The Best Time to Offer a Course in Research Methods

Abstract

Many master’s-level counseling students may not see the relevance of outcome research to clinical practice.  There is a paucity of literature examining master’s level counseling students’ research self-efficacy, interest in and attitudes toward research.  This study examined a sample of master's level counseling students (N = 83) at pre and post course. Using a survey-based, pretest/posttest design, change in students' attitudes toward and interest in research, and research self-efficacy from pre to post a course in research methods was observed.  Students from six counseling programs participated in the study.  Research self-efficacy was the only outcome variable to reveal significant positive change from pre- to post- course.  Where students were in their program was used as a covariate in analyses (i.e., early, middle, late).  Significant differences between the change scores of the three points in program subgroups was observed. Suprisingly, students late in their program scored less than the early and middle subgroups across all of the outcome variables, except for interest.  Findings and implications for future research is discussed.

Keywords

• attitudes,interest,research self-efficacy,point in program,semester

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