Program Purpose
Built on Malone’s Foundational Principles, the graduate programs in Counselor and Guidance Education provide academic, clinical, and professional training to strengthen the development of professional counselors and other advocates supporting client/student change.
The following outcomes describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that the Malone University Counselor and Guidance Education Program expects its students to achieve.
Malone strives to prepare professionals who:
- Demonstrate ways in which a Christian worldview informs education practice
- Apply sound principles of teaching, learning, and advocacy
- Master the content for which they have educational responsibility
- Demonstrate competence in the process of planning developmentally appropriate practices
- Exhibit effective techniques which promote learning for all students regardless of race, culture, gender, creed, or ability
- Identify organizational and behavioral management strategies that create an educational environment conductive to effective learning and growth
- Evaluate and support student learning and growth by utilizing varied assessments to inform instruction and interventions
- Display professionalism and ownership of professional growth
- Use technology as a tool for instruction, communication, collaboration, and creativity
- Collaborate with family, teachers, community, and other stakeholders in student learning and growth
- Initiate and sustain conversation in an organized, clear, and confident manner, using standard English, in written and oral form
- Exhibit dispositions for educators committed to serving together by:
- Providing service
- Practicing fairness
- Promoting stewardship
- Believing all students can learn and grow
Assessment
The Graduate Program in Counselor and Guidance Education employs a comprehensive assessment model that includes multiple methods.
Admission Requirements
Regular Admission
- Hold a Baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited institution with at least a minimum cumulative g.p.a. of 3.00.
- Complete the counseling application supplement.
- Submit two personal reference forms.
As a part of the application process, applicants may be requested to attend an on-campus interview with program faculty. The purpose of the interview is to determine if the applicant evidences a readiness for graduate study and possesses the attributes that will contribute to the successful completion of the degree program and eventual professional/clinical licensure.
Conditional Admission
Applicants with a minimum cumulative g.p.a. of 2.99 or less may be considered for admission once they submit all items listed under the Regular Admission requirements for the counseling programs, as well as submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores yielding a 900 composite (verbal and quantitative combined) or the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) with a raw score of 33 (scaled score of 388). All materials will be reviewed by the Director of Counselor and Guidance Education, along with the faculty, who will make a determination on granting Conditional Admission status based upon review of all required materials. Students assigned this status will be granted Regular Admission upon successful completion of 12 semester hours of coursework with a minimum required g.p.a. of 3.00.
Non-Degree Admission
Post master’s degree students seeking to take courses in the Counselor and Guidance Education Program to meet the requirements for licensure through the State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board or licensure through the Ohio Department of Education as a School Counselor must complete the Regular Admissions Process outlined in the Graduate Counselor and Guidance Education Program Admission Requirements. Furthermore, students must complete at least 75% of post-degree academic requirements for licensure at Malone University. (A lesser percentage may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.) All applicable coursework must have been completed within seven years. Older courses may be approved on a case-by-case basis.
Graduation Checklist
Students admitted to the Counselor and Guidance Education program may use the following checklist as a guide:
- Application for admission to the M.A.Ed. Counselor and Guidance Education Programs
- A possible interview with the Program Director or faculty in the Counselor and Guidance Education Program
- Written notification of acceptance for admission
- Completion of all course work and requirements for the program
- Application for Graduation
- Complete the Application for Graduation.
- Return the completed forms to the Office of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies by January 30 for May and August graduates and September 30 for December graduates.
Review and Retention Policy
The Counselor and Guidance Education Department specifies courses in which students are evaluated by the instructor in the following domains: clinical astuteness, intrapersonal insight/dispositions, interpersonal skills, and professional dispositions in the Review and Retention Rubric (available through this department). These domains are meant to examine the performance and readiness of the student in areas beyond purely academic ability typically addressed by graded assignments. The desired outcome is to increase the student’s awareness that specific non-academic skills are expected as part of the development of a counseling professional. The results of the evaluation will be provided to each student in writing along with final papers returned at the end of the respective course. A copy of the rubric for each student will also be retained in the student’s advising file for review by the program faculty. Any student evaluated to have less than a 3.0 mean in any one domain by the course instructor will be sent a letter to meet with his/her adviser to discuss this area and any potential need for remediation.
Programs of Study
