DESARROLLO DE APLICACIONES PARA DISPOSITIVOS MÓVILES

Introduction

In this thesis, I have used the terms Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 students to refer to the students from the four years of the counselling course, who participated in the research process. I have used A and B to delineate which of the two students’ views were being analysed in each pair.

In the sections below I have outlined and discussed the students’ views through sociocultural constructivist and psychodynamic lenses. I have utilised the concepts of interpersonal and intrapersonal planes40 to analyse the location of their learning that the students report. The analysis has been presented in the order defined above.

In analysis of students’ transcripts for all themes, for clarity, I have colour coded students’ own words in stage (year) order as Table 7 below:

40 _{Interpersonal and intrapersonal planes describe Vygotskyian thinking about different levels of mental} functioning and learning.

Table 7: Students’ narratives colour coding key

Key Year 1 – Green Year 2 – Blue

Year 3 – Red

Year 4 – Purple

In this chapter, I have included the themes of ‘Encouragement’ and ‘Closeness’. In these themes, students’ words are quoted to illustrate my analysis of their thoughts and reflections. This analysis has been presented in sequence from Year 1 to Year 4, with commentary on the facilitating factors students highlighted through their learning journey at each stage.

Under each theme, I have also considered what kind of tutor behaviour the student reported discouraged learning in her training to become a counsellor. The reason for this negative consideration is to clarify whether the ‘discourage’ claim was somehow being confused with challenge and was not discouragement at all, or whether there were actions and aspects of the tutor that students did find discouraging.

Theme (i): Encouragement

Overview

‘Encouragement’, ‘encouraging’, ‘encourages’ and (being) ‘encouraged’ were words that appeared repeatedly in students’ interviews. ‘Encouragement’ therefore has been used as the heading of this particular theme because that has been the terminology used by students. However, use of the terms ‘encouragement’ as noted above, in the current study is problematic for two reasons. Firstly there is the lack of use of this concept in psychodynamic counselling theory. In psychodynamic counselling training and practice, there is a deliberate avoidance of overt encouragement. Instead,

the counsellor abstains from sharing personal material, with no agenda of encouraging or discouraging the client. Secondly, encouragement is a general term with a lack of specificity in common usage.

Throughout the four years of studying, all students acknowledged the tension between the tutor modelling a neutral stance (compared to the counsellor’s abstinence) and yet wanting to encourage the student in her learning. From a psychodynamic perspective, it is necessary for the tutor to address this tension because of the risk of contamination of client’s material by the counsellor’s material (Bridges, 2001; Manning, 2005). This has special significance to tutoring the psychodynamic approach of counselling and is not considered as important in tutoring other approaches or indeed other subjects. In common usage of the term encouragement, the student might mean the ability of the tutor to make complex understanding simple, so it is accessible to her. These are definitions students attached to the theme of encouragement.

In this analysis, the theme of ‘encouragement’ comprises four sub-themes. Firstly are the qualities of the tutor that the students reported as encouraging them to continue their training. Secondly are what the tutors encouraged the students to do on the counselling courses, that is what the tutor, as the expert other, advised students to do to extend their understanding. This included how the tutors encouraged students to learn, the means, techniques and tools they employed. Thirdly, how students constructed their learning through interaction with peers on the course. Lastly how the students integrated the outcome of the tutors’ encouragement, including their understanding that application of encouragement by the tutor was an important part of their development as student therapists (Folkes-Skinner et al, 2010).

In Tables 8-11 below I have listed how the two students from each year of the course have identified various meanings and understandings of the term ‘encouragement’.

The two students who participated in the pilot study were also involved in the main study, they are identified as the second student in Year 2 (Y2B) and the second student in Year 4 (Y4B). I have highlighted their construction of learning in appropriate places in text, particularly how their experiences on the pilot study have enabled a deep reflection in the main study.

