Stakeholders’ perceptions of school counselling in Singapore: a mixed method study

Using a combination of questionnaires and interviews, this research compared stakeholders’ perspectives regarding school counselling in Singapore schools. Teachers, school and community-based counsellors’ perceptions in relation to a number of aspects of school counselling were first elicited then compared. Similarities and differences between the stakeholders’ views were examined in light of concerns surrounding the current and future development of mental health care for children and young people in Singapore. Areas of agreement, clarity as well as differences among stakeholders involved in school counselling were revealed. There was agreement among stakeholders in terms of the need for the extension of counselling service into the school context. However, evidence of marked differences was noted, particularly among perceptions on whether school counselling service should provide family counselling and the level of confidentiality upheld in the school setting. Another related finding was that the stakeholders’ role played a part in shaping the frame in which they view school counselling process. For example, teachers’ need to gain more information from school counsellors was traced back to their intention to use that information to better carry out their roles as teachers. While counsellors and teachers differ in some aspects, there was also differences between school counsellors and community-based counsellors’ in others. In addition, the school counselling situation was also noted to be far from consistent across different schools and communities. These findings were further discussed in the practice context in Singapore as well as compared to overseas studies. Practical interventions were designed as well as future research were recommended in light of the findings

Effect of The Listening Program® on the improvement of work skills; attention span and rate of work (speed) of students diagnosed with MID under vocational training

The therapeutic effect of The Listening Program® on the students' attention span and rate of work to improve productivity and success rate was investigated. Pre-and post Valpar Component Work Sample -7 test assessment, Personal Development Mentor/Vocational Training Class instructors, and therapists’ observations were carried out to monitor changes in the students’ work behaviors during a 18-week study period. Parental interviews were also conducted during this period. In this study, the investigators examined how The Listening Program (TLP®) help improved the attention span and Rate of work (speed) to increase work productivity among students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities (MID) who were undergoing vocational training. The results were analyzed and the implications for practice and further research were discussed

Challenges of refugee teachers in Malaysian community-based learning centers

Because Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 RefugeeConvention, the children of refugees living in Malaysia are deprived of any formal education. Children are taught mostly by the refugees themselves, many of whom are volunteers. Most of the community-based learning centers, which encounter many academic and management problems, are also sustained by the refugees. This qualitative study aims to apply the framework of resources and demands theory to explore the work demands encountered by these refugees’ teachers and whether they have enough resources to meet the demands, as the learning centers are self-supported or supported by non-governmental organizations. This study collected data using the focus group method, recruiting participants through purposive sampling. Participants were organized into eight groups, each with seven volunteer participants, and open-ended questions were used for the participants to fully express their views and experiences. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The result showed that participants are burdened by academic and administrative tasks, lack of resources, poor infrastructure, and self-incompetence. The findings of the study proposed that more non-government organizations, local communities, and other stakeholders provide expertise and financial assistance to these community-based learning centers as education is the human right of each child. Karena Malaysia bukan merupakan penandatangan Konvensi Pengungsi 1951, hak anak-anak pengungsi untuk mendapat pendidikan resmi telah menjadi sebuah masalah yang tidak begitu diperhatikan. Kebanyakan anak-anak ini diajar oleh guru yang terdiri dari para pengungsi yang bekerja sebagai sukarelawan. Pusat pembelajaran berbasis komunitas dikelola dan dikendalikan oleh pengungsi sering menghadapi pelbagai isu dari segi akademik dan manajemen. Studi pendekatan kualitatif ini menggunakan teori sumber daya dan permintaan sebagai kerangka kajian untuk mengetahui apa saja tuntutan pekerjaan yang dihadapi guru pengungsi dan apakah mereka memiliki sumber daya yang cukup untuk menghadapi tuntutan tersebut, karena pusat pembelajaran bersifat swadaya atau didukung oleh Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat (LSM). Sumber pembelajaran yang tersedia perlu dikaji supaya cukup menampung serta memenuhi permintaan kerja. Pengumpulan data menggunakan metode focus group dan partisipan direkrut melalui purposive sampling. Partisipan dikumpulkan ke delapan kelompok, masing-masing kelompok terdiri dari tujuh partisipan sukarelawan. Pertanyaan terbuka (open-ended questions) digunakan untuk mendapat pandangan serta pengalaman berkaitan isu yang dikaji. Data dianalisis menggunakan teknik analisis tematik. Hasil temuan menunjukkan bahwa para guru memikul beban yang berat dalam menjalankan tugas akademik serta administrasi. Mereka juga menghadapi isu kurangnya sumber daya, keadaan infrastruktur yang serba kekurangan serta keyakinan diri dalam kompetensi mengajar. Temuan studi ini mengusulkan agar lebih banyak LSM, masyarakat setempat, dan pemangku kepentingan lain menyumbangkan keahlian dan bantuan keuangan pada pusat-pusat pembelajaran tersebut karena pendidikan adalah hak asasi manusia bagi setiap anak-anak

Assessing the effectiveness of a mental health literacy programme for refugee teachers in Malaysia

