Final Project Description
The Master of Counselling degree involves the completion of an applied project as one of the culminating activities for the program.
Within the Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology, a project is defined as the critical analysis, and/or development, and/or implementation, and/or evaluation of some aspect of counselling psychology. The focus of the project may be conceptual or may reflect applied practice in a specific setting or with a particular population. In most cases, final projects will not involve human subjects research (e.g., collection of data from human subjects), although this may be permitted under some circumstances. All projects must be grounded in the literature and must demonstrate a depth of knowledge and understanding of the discipline and of the particular area of specialization selected by the student.
The structure of the project is flexible and accommodates various creative endeavours. The project may be work based and is intended as a means for students to integrate their conceptual learning with applied practice in a contextually meaningful fashion. Some possibilities for final projects are:
- curriculum development
- development of resources to support counselling practice
- needs assessment
- program design or development
- implementation and/or evaluation of counselling programs
- model development related to assessment, intervention, consultation, or other areas of practice
- outcome research
The project is oriented towards practical applications, even though it must still have a solid grounding in the literature. Students often use the project to demonstrate or implement some aspect of counselling practice that does not currently exist within their system or place of work. Thus, a project is often an application of an existing methodology or procedure. Alternatively, students may focus on the assessment of client needs or the development of an innovative tool or process.
Students are sometimes confused about the difference between a project and a thesis. The primary difference is that a thesis has a strong research component and is designed to contribute original knowledge to the discipline of psychology. A project is primarily the application of existing knowledge to a specific situation or question.
The scope of the project is intended to be equivalent to that of a six-credit course. It is therefore critical that students carefully define the nature and boundaries of the project at the outset. For example, it may be realistic to engage in a program development task, but not to also implement and evaluate the product. Alternatively, students may choose to demonstrate how a counselling intervention, practice, product, or program may be implemented and/or evaluated, but would not also do the front-end development work.
Final projects that involve human subjects are typically considered as beyond the scope of the final project six-credit equivalency. If you wish to engage in a project of this nature, there are specific guidelines and procedures that you must follow in completing your final project. You should discuss these in advance with your proposed supervisor to ensure that each of you is aware of the additional requirements. Not all proposals for human subjects research will be approved by the GCAP Human Subjects Research Chair.
Projects will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis and will be assessed by both the project supervisor and a second reader. No course credit is granted for the final project. The project must reflect an original piece of work on the part of the student, although the student may draw on earlier course work carefully following the Scholarly Integrity Guidelines provided for both final projects and course-based exit papers. A student project must also be something over which the student can exercise accountability and responsibility. The student project may be part of a larger initiative, but the student must have control over her or his part of the project, in consultation with the supervisor. For example, if the finalization of the Letter of Intent or ethics approval process takes more time than anticipated, the student must be free to alter project implementation plans accordingly and not be constrained by another person's or agency's timeline.
A Brief Example
Perhaps an example would help. Let's say that you are interested in the concept of building self-esteem for children of elementary school age. A possible project for this topic may involve developing an in-depth literature review in the area of self-esteem for this age group and reporting/analyzing various programs that aim to foster self-esteem for common themes or theoretical underpinnings. Or, you might decide to create a guide for the implementation of self-esteem programs, where the "product" of your project is a step-by-step manual for other professionals in the field. Or, your final project could involve a program evaluation of a self-esteem program that is already in place. Note that each of these components on its own represents the breadth of project you should aim for. It is not realistic to think that you would do all three of these things in one final project.
Page last updated: November 25, 2008 @ 02:21:21 PM