Analysis Year 1

Within the theme of tutor closeness or distance, a number of sub-themes emerged, including different roles, integrity, modelling, gender, insight, feedback, diversity and reflection. The sub-themes are listed in Table 8 below in the order of plane of learning:

Table 8: Year 1 students, ‘Encouraging’ and ‘Discouraging’ factors listed by plane and sub-theme

Qualities of tutor (intrapersonal plane) Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Having integrity  Being ‘open’

Tutor support for learners (interpersonal plane) Encouraging behaviour Discouraging behaviour

 Modelling expert practice  Sharing experience  Raising gender awareness  Offering insight into life

 Offering ‘negative’ feedback in critique

 Leaving unexpectedly ('Loss’ of tutor)

Peer support for learners (interpersonal plane) Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Diversity of group  Learning from peers

Integration of learning (intrapersonal plane) Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Reflecting on thinking  Having a fear of an inability to become a cathartic counsellor

Qualities of the tutor

At this early stage student Y1A already recognised that it was important for the tutor to model integrity at a personal and professional level as an integral

‘whole’. Both Year 1 students reported they learned that being a cathartic counsellor was a way of ‘being’. The tutor was not only expert in the sedimented knowledge of psychodynamic counselling but also the expert knowledge was a part of her (tutor) as an individual as well. Student Y1A made a connection between getting to know the tutor personally and in the role of the counsellor ‘…because she is a counsellor as well, it would give me an insight into what kind of person she is, that reflects…[on how] to be a good counsellor as well…’

The expert other’s openness to being questioned was clearly important to student Y1B’s learning. Having a non-threatening dialogue with the more informed other, which for her learning was scaffolded, in which that she had some autonomy over that learning, was important to her in terms of openness and direction ‘…it will encourage me as I could ask her open questions, hoping she would give open answers…’ This was an important point because use of open questions, to encourage the client’s reflections, is also a requisite basic counselling skill.

Tutor support for learners

Student Y1A would like to have seen modelling of expert practice by the tutor as she started the course and that the tutor would ‘…encourage [me] by bringing and sharing her experience, I value that quite highly…’ She was hopeful of a positive learning relationship with the tutor, if so, in the mirroring process in the classroom, she could see what ‘expert practice’ with a client might look like, that is ‘how to counsel’ a client. This student appreciated that she could learn from experiences of tutor’s negative feedback in critique, which would not serve to discourage her ‘…not negative experiences because that’s where I can learn…’ The tutor challenged appropriately in the ZPD. In a challenging learning situation which she has already recognised as both personal and professional, permanence and consistency of support from the

expert other might be particularly important where new learning is outside a student’s current experience and understanding. A scaffold removed unexpectedly at times of new learning can create a sense of loss. For example this student reflected on her disappointment at being ‘let-down’ by the tutor who left. This seemed an example of her meta-thinking, her ability to reflect on her thinking, on the intrapersonal plane, ‘…I wouldn’t like to have to let anyone down like I feel let down…’ although if her experience with her new tutor replicated the kind of scaffolding and opportunity to dialogue on the interpersonal plane, was similar, then she was encouraged to continue her learning, the damage of the loss seemingly repaired ‘…yes, I have seen he is trying, I want to carry on…’

Peer support for learners

Student Y1A stated she considered diversity in her peer group enabled her learning; this could be understood in terms of her ability to broaden her understanding in dialogue with peers who had a variety of different experiences ‘…if you haven’t got difference and diversity then it’s not enriching the learning process…’ She was unsure how gender difference of students on the course might have encouraged her ‘…I suppose it [gender] must have an effect but I don’t know what effect it is having…’

Integration of learning

The knowledge that the ‘expert’ counsellor enabled the client was important to the student at the beginning of the course, to make counselling worthwhile in relation to what she could do for other people. A similar view was reflected by student Y1B, who volunteered what would discourage her would be if she was not able to be cathartic in her role as a counsellor ‘…I would like to think that through therapy clients are helped and if I was to think that is not true then that would be the ultimate discouragement…’

Year 2

Within the theme of tutor closeness or distance, a number of sub-themes emerged, including feedback sincerity, stimulation, modelling, reading, personal issues, group-work and reflection. The sub-themes are listed in Table 9 below in the order of plane of learning:

Table 9: Year 2 students, ‘Encouraging’ and ‘Discouraging’ factors listed by plane and sub-theme

Qualities of tutor (intrapersonal plane)

Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Being sincere

Tutor support for learners (interpersonal plane)

