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Essay on Cognitive Development
Most research and literature on cognitive development within counselor education has focused on the areas of skill acquisition or supervision. Recently, however, several articles have appeared in the counselor education literature that address the more general development of counseling students as they progress through their graduate programs. This literature attempts to conceptualize the broader development of counseling students and may eventually lead to the creation of a model of counselor trainee cognitive development.
Several important benefits could be realized from developing an understanding of the cognitive development of students in counselor education. For example, counselor educators could tailor instructional experiences, the order of coursework, or pedagogical approaches to the developmental needs of counselor trainees. Furthermore, counselor educators could select instructional experiences that are specifically and intentionally designed to push students toward higher levels of cognitive development. In addition, a general model could help faculty identify students who need additional assistance or specialized assignments that appropriately challenge them. A general cognitive model could also reduce student anxiety by (a) helping students understand that many of their experiences are developmentally appropriate and (b) providing them with a cognitive map of their expected progress. Finally, a broad developmental framework could focus attention on methods to improve cognitive development in fieldwork, the classroom, or the informal atmosphere of counselor education programs.
Two existing studies addressed the general cognitive development of counselors or counselors-in-training. Skovholt and Ronnestad (1992) used a cross-sectional qualitative analysis to attempt to uncover the developmental progress of counselors. Skovholt and Ronnestad interviewed counselors with a wide range of experiences, from 1st year in graduate training to 40 years beyond graduate school. They found that counselors progressed through a rather predictable developmental path; however, many of the developmental changes occurred after graduate school. They did not differentiate distinct developmental stages for graduate students.............
