historical, philosophical, psychological, and sociological basis of counseling in different settings(school, agency, and community) and with different populations will be explored. Intervention strategies, theoretical models, working contexts, relationships to other professions, ethics, obstacles to service delivery, and personal qualities of counselors are reviewed. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: PSYC 502 or EDCP 610. | |
Course Goals:
| This course introduces students to the field of counseling including specializations, professional ethics, relevant credentialing legislation, and current issues. It also provides an introduction to the basic counseling theories and skills. | |
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course are for students to gain an information base and demonstrate competence in:
The historical antecedents and current definitions of the counseling profession.
The standards of counseling as a regulated profession including awareness of professional issues, ethics, and credentialing.
The theories and basic counseling and interpersonal skills of communication associated with the counseling relationship.
An understanding and appreciation of various populations with whom counselors work and a multicultural and diversity focus in counseling skills and advocacy.
Familiarity with appropriate assessment procedures, community resources and intervention strategies and skills, and awareness of the specialty areas of counseling and their various settings.
An awareness of future trends, particularly the expanded role of technology, and emerging concepts and theories in counseling.
Enhanced self-awareness of personal strengths, interests, and abilities. | |
Grading Information:
Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
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, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs. | |
Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to complete:
Midterm Exam--------20%
Final Exam----------20%
Workbook Exercises--20%
Research Paper------20%
Class Participation-20% | |
Description of Course Requirements:
Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours of additional for every hour of a face-to-face class.
CONFIDENTIALITY – You are graduate students who WILL be revealing some personal information. Throughout this class, we will work as a group, experiencing both ourselves and our group membership through ongoing communications and interactions. This is a class where all students will be doing self-examination. Graduate students will be doing some degree of sharing personal information with the class. Therefore, students must be sensitive to the right to privacy of others. It is therefore important to practice our responsibility of keeping confidentiality throughout this class. Thanks!
Workbook Exercise:
Graduate should review and DO all exercises - corresponding to the weekend’s topics – in the Neukrug workbook BEFORE each set of weekend classes. Students will be notified which of these exercises will be turned in for grading. Note – the Workbook chapters are not always the same as the text chapters
Research Paper: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment. Plan on committing approximately 150 hours over the duration of this course to producing professional level deliverables.
There is ONE written project, approximately 10 pages (“double spaced) – a paper on your (tentative) chosen career within counseling (school, occupational, addictions, prison, family, mental health, etc.). It will require the use of research articles and will contain a self-examination section. You will need to obtain at least 7 research articles. The majority of the articles should be from peer-reviewed journals. About two-thirds (6-7 pages) of the paper should be a summary of the research articles regarding your chosen field.
The remaining third of the paper should be a self-examination – including your personal and psychosocial background that is influencing you toward counseling, your preliminary thoughts on your theoretical orientation, and your counseling interests and motivation. Then summarize – job requirements and skills for your chosen area, settings, a self examination of your interest/aptitude/motivation to continue with that chosen subfield, licensing, what you would personally expect, etc. – your chosen field, in your paper.
Effective writing is a crucial part of education. Therefore, your paper should be clear and concise, with proper grammar and spelling, APA formatting, and references. The paper is worth 20% of your grade.
Complete two written examinations: The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary to successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. Information on the examinations will be discussed during the beginning of the term. | |
Course Schedule:
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Note: ALL assigned reading should be done before each set of weekend classes begin. A good understanding of assigned reading is necessary for through discussion of assigned topics and for exercises done in class.
Weekend One: Chapters 1-3, 12, 13
Weekend Two: Chapters 4-8
MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Weekend Three: Chapters 9-11, 14, 15
PAPER DUE
Weekend Four: Chapters 16-20
FINAL EXAMINATION
| |
Academic Policies:
Note: Any written assignment in this course may be submitted to TurnItIn.Com. This statement constitutes prior notice.
The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and 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. | | |
Faculty Bio:
| My educational background includes a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Hahnemann University and a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. I specialize in the assessment and treatment of emotional, learning, and behavioral problems in children and adolescents. I conduct research in the field of child welfare with a particular focus on the educational needs of youth living in foster care. I have been an Assistant Professor for a program that trained master's and doctoral-level clinical psychology students and was a faculty mentor for a distance education institution. | |