Encouraging behaviour Discouraging behaviour

 Giving positive feedback  Sharing counselling experiences  Modelling what was possible  Not pressurising the student  Stimulating intellectual reflection  Recommending reading

 Identifying personal qualities

 Focussing on personal interest in learning  Assuring student

 Being proactive in group settings  Using student as exemplar

 Giving written feedback on assignments

 Lecturing  Challenging

Integration of learning (intrapersonal plane)

Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Becoming reflective

Qualities of the tutor

Student Y2A opened as being encouraged by ‘…the sincerity of positive feedback from my tutor in the work that I had done and was doing and my contribution to the groups….’ This student volunteered there were no discouraging aspects because ‘…I am going to continue with studies…’ She identified how her tutor stimulated her ‘…I didn’t have any physical attraction, but stimulated in an intellectual and emotional supportive way…’ Positive feedback on submitted work and verbal contribution facilitated both

of the Year 2 students’ construction of focused understanding about psychodynamic counselling.

Student Y2B, an earlier pilot study participant, found the tutor to be generally encouraging particularly during one-to-one personal tutorials ‘…at tutorial meetings with her, she would [one] sit and listen and [two] encourage and feedback how well you had been doing and talk about areas of struggle or areas in which you may be interested in reading she thought I may have…’

Tutor support for learners

The tutor shared personal experiences with student Y2A and enabled a forward trajectory by modelling what was possible ‘…talking about a career in counselling and being encouraged and hearing about his [clinical] work…’ There seemed an increased sense of autonomy in the area of choice about becoming a counsellor. Student Y2B was unsure that the tutor encouraged her to become a counsellor ‘…didn’t feel under any pressure from her [tutor] that I should or shouldn’t be a counsellor…’ This student further elucidated ‘…I decided not to do it, initially she [tutor] said ‘I really think you should do it’ but I just thought ‘I know my limitations’ and at this time I just can’t do it, then I told her afterwards and she said ‘fine’…’

Student Y2B was able to identify particular areas of encouragement by the tutor and opened with what did not help learning was lecturing or ‘…talking at me is not so good for me personally, it didn’t help me particularly…’ This student identified what had encouraged her ‘…recommended reading, giving books to devour, great, assignments as well, it focuses your mind, writing and researching…’ On reflection, this student further explained the encouraging nature of the relationship with her tutor, identified previously as being ‘fairly’ neutral ‘…she didn’t say to me “you would be the best counsellor in the world”…I turned forty this year and she said “counsellors are normally about

forty-plus” and “you are in the right age group to be an effective counsellor”…’ This affirmation seemed to have had a positive affect ‘…she did encourage me because she would say things like “you have a great deal of empathy and a great deal of attunement to people”…’ Additionally, positive feedback enabled construction of knowledge to use counselling skills; student Y2A seemingly appreciated encouraging and appropriate feedback by the tutor ‘…she [tutor] said “your past experience has helped you to refine these skills”, she didn’t say ‘you are the best person in the class’…’ Feedback and reflections can be considered as being evidence of scaffolding learning within the ZPD.

Student Y2A reflected she liked the tutor addressing on the course ‘…theory, modelling to be a counsellor and use counselling skills…’, which she found encouraging as well as challenging ‘…she [tutor] would talk about the clients saying ‘they have obviously got attachment issues’, I would be kind of going ‘ooohh’ [surprise], I didn’t know that…’ Thus this student was both encouraged and discouraged because it challenged her on one level and yet she understood the process as well ‘…a matter of desensitising us and challenging which I don’t think are bad things really…’

Student Y2B, referred to her experience in the pilot study interview and used metaphor to show appreciation of direct and indirect encouragement by the tutor ‘…helping me feel she was standing next to me saying ‘I know you can do it, I know you will do it’, I didn’t tell you before that gave me a bit of an ‘oomph’, real encouragement, the motor was running but it just needed a bit of a kick start…’

Student Y2A described some course experiences, which illustrated how she found the tutor encouraged her ‘…in the experiential group, half of us were very vocal, we were split, some in their observation towers observing the

other half of us, scared of involvement, there was a lot of encouragement by the tutor to get them down from their observation tower…’

