Before I can write an essay on the “school counsellors critical and ethical practice of educational psychological assessment in South Africa” I need to give a clear explanation of what a school counsellor is. In simple terms a school counsellor is someone children can turn to if they need help in a particular area of their school or personal life. According to The School Counsellor Association of South Africa
“school counsellors are people who help young people in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, focus on their academic, personal, social and career development.” Being a school counsellor is a serious job and is not simply about talking to children about their problems. It involves counselling, testing, setting …show more content…
This professional practice is grounded in ethics. These ethical considerations are in place in order to protect the learners and the school counsellor. There are 13 different issues covered in the core ethics of school counsellors. These are: respect for persons, autonomy, working with the best interest or well-being- beneficence and non- maleficence, human rights, confidentiality, integrity, truthfulness, compassion, tolerance, justice, professional competence &self improvement and …show more content…
School counsellors can find out how learners are able to plan, problem solve, interact with others, what is their attention span, what their memory is like and what are their reactions to stress? Observations give insight into the settings in which learners function.
Informal assessment
– Getting client to engage in naturalistic tasks to further understand strengths and limitations
– Goal – better understand the client’s functioning, test intervention strategies
– Supplying test scores (e.g. ACT, SAT), GPA, class grades, writing samples
Sattler’s 4 pillars of assessment lead us to the 11 step assessment plan. School counsellors need to follow all the steps in order to have a rounded assessment. These 11 steps include: reviewing the referral information, deciding whether to accept the referral or not, obtaining background information for the learner, considering the influence of others on the learner, observing the learners, interpreting the assessment results, developing intervention strategies, writing a
report, giving feedback and lastly following up with recommendations and