Knowing in Action: A First-Year Counselor's Process of Reflection.

After the initial excitement of gainful employment, terror set in. Although an admitted exaggeration, this reaction is descriptive of a first-year elementary school counselor's feelings about the upcoming year. Counseling is a field that lacks a systematic induction process, thus entry-level professionals are assumed to be fully formed when they arrive for the first real day on the job. Novice counselors may receive little support as they adapt to their new roles (Matthes, 1992). In a time of rapid changes, this lack of support raises concerns. Many experienced school counselors are retiring. In some locations, elementary counseling positions are being added for the first time. Across the country school reform efforts challenge the roles of all school personnel, including school counselors. Counselors at all levels must assume positions of leadership and actively define and market services. This press of new positions and paradigms presents a need to develop strategies to help with the transition from preparation programs to practice. A reflective journaling process, based on the work of Donald Schon ( 1983, 1987), can help counselors to document and then analyze their professional development during this transition process. Schon (1987), whose work has been widely used in teacher education, saw that the student primarily learns through continuous action and reflection on everyday problems. The emerging professional then builds an "appreciation system," an accretion of the knowledge, theory, and values that influences how he or she will define new situations arising in practice. Practitioners develop personal "theories in use" that silently, almost unconsciously, guide future actions. The reflective process brings these personal theories into active awareness, allowing the professional to use them reliably and intentionally when determining professional action. Reflection is not just a tool for teachers. School counseling is complex and challenging and both counselors and teachers can use the reflective process for professional development.