Midterm Assessment in GRSC 309

On March 30, 2021, Department of Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, thru a
memorandum, discussed the Counseling and Referral System in the Public School as response
to the current new normal mode of learning delivery. The memo recognizes the integral role of
the Guidance Counselor in the Department. It hoped to address the lack of practicing and
licensed Counselor in the department by providing several guidelines including case
collaboration and counseling supervision. It further postulated that counseling supervision in the
department should foster positive mentoring and collaborative reflection of the counseling
practice adapted by the counselors. More than a year after the memorandum was released,
there is a need to evaluate the status of counseling supervision introduced in the Department
and how it was being implemented. As Arrieta et. al. (2021) pointed out the difficulty of
delivering guidance and counseling services in the online and modular platform, it is beneficial
to examine how the counseling supervision program was perceived in the Department
especially that the Guidance Counseling department is usually manned by non-Registered
Guidance Counselors. Finally, it is good to note how guidance programs in the department are
being developed and evaluated for further improvement in the succeeding school year.
In the mission of safeguarding the counseling profession, the Philippine Association of
Counselor Education, Research and Supervision (PACERS) in a Facebook status dated
January 16, 2020, discussed its vision, mission, and objectives. Courtesy of the page Pinoy
PACERS, it was stated that the organization envisioned professionally trained practicing
counselors that has strong foundation of ethical standards, contributes to the advancement of
the field thru research and imparts wisdom to the next generation counselors thru supervision.
However, Tuason, Alvarez, Stanton in 2021 discussed the counseling supervision in the
Philippines is unregulated and not structured. Counseling supervision is merely a requirement to
finish the course rather than working together in the practice. Further, Ladbury (2021) also
claimed that clinical supervision and school internship are often used interchangeably, resulting
in limited research available about the topic of clinical counseling supervision. As this study,
hopes to address the improvement of counseling supervision in the Department of Education,
there should be dissemination of clear definition about clinical counseling supervision.
Introduction of counseling models should also be spearheaded since it can be beneficial in the
creation and evaluation of the counseling supervision programs. Since there are more
counseling advocates than trained counselors, psychotherapy models are beneficial in
cultivating knowledge thru theories and techniques while developmental model and process
model can provide more technical assistance necessary in the counseling field inside the
department. The provisions of case notes which was stipulated in the memorandum can be
adapted and supplemented by tools like transcriptions and video recording.
Moreover, the study hopes to solicit qualitative and quantitative data from the guidance
counselors and guidance advocates who adapts the counseling supervision program in the
Rosario East District. Since the research will be choosing counselor and advocates who follows
counseling supervision program, purposive sampling will be utilized to determine who among
them are the appropriate participants of the study. Self-constructed survey using the Likert scale
will be used to determine their perception about the program. Structured interview will be utilized
to supplement the data which will be gathered thru the survey. Data Gathering procedure will
start by seeking permission from the District Supervisor and the School heads of the
participants. The survey and structured interview thru groupings of participants. Descriptive
statistics and Thematic analysis are the method that can be adapted to analyze the data
gathered.
The research may result in discussion of how apparent the lack of implementation of the
counseling supervision program in Department of Education is. It may also support current
literature with how the counseling supervision practices is unstructured and uncleared. The
researcher thinks that it also exciting to discover that there is a present counseling supervision
implemented in the department even though how crude it might be as it will be easier to develop
standard guidelines and procedures for clinical counseling supervision.

References:

Arrieta, G. S., & Valeria, J. R. (2021). Counseling Challenges in the New Normal: Inputs for
Quality Guidance and Counseling Program. Counsellia: Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling, 11(1),
71-85.
Department of Education. (2021). Guidelines on the Counseling and Referral Svstem of
Leamers for S.Y. 2020-2021. http://www.deped-nv.com.ph/memou_files/20210316080517

Ladbury, J. L. S. (2012). School Counseling Supervision: A Qualitative Summary from the

Perspective of School Counseling Site-Supervisors (dissertation).

Pinoy Pacers. January 16, 2020. https://web.facebook.com/100489431503264/posts/the-

philippine-association-for-counselor-education-research-and-supervision
pace/100874934798047/?_rdc=1&_rdr

Tuason, M. T. G., Alvarez, M. H., & Stanton, B. (2021). The Counseling Profession in the
Philippines. Australian Counselling Research Journal.