METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES OF PROSPECTIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELORS IN THE CONTEXT OF SCHOOL GUIDANCE PRACTICES

Abstract

This study aimed to improve and uncover the metacognitive skills of fourth-year undergraduate students enrolled in the Psychological Counseling and Guidance program during their internship as part of the "Guidance and Psychological Counseling Practice (GPC) in Schools I" course. Conducted in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year at a Turkish education faculty, the research involved 12 prospective teacher counselors. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews held after 12 synchronous online sessions designed to foster reflective thinking and self-evaluation. These sessions encouraged students to share their internship experiences in schools, aiming to enhance their metacognitive awareness and critical thinking skills. Students were tasked with observing school environments, fulfilling responsibilities, and preparing detailed reports aligned with the Ministry of National Education's criteria. The course guide, developed by the GPC department, was shared with both students and counselor teachers at schools and explained comprehensively at the semester's start. Six students interned at primary schools with low socio-economic levels, while the other six interned at high schools with middle socio-economic levels, spending at least half a day weekly at their practice schools. The findings emphasize the importance of structured tasks and reflective practices in improving metacognitive skills among prospective psychological counselors.

Keywords: Metacognition, school guidance practices, psychological counseling, reflective thinking.

Ethics and Conflict of Interest

Authors declare that they acted in accordance with ethical rules in all processes of the research. The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest related to this work.

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