Response to Chapters 1,2, & 17

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t really looking forward to this class. Most likely this was due to the fact that I had almost no idea what topics would be covered in Appraisal. It just sounded ominous and boring. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find some redemption in this week’s reading. First of all, I discovered that assessment encompasses much more than simply giving a client a test. Drummond and Jones (2010, p. 2) define assessment as “any systematic procedure for collecting information that is used to make inferences or decisions about the characteristics of a person…assessment is considered a process because it is the continual practice of gathering information.” Test data is only one part of an overall assessment, and can be used for a variety of purposes. Overall, test data is meant to be used to better serve the client by learning as much as possible about the problems they are presenting and the factors that may be causing those problems. I like to compare this to the tests that a doctor may run to determine the cause of a patient’s symptoms. While tests (like getting blood drawn by the doctor) may not be pleasant for the patient, the results of those tests are often crucial in helping the doctor to prescribe the best form of treatment for the patient. Suddenly, assessment doesn’t seem so ominous and scary.
      Another place where I found redemption in this week’s reading was in the section about methods of observation recording. This is a familiar topic to me because I took PSYC 540 (Classroom Discipline) this past semester. In PSYC 540, I was required to make a behavior plan for a student who presented classroom discipline issues. I had to choose a method of observation that corresponded with the dimension of the behavior I was observing in my student. In my case, I had a student who was often talking and/or out of his seat during seat-work time. Because these behaviors happened so frequently and because it was hard to determine when some of these behaviors started and ended, I decided to use a time sampling method of observation. Every 5 minutes during one of my student’s classes, I would look up and place an “X” on my data recording sheet if he was engaging in either out-of-seat or verbal off-task behaviors. After collecting several days of data, I was able to determine that there was just cause for creating a behavior plan for this student. I also made notes each day about any oddities or irregularities that I saw occurring, and gave possible causes for why I believed they were affecting the data I was seeing. From there, I was able to graph the data as I collected it, and as I started the intervention I was able to notice a drastic change, which meant that the treatment seemed to be working effectively. This was encouraging both for me and for the student who I was working with.

Drummond, R.J. & Jones, K. (2010). Assessment procedures for counselors and helping professionals ( 7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.