Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues in School Counseling – COSC 501

Course Description

This course introduces students to the professional functioning of counselors with an emphasis on school counselors in relation to other human services and education professionals, including history, professional identity, roles, professional organizations, ethics, legalities, standards, and credentialing. Current issues, trends, and best practices in a variety of professional counseling settings are explored with an emphasis on ethical and legal issues in professional school counseling.

Rationale

Developing excellence in the field of professional counseling requires a thorough understanding of current professional, ethical, and legal issues related to counselor functioning in a variety of settings. A focus on learning how to systematically evaluate ethical issues from both a biblical and clinical perspective is critical and will enable the student to develop a solid foundation for facing the complex and challenging ethical issues that await in the field of counseling.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings, lecture presentations, and websites

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Video Discussions (2)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, for Video Discussions, the student will create and upload a 3–5-minute video in response to the prompt. Each video must demonstrate course related knowledge and assertions must be supported by at least one outside scholarly resource. The student will reply to a peer or a question posted by the professor in a 2–3-minute video. Reply must be supported by at least 1 scholarly resource. (CLO: A, B, E, F, G, H)

Benchmark Attitudes and Beliefs Reflection Paper Assignment

The student will complete a self-reflective paper evaluating their responses from the Attitudes and Beliefs Inventory.

The paper should be 5 – 7 pages, (excluding abstract, title page, reference page), written in APA format, including a title page, abstract, introduction, body, conclusion, and at least 5 scholarly references. The paper should be well thought out and demonstrate critical thinking, self-evaluation, and practical application. (CLO: A, B, D, F, H)

Spiritual Integration Video Blog Assignment

The student will complete a video blog evaluating the interaction between their personal and/or spiritual beliefs and counseling professional values. The video blog should be 5-6 minutes in length, use current APA format, and include at least four references. (CLO: A, H)

Benchmark Ethical Vignette Paper Assignment

The student will read ethical dilemma scenarios that discuss relevant topics to the counseling field. After reading the ethical dilemma scenarios, the student will write a 3-5-page paper. The paper must include at least 4 references and be in current APA format. (CLO: A, B, E, G)

Benchmark Ethical Dilemma Presentation Assignment

The student will review the ACA ethical decision-making model and apply it to a case. The presentation should be an approximately 10-15 minute video with 11-15 slides (including the title page and reference page), written in APA format and include 7-8 scholarly references. (CLO: A, B, E, G)

Quizzes (13)

There are 13 quizzes that cover the Learn material for each assigned Module. Each quiz consists of 10-15 multiple-choice questions. Each quiz will have a time limit of 1 hour and will be open-book/open-notes. (CLO: A, C, D, F, G)

Quiz: Plagiarism

The student will review the resources listed in the quiz instructions. Once the student has reviewed these resources, he/she will have 30 minutes to take the 20 question quiz. This is an open book quiz.

Quiz: Dispositions Reflection

This Dispositions Reflection quiz will ask students to rate themselves on the nine dispositions required for this program by our accrediting bodies using the following scale:

• Exceeds expectations – I believe I do this exceptionally well.
• Clearly meets expectations – I believe I am able to do this in an appropriate way as expected for graduate students at my current position in the program.
• Adequately meets expectations – I believe I do this but could use improvement and growth in this dispositional area.
• Does not meet expectations – I believe I do not do this well and could use improvement.

The student can review the Dispositions material located in the Learn sections of Module 1: Week 1 and Module 8: Week 8. We ask that the student answers these questions in an open and honest way. There are no “correct” answers for the rating questions quiz. Simply answer them honestly, and the student will receive full credit.

The final question on the quiz is a self-reflection essay question, where the student will specifically identify the following:

1. One dispositional area in which the student believes they needs to improve.
2. One step the student will take to improve in the above-mentioned area.

This quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned module: week. This quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 9 multiple-choice and 1 essay questions, and will have an 1-hour time limit.