TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 3-FULL ISSUE

342 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 3 Procedure A video-based training protocol was developed for the purpose of training faculty in counselor education programs, doctoral students, site supervisors, and other admissions raters to use the PDCA- RA to assess the dispositions of graduate program applicants (Freeman & Garner, 2017; Garner et al., 2016). The video was presented to participants by a trainer. The trainer also greeted participants, obtained informed consent, passed out PDCA-RA forms when prompted by the training video, and collected completed PDCA-RA forms for later analysis. Training in the use of the PDCA-RA was important not only as a mechanism to establish interrater reliability but also as a means of informing adjustments to the tool during its initial iterative development process. Development of the video-based training protocol progressed through several stages. At first, the original 90-minute training consisted of a faculty team of seven working together as a group to read and discuss each disposition, followed by each faculty viewing an admissions interview video and rating the applicant independently. Faculty then discussed their ratings, leading to subtle adjustments in the rubric item descriptions. Additional benefits to the training were an increase in faculty self-awareness of dove and hawk tendencies when rating admissions applicants and self-awareness associated with interview bias. With continued training and feedback, the original training protocol was significantly improved. To complete the next step in the creation of the video-based training protocol, counseling student volunteers were offered a minimal incentive to come to the film studio, and after signing waivers to allow the film clips to be used, the student volunteers were asked to respond to various admissions interview questions. The faculty filming the students instructed them to “give a strong answer” or “give a weak answer.” The researchers treated all responses as unscripted role plays. The questions asked by the interviewer for each disposition were those found in the PDCA-RA materials (Freeman & Garner, 2017). Finally, the authors and developers of the training video reviewed over 100 film clips, removed those in which the acting interfered with the purpose of the video, and rated the remaining clips using the PDCA-RA, resulting in ratings of 1 , 3 , or 5 . These numerical ratings corresponded to descriptive ratings of developing , meets expectation , and above expectation , respectively. Clips in which the researchers found the rating to be difficult were removed from consideration. In selecting the final 18 clips (two for each of nine dispositions), the researchers considered diversity in age, ethnicity, gender, and disability of the student volunteers. The goal was to create video clips of student volunteers with diverse characteristics. The result was a video-based training protocol that could still be completed by trainees in 90 to 120 minutes. The video training protocol began with an introduction to the PDCA-RA, followed by prompts to rate the video-recorded vignettes using the PDCA-RA prior to receiving training. This initial rating of the vignettes was considered the pretest condition. Training on the application of the PDCA-RA to the vignettes was next. Training included revealing ideal scores as determined by the authors, the reasoning behind the scoring, and opportunities to discuss scoring among participants. Following the training on the PDCA-RA, participants were, once again, given the PDCA-RA rubric along with a new set of video- recorded vignettes. This was considered the posttest condition. Participants were asked to rate the new vignettes using the PDCA-RA. The video-based training protocol, designed for use in small groups, allowed for group discussion of ratings after each participant completed the PDCA-RA independently. This was indicated by a written message on the video reading, “Pause video for discussion.” The training tape ended with a narrator discussion of how to use the PDCA-RA in actual admissions interviews, including comments on cultural sensitivity in admissions interviews.