School Counselors’ Attitudes Toward Evidence-Based Practices

Abstract

The use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is growing among school counselors. However, little is known about school counselors' attitudes toward EBPs and related factors. We investigated the relationships between school counselors' grade level, years of experience, theoretical orientation, and attitude toward EBPs. Results indicated that the use of cognitive/behavioral theory and number of years of practice related to attitudes toward EBPs. We offer implications for school counseling practice and future research.

The Evidence-Based School Counseling Conference: Contexts for Creating Change

“…Further, the use of EBP is called for in the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors (2016) and in the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs' (CACREP, 2016) Standards. Encouragingly, recent research (Mullen, Stevens, & Chae, 2019) suggests that school counselors are open to implementing EBP in school counseling.…”

“…For many years, school counseling researchers bemoaned the lack of outcome research about school counseling interventions and programs Whiston & Sexton, 1998), but today, interventions with evidence of efficacy are in every domain of school counseling work, and several national organizations identify relevant resources and disseminate information on their websites (see Appendix for these resources). An ongoing challenge is getting the information to practitioners and counselor educators so that they can use what is now known about effective school counseling practice (Mullen et al, 2019).…”

“…For many years, school counseling researchers bemoaned the lack of outcome research about school counseling interventions and programs (McGannon, Carey, & Dimmitt, 2005; Whiston & Sexton, 1998), but today, interventions with evidence of efficacy are in every domain of school counseling work, and several national organizations identify relevant resources and disseminate information on their websites (see Appendix for these resources). An ongoing challenge is getting the information to practitioners and counselor educators so that they can use what is now known about effective school counseling practice (Mullen et al, 2019). An ongoing challenge is getting the information to practitioners and counselor educators so that they can use what is now known about effective school counseling practice .For these reasons, one key goal of the EBSCC is both to identify and to disseminate—on a yearly basis—any relevant evidence-based interventions that could be useful for school counselors.…”

Evidence-Based School Counseling: Expanding the Existing Paradigm

“…One key way that the EBSC construct is narrowed is when the student outcomes under consideration are limited. Mullen et al (2019) recently suggested that the ultimate purpose of EBSC is to "select effective services that will enhance students' educational outcomes" (p. 1). If educational outcomes encompass all that contributes to educational and life success, then we agree.…”

“…Excitingly, our profession is actively grappling with the implications of engaging in evidence-based practices (EBP). In the past year, multiple authors (Borders, 2019;Mullen et al, 2019;Parrow et al, 2019) have explored several topics directly related to EBP in school counseling, while other authors (Savitz-Romer et al, 2019;Warren & Mauk, 2020) have written about issues ancillary to EBP such as research practice partnerships in schools and implementation science in school counseling, respectively. This special issue of Professional School Counseling provides insight into the conference proceedings of the Evidence-Based School Counseling Conference (EBSCC; http:// www.ebscc.org) and to creating an opportunity to continue discussions about ways we can ongoingly evolve our conceptualization of evidence-based school counseling EBSC.…”