The development and initial validation of a critical incident questionnaire to assess counselor supervisor competence
Abstract
Although there has been an increasing amount of research about counselor supervision, very little is known about counselor supervisors and what they do that makes them effective. This research project developed an instrument using scenarios and a multiple-choice format that were developed from critical incidents in the experience of counselor supervisors. The purpose of the study was to begin development of a pool of items that differentiate between experienced supervisors and individuals with no counselor supervision experience and to pilot test this simulation-based approach to evaluate its potential for assessing supervisor competence. The instrument consisted of nine scenarios and 17 questions that were administered to 91 subjects from varying levels of counseling and supervision experience ((Group 1) no experience; (Group 2) counseling experience, exposed to supervision; (Group 3) experienced counselor supervisors.) Items were evaluated by using the chi-square statistic to analyze each of the four multiple choice options. A significant result ($\alpha <$.05) was found for at least one of the options for 11 of the 17 items. A multivariate analysis of frequencies of the rank-ordering of each item was used to evaluate the overall patterns of response by groups. The groups differed significantly on seven out of 17 items. A third test compared subject responses to those of three experts. An analysis of variance and multiple range test resolved that the experienced supervisors scored significantly higher than the other two groups: that is, they were more often in agreement with the experts. Results suggest that some of the scenarios may be effective in discriminating supervisors at varying levels of experience, that revision of some responses may be needed and that the use of critical incident scenarios demonstrates excellent potential as a simulation approach for assessing counselor supervisor competence.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Dye, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Academic guidance counseling
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