110 The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 1 aligned. Although the current study had 60 viable pre- and post- surveys, the data could have been more reliable and generalizable with a larger dataset. Furthermore, there was a lack of diversity in the research sample. Because the participants were primarily White females, the results may be limited in its generalizability to other cultures and genders. Future studies should attempt to better isolate these variables (i.e., teaching styles, feedback, participant recruitment, prior experience in suicide training, cultural background) and find ways to improve response rates. In addition, it would be beneficial to have a comparison course or data from other counseling programs’ basic skills classes to further determine if this practice-based model was effective. Results could be linked to more general self-efficacy increases because of growing more comfortable with learning and using interviewing skills (Holladay & Quiñones, 2003). One final limitation worth noting is the effect size estimates of the pre- and posttest scores. All effect sizes are large. Some reasons why the effect sizes may be large in the paired-samples t-tests include: (a) large differences between paired observations (the mean scores between the pre- and posttest scores were extremely different), and (b) small within-group variability (if the within-group variability is small, then even small differences between the paired observations could result in a large effect size). Conclusion As counselor educators prepare students for the profession, intentional inclusion of suicide screening, assessment, and intervention skills is vital to increasing students’ confidence and preparation to address this topic with their future clients. But it is not enough for students to learn about screening, assessment, and interventions; they need experiential opportunities to practice and develop these skills. In turn, feedback and practice will increase their comfort levels to directly and adequately support their clients’ needs. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2014). Grade change: Tracking online education in the United States. The Sloan Consortium. Sloan-C. http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradechange.pdf American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. (2023). Suicide statistics. https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American Psychologist, 44(9), 1175–1184. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.9.1175 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman. Barbee, P. W., Scherer, D., & Combs, D. C. (2003). Prepracticum service-learning: Examining the relationship with counselor self-efficacy and anxiety. Counselor Education and Supervision, 43(2), 108–119. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6978.2003.tb01835.x Barnes, K. L. (2004). Applying self-efficacy theory to counselor training and supervision: A comparison of two approaches. Counselor Education and Supervision, 44(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6978.2004.tb01860.x
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