Background: Children and young refugees often experience negative events that affect their mental health. Their caregivers may also be in the same predicament, implying that the teachers in schools are a potential source of help and support. However, most teachers have little understanding of mental health and are, thus, clueless in helping their students. To address this need, a newly developed one-day mental health literacy programme was conducted among 68 refugee teachers in Malaysia. Methods: Participants learned the symptoms of mental health issues among children and adolescents in the context of post-trauma, provision of early intervention, and channel for professional supports. They also answered a packet of measurements of mental health literacy before and after the programme. Results: The paired sample t-test showed that participants reported higher willingness to contact with people having mental health problems (t = 2.787, P = 0.008, Cohen's d = 0.394), less stereotypes toward mental illness (t = 4.603, P < 0.001, d = 0.651) and a better understanding of self-help strategies (t = 2.16, P = .036, d = 0.322) than baseline. Conclusion: The results of this study offered preliminary empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the programme as a promising channel for alleviating mental health issues among refugees

Looking in from the outside: community counsellors’ opinions and attitudes to school counselling in Singapore

Over the last decade, the movement towards the permanent presence of counsellors within schools has gathered pace in Singapore. As counsellors were introduced into more schools, there were opportunities for their community-based counterparts such as social workers, youth workers and other counselling practitioners to work with them. Through semi-structured interviews, this study explored the experiences and perceptions of counselling practitioners in community-based agencies, specifically Family Service Centres, on school counselling. Community counsellors were found to be supportive of the initiative but concerned about how the service was implemented, especially in relation to professional and ethical standards and maintenance of confidentiality standards. Community counsellors felt that their counterparts in schools lacked knowledge about community resources and that family work seemed beyond their capability, they also thought that former teachers or principals perhaps needed more help with the transition to a counselling role. These findings are discussed and it is recommended that community counsellors could be more involved in developing the new school counselling services

Considering the Challenges of Counselling Practice in Schools

School counselling is developing rapidly in many countries around the World. As with any practice in a secondary setting, challenges and special issues are often identified, discussed, and managed. These can be categorized into four distinct domains: 1) Internal challenges, which include issues related to clientele groups, teachers’ attitudes towards counselling, and students’ willingness to seek counseling; 2) External challenges, which refer to social-economic changes beyond the school. These include popular culture, globalization and societal trends of more families and students moving across borders; 3) Systems challenges, which are those within the guidance programmes implemented by ministries, schools or counselling bodies. These issues may reside in the guidelines for practice in schools, referral procedures, and resource planning; 4) Personal challenges, which relate to the needs as well as the skills of the counsellor. Some examples here are training, supervision, and attitudes towards school systems. The four domains and interactions among them are discussed in this paper

School counselling in Singapore: teachers’ thoughts and perceptions

School counselling is a growing service in Singapore. Having implemented counselling services in all the public schools for over half a decade, it was timely to examine how teachers looked at counselling in school setting. Interviews with teachers suggested their overall positiveness about counselling service in Singapore schools. Teachers view the counselling service as a helpful addition because (1) it extended more individual attention to students; (2) it offered a potential source for teachers to learn more about students through a different perspective; and (3) school counsellors could work with parents and families, especially in situations where referral to external resources is needed. These observations are discussed in this paper

Interdisciplinary Professional Partnerships

With the growing diversity of professions working in schools, interdisciplinary partnership and collaboration are growing quickly the world over. Apart from traditional teaching and learning concerns, awareness of children and youth mental health issues and socio-emotional wellbeing, grew readily since the 2000s. Rising in tandem with this trend is the number of psychologists, social workers, and counselors joining educators to support children and young persons in schools. Challenges such as misconception of roles, differing perceptions as well as cross-disciplinary misunderstanding threaten to prevent concerned professionals in working collaborative to help children and young persons in need. Fortunately, this aspect of interdisciplinary partnership in schools gains the much-needed attention in research from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the Americas. Models and frameworks suggesting best practices for interdisciplinary collaboration emerged in school psychology, counseling and social work literature. Also growing in tandem is research in methods of measurement and evaluation of such collaboration as well as studies on pre-service professional training on interdisciplinary collaborative skills in the related disciplines

Introducing trauma-informed play therapy in residential care setting: a Singapore experience

Children’s Aid Society (Melrose Home) caters to the needs of children and young persons affected by family violence, child abuse and neglect issues. In 2017, professional Play Therapy was introduced as part of the Home’s effort to enhance residents’ access to specialty therapy to help them work through psycho-emotional struggles resulting from past trauma. Approximately 10% or 5 residents underwent individual play therapy with the Home’s consultant Play Therapist for 6 to 25 sessions as of April 2018. Using a single case study approach and qualitative data generated from written reflections by multiple stakeholders during this period of introducing Play Therapy in the Home, this paper attempts to shed light on the challenges faced and therapeutic benefits observed during the first year of implementation. The key stakeholders include the play therapist, the respective case workers (for each of the 5 residents), the programme coordinator and the Head of Home who initiated the process of enhancing access to therapy. The authors envisioned that the findings may be helpful for other Play Therapy practitioners or residential care professionals who are attempting to introduce Play Therapy in similar settings or who are exploring the possibility to do so

Community-school collaborations: community counsellors’ perceptions of school counselling in Singapore

School counselling is not an isolated school-based intervention but rather as part of a more holistic social wellbeing system where there are many stakeholders. Studies have examined students’, school counsellors’, teachers’, and administrators’ perceptions of school counselling. Research that focuses on the perceptions of community counsellors of school counselling is rare. This paper reports on a quantitative survey study of community counsellors’ perceptions in Singapore. Findings indicate some expectations such as school counsellors could offer some family counselling and perceptions such as confidentiality could be strengthened in schools, were widely held among community counsellors. Findings also suggest deeper understanding of both school and community counsellors’ perceptions is needed to strengthen collaboration for better mental health support for children and youths