Supervision is a mechanism for providing support for school counsellors, and peer group supervision has been found to be beneficial. Indeed, supervision is most often conducted in face-to-face interactions. However, advances in technology have opened up new possibilities for supervision via use of the Internet. The present study evaluates a structured peer group supervision program conducted for school counsellors using email. The findings indicate that email can be an effective medium through which to conduct supervision and that the use of a structured peer group supervision process is helpful.

This paper reviews consultation between school guidance counsellors and teachers and parents from a self-system psychological perspective. From this perspective factors, such as self-serving bias, self-enhancement, self-verification, sense of control, and stress coping strategies all impact on the consultation process. The paper addresses the challenge of understanding and minimising the negative ramifications of the self-system factors and suggests strategies that can help build a positive professional relationship. The paper explores the interactions between the self-system variables and behaviour so that guidance and school counsellors are in a better position to monitor their interactions and work more effectively with a range of consultees.

This study explored the conditions required for the practical implementation of dynamic assessment in schools. It involved the development and implementation of a curriculum-based dynamic assessment procedure in the area of school mathematics for use by school counsellors. Dynamic assessment has been developed within Vygotskian theories of learning, teaching and assessment. It incorporates a teaching or mediation phase that requires the application of clinical assessment and teaching skills. This paper argues that the competencies needed to conduct a successful dynamic assessment are a blend of professional skills possessed by school counsellors. The assessment procedures used in this study resulted in valid assessment information about students' cognitive development as well as aspects of their general cognitive, social and emotional functioning. The information gathered through dynamic assessment was particularly useful for informing classroom teaching. The practical problems associated with dynamic assessment identified in the literature were not found to be barriers to the use of these techniques in schools in this study. Instead, dynamic assessment, used to complement conventional assessment instruments, has the potential to enhance the classroom utility of assessments carried out by school counsellors.

There is a multitude of counselling theories that have gained respectability for their theoretical and practical contributions to the profession. Although such theories have been instrumental in developing useful therapies, there remain significant differences in their interventions and techniques. Debates flourish over which school of counselling is better and which contribute to the best positive outcomes. Research has confirmed that there is no significant amount of outcome difference between the varying schools and that there is not one therapy that is superior in contributing to quality outcomes. A critical basic question has resurfaced in recent times; what makes counselling effective? If each school of counselling is done differently and uses different techniques, how then does each work? Part of the explanation comes from the “working alliance.” The working alliance that comprises the bond, goals and tasks that form a trans-theoretical view will be reviewed and explored with a focus on their application to counselling.

This paper will address the growing community problem of caring for children, young people and adults with disabilities stemming from alcohol related birth defects. It will begin with an outline of the problem followed by examples of how parents can produce multiple children damaged in utero by alcohol and/or drug consumption. The process of diagnosing these children and looking at proven strategies for successfully and safely raising them will be discussed. Finally, the importance of the foster parents and their specific needs will be addressed.

This paper is based upon a study of issues of self and identity of Chinese students in an Australian high school and uses indigenous concepts mainly drawn from the work of Hong Kong psychologists. Research was initiated because identity appeared to be developing in a different way for Chinese students compared with their Anglo-Australian counterparts. The case study of Chinese Year 12 students provided a framework for understanding and counselling Chinese students. It is this framework that is discussed first. Second, a concept of self — Big Me and Little Me — is presented as a way of conceptualising the tensions of interdependent functioning. Finally, implications for counsellors and general issues emerging in the counselling situation are discussed.

Cluster analysis of school students' responses to the Student Motivation Scale (Martin, 2001, in press) identified two groups of students separated on the basis of their self-belief, sense of control, and fear of failure. The first group reflects failure avoidance and is represented by a lethal cocktail of low self-belief, low control, and high fear of failure. The second group reflects success orientation and is represented by high self-belief, high control, and low fear of failure. Follow-up analyses to validate these two clusters showed that the failure avoidant students were significantly higher in anxiety and pessimism and significantly lower in achievement. Implications are discussed for intervention and prevention aimed at enhancing students' self-belief and control and reducing students' fear of failure. Also discussed is the need to develop goals, incentives, and climates for students that draw them to attain success rather than drive them to avoid failure.

This paper overviews temperament research and its relationship to context. It provides an introduction to the Student Styles Questionnaire as a temperament measure and its educational value. It presents Australian SSQ data, based on a sample of 308 students, aged 9, 11, 13 and 15, from a regional city. Both quantitative and qualitative findings are included as a means of illustrating the value of this instrument. Comparisons are made with the United States SSQ normative sample.

Discussing death, grief and loss is difficult, however, the impact of loss on students makes dealing with bereavement and grief unavoidable for teachers. To best prepare for helping students, school personnel need to deal with their own feelings about these issues first. Becoming familiar with children's perceptions of death, the stages and expressions of grief, and effective coping strategies will further enhance the support provided by school personnel to graving students (Westmoreland, 1996). This paper reviews the literature on grief and loss in order to provide a background from which school personnel may draw in their preparation for assisting students experiencing such circumstances. Clarification of commonly used terms is provided and the nature of grief and loss is explored. Implications for parents, teachers, counsellors and school systems are outlined and a brief overview of recommended strategies is presented.

This paper describes an Adventure Based Counselling (ABC) program that aimed to improve sixth grade student behaviour in the classroom. In particular, this paper focuses on the ABC debriefing strategy, as summarised in the “What?” “So What?” and “Now What?” format. This debriefing process was employed with both students and ABC program facilitators. While there is extensive literature concerned with the application of the ABC debrief with the target group, an ABC debrief with the facilitators of the program is lacking in the applied literature. The strategies and sample questions employed in the ABC format, as applied to both groups, are described in detail. The procedure was highly effective for both behavioural intervention with students and for maximising learning of the ABC facilitators.