EDCEP 816 Assignments #1: Quantitative Study Critique

Name: Elizabeth Reicher

You will be critiquing two studies over the remainder of the 816 course that serve as a
culminating experience of your abilities to determine something about the credibility of the
study assigned. This first study is quantitative.
Instructions: Using the study provided, thoroughly read and review the study. Respond to each of
the following questions by placing your complete sentence answers in the space provided. Point
values are indicated with each question. Upload your critique to the dropbox located in the content
files on KSOL.
1.) Using the reference section provided in the back of your text (or the APA Manual), provide a
complete APA style reference of the article you are critiquing (5 points).
Labia, G., Eva, K., & Mullen, P. (2013). Graduate counseling students learning,
development, and retention of knowledge. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching
and Learning, 13(4), 54-67. Retrieved from
http://josotl.indiana.edu/article/view/3284/3637
2.) How many participants are involved in this study and how were they selected (3 points)?
There were 52 graduate counseling students involved in the study. They were selected using
purposive sampling as researchers identified the characteristics that they were looking for in
participants and sought a group of individuals that possessed those characteristics and did not
allow for other participants.
3.) What are the primary research questions that guided the study (3 points)?
The primary research questions that guided the study were:
1. Are graduate counseling students levels of ELK and SCD different at three points in
their preparation program: (a) prior to a counseling ethics course, (b) at the completion of
the ethics course, and (c) four months following the completion of the ethics course?
2. Are there mean differences in graduate counseling students ELK and SCD scores who
are enrolled in two different sections of counseling ethics courses?
4.) How well did the authors develop an argument through their review of the literature that
warranted the need for this study (5 points)? Provide one or two sentences of support for
your assertion.
I think that the authors developed a good argument through their review of literature to
determine if their study was warranted. There has been limited research conducted on the
effectiveness of pedagogy on the learners acquisition of knowledge and social-cognitive
development in counseling preparation programs. These two components are vital for these

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programs to teach and nurture in order to produce counselors who have personalities and
knowledge to provide effective service to their clients.
5.) How did the authors collect their data (3 points)?
In order to collect data they used both the Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling Assessment
and the Washington University Sentence Completion Test.
The Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling Assessment is a fifty question multiple choice
assessment which is used to measure a graduate counseling students content knowledge in
the 10 domains of Ethical and Legal Knowledge.
The Washington University Sentence Completion Test used in this study consisted of 18
sentence stems for the students to complete. The test also included different stems for which
included different language based on the gender of the participants. The participants
responses were evaluated on the meaning of the answers they provided. An algorithm was
then used to evaluate the students placement on the Loevingers Social-cognitive
Development scheme, which evaluates the students Social-Cognitive Development in all
stages of data collection.
6.) What statistical analyses were used in this study (3 points)?
The statistical analysis tools used in the study were the Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences and the Analysis of Covariance.
7.) What were the primary findings of the study (3 points)?
The primary findings of the study showed that individuals who scored at high levels of
social-cognitive development at the beginning of the process had a significant increase in
their ethical and legal knowledge as they participated over the three time intervals even
though the learners level of SDC did not increase. It would seem that these counseling
students would possess the desirable traits and level of ELK retention to practice counseling
with more success than their peers who had lower levels of SDC because of the increase in
their knowledge and retention of ELK.
The research also found differences of these attributes between the two programs of
counseling programs. Counseling students on the School Counseling track learned more than
the students on the Mental Health and Marriage and Family Counseling tracks. These
differences in scores could be attributed to any of a number of extraneous variables present
in each class.
8.) Providing supportive evidence and using your research method knowledge, what is your
overall critique of this study in terms of its research-worthy credibility (5 points)?
I really enjoyed reading this study. The researchers did an extensive review of research and
identified an area of the subject that had not been investigated. It is important to review
pedagogy in order to measure its effectiveness in providing real world skills to learners as
they go from acquisition of knowledge into practice. Since counseling involves many
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complex scenarios, it is important that a students social-cognitive development and

knowledge of the ethical and legal constraints is evident.
I thought that their selection of participants lacked some control as the difference in the
percentage of men vs. women was quite large and there were also substantial percentage
differences between the two tracks of study.
Although the classes were structured and aligned to CACREP standards, there was no control
for the relationship that a professor builds with their students in order to support their
emotional and educational needs as they progress through a course or if the professor even
has the skills to build these relationships.
As the Limitation of Study sections suggests the growth of ELK could have been influenced
by other extraneous variables. I believe the professor/student relationship is an extraneous
variable, as the delivery of information can deeply influence the knowledge acquired in a
class. Prior knowledge of the learner is also an extraneous variable. I do not think that these
variables were controlled in this investigation.
The authors did suggest for more control of these extraneous variables in future studies by
suggesting a closer examination of the instructors instructional strategies. I believe that these
two extraneous variables confounded the outcome of this study as little evidence of effective
pedagogy was produced.

EDCEP 816, Instructor Hodge

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