Developing a national database for higher education student counselling services: the importance of collaborations

Student counselling services are at the forefront of providing mental health support to Irish Higher Education students. Since 1996, the Psychological Counsellors in Higher Education in Ireland (PCHEI) association, through their annual survey collection, has collected aggregate data for the sector. However, to identify national trends and effective interventions, a standardised non-aggregate sectoral approach to data collection is required. The Higher Education Authority funded project, 3SET, builds on the PCHEI survey through the development of a national database. In this paper, we outline the steps followed in developing the database, identify the parties involved at each stage and contrast the approach taken to the development of similar databases. Important factors shaping the development have been the autonomy of counselling services, compliance with General Data Protection Regulation, and the involvement of practitioners. This is an ongoing project with the long-term sustainability of the database being a primary objective.

Disability Unit Practitioners at Stellenbosch University: Covid‑19 Pandemic Reflections

As reflective practitioners working in disability inclusion, we constantly work with shifting realities concerning our students, who are not a homogenous group. The coronavirus pandemic (Covid‑19) was a reality least expected in 2020, yet we used our flexible approach to make the transition as smooth as we possibly could. The Disability Unit (DU) is one of five units located within the Centre for Student Counselling and Development at Stellenbosch University (SU) and falls within the responsibility centre of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning. The DU was founded in 2007 and is 15 years old in 2021. We aim to foster disability inclusion within a transformative framework at SU, with our main focus on students with disabilities. Our wider aim is universal access, which includes working towards the removal of cultural, social, language and disability barriers in the higher education context. We are guided by the Disability Access Policy (2018) of SU. Since the latter part of March 2020, we had to shift to online teaching and learning. This came at a time when we were preparing for the end of the term and student support was being put in place. The onset of Covid‑19 occasioned unanticipated reflections and challenges, which we share in this article. We also reflect on what we have learnt and how we can move forward in a changed academic environment catapulted into a digital world. We do this reflection by following the Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) which offers a way to reflect and learn from experience. The cycle is weaved into the reflections as it follows a process of describing the context of the DU, expressing how the Covid‑19 pandemic was felt by staff and students, evaluating and learning from what was experienced. According to Lyner-Cleophas (2020), online learning has benefits and challenges, especially considering students with disabilities.

Teachers’ Professional Development and E-Learning

Teachers’ professional development is a process in which teachers constantly transform their practice through their participation in training and educational programs, among other practices. This process is significant, since teachers have to face numerous challenges, due to the fact that education is a dynamic process. The advances in technology have enabled teachers’ professional development through e-learning, which is supported by various studies to be an effective means. The aim of this paper is to examine the importance and usefulness of e-learning.However, teaching students with special learning needs is the first major area in which teachers identify their educational needs, followed by teaching in a multicultural setting and student counselling. In addition, EFL teachers acknowledge, understand and accept the important role of e-learning in facilitating, supporting and encouraging their professional development. Moreover, the access to resources of e-learning, the existence of skilled teachers’ educators and technical support, and the evaluation of the program were found to facilitate their participation in an e-learning training program

The professional work of pedagogists in educational practice: The path to achieving sustainable development goals

The paper begins by considering the profession of pedagogist and then looks at the challenges faced by pedagogists in educational practice, with a focus on the activities to which pedagogists want to devote more time in conditions of change, and on the ways in which pedagogists obtain information on the results of their work in schools. The paper presents part of the findings of a study on the the views of pedagogists-educationalists in primary and secondary schools in Serbia. The aim of the research was to identify the professional activities to which pedagogists want to devote their activities in educational practice, and the ways they are informed about the results of their work at the level of the school, noting the differences related to the type of school in which pedagogists are employed. The findings of the research are indicative and suggest that the activities to which pedagogists want to devote more time at work are primarily professional development and student counselling, while the findings concerning the way in which pedagogists are informed about the results of their work point to the need for more enterprising, active and effective action by school pedagogists in educational practice which will also affect the work of pedagogists in the contemporary education system