Education and Counseling

EDUCATION and Counseling

CHAIR: Kevin Fall, Ph.D. OFFICE: 210 Mercy Hall
director of graduate counseling: Justin E. Levitov, Ph.D.

WEB PAGE: cas.loyno.edu/education/graduate/
cas.loyno.edu/education/counseling/

The Department of Education and Counseling offers advanced courses leading to the master of science degree in elementary education, secondary education, and counseling. As part of the Teacher Education Unit, the department also offers courses leading to initial state certification in all these areas as well as counselor licensure.

Accreditation Status

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), has granted accreditation to the Department of Education and Counseling’s Community Counseling (M.S. degree) program.

Please contact the department or the web for current status regarding accreditation for elementary, secondary, and music education.

Admission to the Graduate Programs

Admission to the degree program requires a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university. Acceptance is based on a combination of criteria: 1) GPA accumulated during the last 60 hours of undergraduate work; 2) standardized test results (the Miller Analogy Test or Graduate Record Examination); 3) written recommendations; 4) admission interview; and 5) writing sample.

Degree Requirements

All candidates are required to complete at least 33 credit hours of graduate work to receive the degree. Programs vary in length from 33 to 48 hours. A course in which the student has earned a grade of D or F cannot be counted toward the completion of graduation requirements, but is used in determining the grade point average.

A degree candidate whose cumulative grade point average falls below 3.0 will automatically be placed on probation, and his or her status will be reviewed by the Graduate Committee of the Department of Education.

A comprehensive written examination covering the student’s major area and graduate core courses must be passed upon completion of coursework. The examinations are scheduled in November, April, and June. Within the first four weeks of the semester in which the degree candidate is to graduate, he or she must file an application to take the comprehensive examination. (This is usually the last semester in which he or she is enrolled in courses.) If performance on the comprehensive examination is not satisfactory, the candidate will be required to reschedule an examination no sooner than the time regularly scheduled for the next comprehensive examination. The Graduate Committee of the Department of Education may elect to require an oral examination in addition to or in lieu of a second written examination.

Transfer of Academic Credit

Students who have earned academic credit at another accredited college or university may be allowed to transfer a maximum of six credit hours, with the approval of the departmental chair and/or dean of the college. Each degree program has certain restrictions concerning acceptance of courses completed at other institutions. Transfer of credits earned more than five years prior to enrollment will ordinarily not be considered.
Transfer students will be informed of the amount of credit which will transfer prior to their enrollment, if possible, but at the latest, prior to the end of the first academic term in which they are enrolled.

COURSE PROGRAM

The student’s course of study is planned in collaboration with the major area adviser. A minimum of 18 hours must be completed in one specific area. The areas of concentration include elementary education, secondary education, and counseling.

All students must take the following graduate core courses in the beginning of their programs:

EDGR A702 Methods of Educational Research
EDGR A703 Statistics in Education, and
EDGR A705 Philosophy and Education, or
EDGR A706 Philosophy and Counseling (for counseling majors)

Students are not normally allowed to transfer core courses or required courses into their programs of study. Students wishing to obtain graduate transfer credit for any other classes taken at another university must petition the Graduate Committee of the Education Department. A maximum of six hours of transfer credit will be allowed toward the degree.

All courses, including those taken in the Department of Education of Loyola University, must have been completed within seven years. Students wanting to take independent study courses must petition the department faculty at least one month before registration. Please consult program adviser for details.

EDUCATION

EDUCATION PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY AND MISSION STATEMENT

The Department of Education and Counseling’s Conceptual Framework emerges from the university’s tradition as a Jesuit Institution of Higher Learning. Teacher candidates are prepared to cultivate relational thinking, advocate for growth of the whole person, and develop a discerning mindset about their vocation to professional praxis. These underlying commitments are integrated into coursework, fieldwork, and clinical practice and make up one component of the program objectives. Teacher candidates also gain competence in professional teaching standards and the arts of pedagogy, a variety of communication methods, and collaboration skills. These program objectives are part of what makes preparing teachers at Loyola University New Orleans different from teacher preparation at another university.

CULTIVATION OF RELATIONAL THINKING

Teacher education as cultivation of relational thinking promotes the 12 Ideals of Jesuit education. To that end, teacher candidates are provided opportunities to pursue excellence and develop a discerning mindset for finding God in all things. They are called to respect the universe, the world, and all life. Teacher candidates are encouraged to learn from experience and appreciate a contemplative vision formed by hope. Each candidate is provided opportunities to develop his or her own personal potential and critical thinking skills and to employ a variety of methods for personal and professional communication. Teacher education requires appreciation of things both great and small and commitment to service, with a special concern for the poor and oppressed. Teacher education links faith with justice in local and global perspectives. These ideals are honored throughout the education program, beginning with the core courses of philosophy, research, and statistics.

