Clinical Training: Restructuring the On-Campus Counselor Education Laboratory.

This study is designed to document and evaluate how one program is attempting to transform a long established training model to meet current standards for training licensed professional counselors and for continuing program accreditation. A formative, or process, evaluation method has been implemented to evaluate and, simultaneously, to improve the on-campus practicum laboratory at Eastern Michigan University. One type of program evaluation involves the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data about an already existing program to determine the ways in which the program is and is not operating as planned and to fine-tune the program. Both qualitative and quantitative data have been collected in the current study. Several themes have emerged from the data analyzed thus far. These include: (1) the resilience of the original practicum model, which has remained in place since the early 1960's; (2) the need for developing a service mission for the practicum, as well as clarification of how that service interfaces with other university services; and (3) increased need for departmental, as opposed to individual faculty, responsibility in defining standards. Minimum hourly requirements for counseling and supervision, as well as the "nature" of the practicum experience, must now be defined by departmental faculty as a whole. Continued research is recommended. Contains 11 references. (TS)