Counseling Skills and Curriculum Development

Counseling Skills

Traci Postings

2022

ISBN: 978-1-5297-3377-8 (pbk)

Sage Publications

266 pages

'Counseling Skills' a textbook written by Traci Postings for the counseling or even social work student that shows and explains how and what it means to be a counselor. This is a book that covers that a counselor must show empathy and be empathic, genuine, and have an unconditional positive regard for self and others. The skills that are explained throughout the textbook range from listening to showing empathy to being self-aware in most situations that maybe presented to a counselor. It is also a book that explains about boundaries and confidentiality.

The technical formatting of the textbook allows for the instructor to teach the necessary skills starting with listening and responding skills and being able to show and explain how to do these types of skills. The textbook moves on learning about empathy, how to build professional relationships that allow for diversity and inclusion of everyone needing help of some kind. It also covers how to be an ethical counselor that follows boundaries and confidentiality rules and professional roles that use the various models, tools and techniques that allow for awareness of who and what will be presented to them in person and remotely and how to ask for help when and if necessary for themselves as counselors. There are three appendices that cover the skills that are needed to be competent and work ethically in a particular framework. This is a textbook that is written by a British author but is very similar to what is presented in an American textbook.

Throughout this softcover textbook there are plenty of exercises and activities to give the student plenty of practice in learning the skills. This is a book uses a font that is very easy to read and at times uses boldface type to explain various terms. There is also a glossary of terms covered. At the end of each chapter there are learning journals of a prospective student counselor that helps explain what the chapters cover from a different perspective. There seems to be no offensive language used or controversial material from what I found in reading the book. From my reading there seems not to be too much difference between the British and American skills to counseling clients/patients. This is a text that should be used in American counseling classrooms just as American counseling texts could be used in British classrooms to show the similarities and differences in this area.

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Curriculum Development

Bill Boyle and Marie Charles

2016

ISBN: 978-1-44627-330-2 (pbk)

Sage Publications

222 pages

This is a text that covers a brief history of the subject of curriculum development and creating a national curriculum. The textbook also covers and uses cases to define how to review curriculums from the early years to higher levels of learning and teaching to form a well-designed and board curriculum while integrating subjects and themes through the construction, assessment, and testing from working from a formative testing to a summative testing of content to form a curriculum.

There is a glossary of terms that also offers other references as well. There is also an appendix that is actually a chart for teachers to use to explain their curriculum that is used in their classrooms. Also, throughout the textbook there are many charts and examples to help explain that are shaded in gray to explain the various concepts of curriculum development. The font of the textbook is easy to read using somewhat large print.

I found this textbook fully satisfying for me to understand more about curriculum development and to even write my own curriculum. There is no offensive language that is related to diversity and ethnicity or controversial material with all the theoretical information explained for either an undergraduate or graduate course in education. 'Curriculum Development' is a textbook that showed me that this is a subject that is needed so schools will teach more than skills to 'teach toward the test' and make teaching and learning more fun and creative. It is also a textbook that is easy to carry and fit well into just about any student or instructor backpack. It was also a book that one could just about anywhere inside or outside sitting under a tree. Each chapter covers what is important in the aspects of curriculum and how to develop one in the future.

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