Title:	CONTEXTS FOR COUNSELLING - OPPORTUNITIES BY COUNSELLING VIA TEACHERS’ WEB FORUM
Author(s):	Jarle Sjøvoll
ISBN:	978-972-8924-82-9
Editors:	Gunilla Bradley and Piet Kommers
Year:	2009
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Blended counselling, teacher’s forum, web forum, problem solving, knowledge building, social support
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	28
Last Page:	34
Language:	English
Cover:
Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	This article is based on a research project whose aim is to implement blended learning in a teacher’s web forum as a tool for solving practical problems in elementary and secondary education. The project concerns professional counselling as a resource for practical problem solving. The web forum is built on a simple principle: asking one question - getting different answers. Teacher’s questions are based on their own definitions and explanations of the practical problems they experience. Leuphana Universitet (DE) and Bodoe University College (NO) are partners in this research. Counselling via the teacher’s web forum offers many advantages in comparison with traditional, face-to-face counselling. First of all I would like to focus on choice and flexibility. Working online provides several advantages for counselling in terms of the available choice of counsellors and “meeting” arrangements, independently of time and space. Users can choose an online counsellor for reasons independent of geographical proximity, such as theoretical or religious basis or specialisation. Clients can start by making up their minds on the question of what kind of service they would like. From the counsellor's point of view, all clients will be met in the same way, independently of where they live. Reflection in and on practice is carried out by teachers who reflect on their performance together with others. In these learning communities, teachers can experience not only individual self-efficacy and its professional limitations but also social and cooperative self-efficacy. The online service will thus also focus on the needs of the teachers for personal and social support. Counselling by means of this web forum gives teachers the ability to solve their own practical working problems in a better way by using the synergy that can be gained by coaching in the teachers’ forum. Some people find it easier to discuss personally-significant topics without another person physically present, and some clients feel more comfortable in the relationship with their web-counsellor, but an open web forum like Teachers’ Forum is not so suitable for discussing specific personal problems. Email counselling may be an alternative in such cases. Teachers’ Forum seems to offer possibilities in terms of helping teachers and schools to build knowledge; it is also possible to offer social support and guidance in matters of substance. Visitors can also access information regarding ethics and laws. The users themselves explain their problems and expect to get an answer to the questions they have put into the forum. Here we can find questions relating to a need for information, advice on methods, and help dealing with situations and relationships with pupils, parents and teachers. The web forum seems to have a potential for guidance concerning practical problems.
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