ADVOCACY FOR GROWTH OF THE WHOLE PERSON

The values that the Department of Education and Counseling espouse are consistent with the university mission, which states, “the person is central in a Catholic university.” The teacher education program provides a context for intelligent commitment to and advocacy for growth of the whole person in relation to teacher candidates and the P-2 students with whom they work. Education candidates realize their responsibility to respect and serve others through their diverse course, fieldwork and clinical practice experiences. Within these partnerships between pedagogical studies and clinical practice, teacher candidates strengthen their commitment to diversity and gain competence in advocating for those, human and non-human, who have been denied or provided limited opportunities for development of their full potential.

VOCATION TO PROFESSIONAL PRAXIS

Jesuit tradition holds that God calls each person to perform good deeds in the world, to be concerned for other human beings and life forms, and to be instruments of love, peace, and justice. The teacher education programs build upon the university’s commitment to the 12 Ideals of Jesuit education and seek to provide meaningful learning experiences that support the development of each candidate’s full potential for professional praxis. These diverse experiences are intended to assist candidates in developing, reflecting upon, and acting on their philosophy of education and a vision of themselves leading purposeful lives through their work with children, adolescents, or young adults.

PROGRAM LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In accordance with the program’s mission to cultivate relational thinking, advocate for the growth of the whole person, and develop each candidate’s vocation to professional praxis:

To educate teacher candidates to be competent in professional standards and the
practice of the pedagogical arts.
To insure that all education candidates are critically aware and appropriately
prepared to cultivate relational thinking, advocate for growth of the whole person,
and develop their vocation to professional praxis.
To provide teacher candidates diverse opportunities to communicate their
knowledge, dispositions, and skilled actions through verbal, written, and performance
media.
To insure that all teacher candidates evidence the capacity for collaboration in
relation to diverse communities.

COUNSELING

COUNSELING PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY AND MISSION STATEMENT

Loyola’s Counseling Program offers eligible counseling graduate students a carefully designed curriculum that will prepare them personally, academically, and professionally to become skilled mental health counselors. One of the program’s core beliefs is that effective professional counselor preparation requires a continuous blend of three types of learning: academic learning, experiential learning, and learning about self. Thus this program, consistent with the Jesuit philosophy of educating the whole person, is designed to help students gain knowledge, understanding, and skills in a planned sequence that builds toward more advanced concepts and more sophisticated clinical interventions, all the while emphasizing ethical, social, and cultural concerns.

ACADEMIC LEARNING

Completion of prerequisite coursework ensures that beginning students have fundamental knowledge of the range of normal and abnormal human growth and development and possess basic computer utilization skills. The professional education core extends knowledge to include an understanding of the range of exceptionalities among young people and/or adults and a sensitive understanding of the nature of our pluralistic society. Within the professional education core, students also learn to conduct and evaluate research and become informed consumers of the research in their professional field. In the counseling core, students are introduced to the counseling profession in EDGR 830—Counseling Theories, EDGR 835—Counseling Practice, and EDGR 864—Ethics in Counseling. Subsequent core coursework will provide students with specialized knowledge, skills, and understanding about career development and counseling, diagnosis, appraisal and assessment techniques, group process in counseling, counseling theory, and legal, ethical, and professional issues in counseling.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Laboratory or experiential learning is provided early in the student’s program, and opportunities to advance and refine counseling skills continue throughout the program. EDGR 830—Counseling Theories, the introductory counseling core course, systematically teaches theory and basic clinical applications. EDGR 835—Counseling Practice builds upon this foundation and presents an opportunity for basic counseling skills and provides students an opportunity to assess their comfort with the role of counselor. EDGR 840—Group Counseling, also taught by laboratory method, enables students to learn group leadership and facilitation skills. Other courses in the counseling core and elective courses contain experiential components to ensure the continuous blend of the three types of learning. The laboratory learning sequence culminates in the Practicum and Internship. The entire sequence provides opportunities for students to observe counseling activities, develop counseling skills, and interact with clients. Students can expect constant feedback and supervision as they develop a unique and effective personal counseling style.

