Proceedings of The International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/tleconf.2019.09.574
Solution to Professional Development Needs of Latvian School Career Counsellors during Supervision
Rita Burceva
ABSTRACT:
The topicality of the study is determined by the following factors: the field of education lacks strategic vision on the importance of supervision in the development and support of school career counsellors. Employers lack an understanding not just about the educational nature of supervision, but also about its specific process. The research objectives are to analyse scientific literature on the theoretical aspects of staff development and supervision as a way of support and education, analyse the results of the empirical study, make conclusions and provide recommendations to the organisers of supervisions on their use in further development and support of school career counsellors. It was concluded in the study that school career counsellors appreciate the professional and personal benefits of supervision, and their attitude to this support tool is positive. A supervision survey shows that the majority of school career counsellors highly value the effectiveness of supervision in their professional growth. Recommendations have been designed as a result of the study for the use of supervision in the staff development policy. In future supervisions for school career counsellors, the following topics need to be addressed: overload and professional burnout of school career counsellors, reflection skills, getting involved in changes, leadership, etc. When organising further educational events and specifying their content, we need to focus on the ability of school career counsellors to conceptualise specific cases in professional activity in order to learn to notice correlations, set priorities, define goals more clearly, and better understand the philosophy of career counselling. The participants of professional development events need to be encouraged to become more open, to share positive experiences more, so that everyone can put in order their relationship with themselves and their colleagues, obtain a needed solution to a problem and the support required.
Keywords: school career counsellor, staff development, supervisor, supervision.