Student Y2B was encouraged by the tutor facilitating the group in a proactive manner ‘…she certainly confronted as a referee in all of that…’ This student found simply being noticed by the tutor was encouraging ‘…by her acknowledging me, my warts and all and my existence, this helps…’ When she was upheld as an exemplar she was particularly encouraged ‘…she asked me when one of the other students was having difficulty, to send over an assignment because she felt mine was good…’ She found this particularly encouraging ’…I was elated, she removed the anxiety for me as I could get very anxious about assignments, she used to send them back [feedback], quite expert, brilliant…’

Integration of learning

At this stage a number of factors were repeated as important at the intrapersonal level from student Y2B, these included developing an ability to be reflective, ‘…it [reflection] becomes more and more important as I develop as a counsellor or start doing a placement, I don’t think I will be learning unless I make space for reflection, essential…’ There was a developing sense of autonomy in learning ‘…I realise increasingly I am responsibly for my own learning…’ and an appreciation of the benefits of wide reading discussed during beneficial experiences of one-to-one tutorials ‘…my tutor invariably talked to me about the many books available on counselling, which really resonated with me…’

Year 3

During Year 3, within the theme of tutor closeness or distance, a number of sub-themes emerged, including perception of tutor, feedback, student potential, empathy, modelling, theory and again, reflection. The sub-themes

are listed in Table 10 below in the order in plane of learning.

Table 10: Year 3 students, ‘Encouraging’ and ‘Discouraging’ factors listed by plane and sub-themes

Qualities of tutor (intrapersonal plane)

Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Being direct

 Sense of humour  Bluntness of delivery

Tutor support for learners (interpersonal plane)

Encouraging behaviour Discouraging behaviour

 Giving clear and constructive written feedback  Maximising learning potential

 Giving direct feedback  Sharing high expectations  Empathising with personal issues

 Modelling skills and how to be as a counsellor  Sharing theoretical orientation

 Giving negative feedback

Integration of learning (intrapersonal plane)

Encouraging factors Discouraging factors

 Becoming reflective

Qualities of the tutor

Student Y3B appreciated the way her tutor’s direct feedback might be one way of her encouraging student autonomy ‘… by giving me a poke and say

‘come on’…’ This student recognised the tutor’s high expectations, which she found encouraging, although the bluntness in delivery was sometimes discouraging ‘…sometimes she is more than direct, she bluntly tells me where

I am going wrong, I quite fear that…’ Student Y3A was positive about the tutor, volunteering the tutor had a direct manner ‘…she was no-nonsense,

straightforward and quite direct, when you get to know her a bit she’s more approachable than perhaps you appreciate on first impressions…’ The tutor was not experienced as detached as this student first thought ‘…she is

warmer, has a sense of humour and more encouraging that I would have expected from my first couple of meetings with her…’

Student Y3A was fearful about possible negative feedback by the tutor for poor assignment grades and was discouraged ‘…I am in a state of fear and

necessarily…’ She further explained ‘…I have had an assignment back from her, with her written feedback on and that is actually very clear and constructive, it has changed from Years 1 and 2…’

Tutor support for learners

Student Y3A reflected how the tutor was encouraging ‘…she is trying to get me to maximise what I can put into the course…’ She further explained ‘…by

giving academic feedback and also she has a feel for personal development and personal issues that are going on…’ The tutor modelling relationships and counselling skills with students seemed to encourage her [student’s] use of counselling skills ‘…I don’t model myself on her, but I can take things I see in her or pick up points she has made about how I work or don’t work, it does encourage me…’

Student Y3B considered the tutor encouraged her autonomy ‘…if I don’t

organise myself to do the readings and get the written work done then nobody else is going to, so it’s up to me…’

Student Y3A accepted the tutor still took a parental role which was both supportive or encouraging as well as controlling ‘…it doesn’t feel like it’s an equal relationship, she is encouraging and she can challenge, she is the one who marks the papers and has the answers…’ Student Y3B reported the relationship with her tutor encouraged her interest in becoming a counsellor

‘…there is a real enthusiasm for what she is doing, there is encouragement there…’ and added the emphasis ‘…I wouldn’t say she is going to discourage