LEARNING ABOUT SELF

The faculty believes that counselors are more effective when they are able to examine their own values, personal characteristics, motivations, and relationships with others. Students are therefore expected to extend their personal philosophies and become sensitive to their outlooks and ways of dealing with others. Opportunities are provided throughout the program for students to maximize their self-awareness and self-understanding. The faculty believe that self-understanding contributes to personal and professional maturity as well as to the capacity for good judgment.
Finally, the faculty believe that personal and professional development are enhanced when close, cooperative relationships exist among students, between student and professor, and among professors. A close working relationship must exist between student and adviser to facilitate the selection of a sequence of studies that provides optimal preparation to meet the student’s specific career goals. Class size and program size are limited to the number of students that can be adequately served to meet the goals of maintaining close relationships, providing quality clinical or lab training, and enhancing self-understanding.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

In accordance with the program’s mission to incorporate academic, experiential, and intrapersonal learning, Loyola University New Orleans offers a carefully chosen curriculum that blends these three components of learning. The overarching goal of the counseling program is to educate and train students to be ethical, competent, effective, and thoughtful mental health practitioners. The program’s objectives include the following:

To educate students to be clinically and theoretically competent in the practice of
counseling.
To insure that all counseling students are exposed to and that they understand the
ethical principles that govern counseling.
To insure that all students practice in an effective and ethical way.
To provide a diverse and enriched collection of training experiences during the
course of the student’s academic preparation.
To integrate course offerings so that students realize how each area of specialization is integrated into practice.
To encourage students to pursue additional training and advanced certification
throughout their professional careers.
To pursue creative training methods that enhance student learning while honoring
ethical concerns.

The Department of Education and Counseling offers a 48-hour master of science degree in counseling. Students pursuing this master’s degree may select degree plans leading to Louisiana Elementary or Secondary School Counselor Certification and licensure as a licensed professional counselor (L.P.C.) in Louisiana. Graduates of the program who qualify for school counselor certification work in public, private, and parochial schools. Graduates obtain the L.P.C. only after successfully completing 3,000 hours of supervised post-master’s clinical experience and passing the state licensing examination. These counseling professionals work in a variety of settings, including community mental health centers, hospitals, substance abuse centers, and private practice.

Applicants and students can obtain more detailed information from the Student Handbook available in the education department office, Mercy Hall Room 210. The counseling curriculum which follows contains required and elective courses offered in the counseling program. Students should consult with their adviser regarding course selection and requirements.

Required Core Courses (9 Hrs.)

		Course Cr.	Hrs.
EDGR	A702	Methods of Educational Research	3
EDGR	A703	Statistics in Education	3
EDGR	A706	Philosophy and Counseling	3

Required Counseling Courses (33 Hrs.)

		Course Cr.	Hrs.
EDGR	A725	Developmental Psychology	3
EDGR	A776	Measurement and Assessment	3
EDGR	A830	Counseling Theories	3
EDGR	A835	Counseling Practice	3
EDGR	A840	Group Counseling	3
EDGR	A841	Vocational Counseling	3
EDGR	A846	Ethics and Counseling	3
EDGR	A855	Diagnosis and Treatment	3
EDGR	A865	Practicum	3
EDGR	A866	Internship I	3
EDGR	A866	Internship II	3

Elective Courses (6 Hrs.)

	Course	Cr. Hrs.
EDGR A837	Counseling Children	3
EDGR A842	Multicultural Counseling	3
EDGR A845	Substance Abuse (recommended for L.P.C.)	3
EDGR A850	Introduction to Family Counseling (recommended for L.P.C.)	3
EDGR A894	Experimental Courses(with adviser’s approval)	3

Elementary Education

The Department of Education offers coursework in elementary education leading to the master of science degree. The degree program is particularly apt for elementary school teachers seeking to expand and deepen their professional expertise. Persons who have completed an undergraduate degree and are interested in becoming certified elementary teachers are asked to contact the program adviser or the certification adviser for information concerning additional course requirements.

Required Courses

	Course	Cr. Hrs.
EDGR A722	Advanced Child Psychology	3
EDGR A823	Graduate Mathematical Methods	3
EDGR A810	Psychology of Teaching Reading	3

For electives, please consult your adviser.

Secondary Education

The Department of Education offers coursework leading to the master of science degree in secondary education. This program is particularly apt for content area teachers of grades 7 – 12 seeking to upgrade and deepen their professional expertise. Please consult with the program/certification adviser regarding general education and teaching major requirements for certification.