Delphi Study

The Center for School Counseling Outcome Research conducted a Delphi Study which began in mid-February, 2003. The study was completed to help address the need for additional research in the field of school counseling. The study determined the critical research questions and proposed a research agenda for the school counseling field. The results of the study were published in the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision journal.

For more specific details related to the results of this study, click here.

The Delphi Technique consists of several rounds of questions that will be presented to a panel of experts in the field of school counseling. It is a research method for generating ideas and gathering comprehensive information from a wide variety of experts in a given field. The purpose of this process is to facilitate consensus on a certain topic. Data gathering occurs via email and consisted of three "rounds" of questions related to the needs of school counseling research. The Delphi Technique allows busy experts the opportunity to interact with one another to generate new ideas to solve a problem. This is done with the help of a researcher who facilitates the process and shares information with the expert panelists in a confidential manner.

An initial survey or questionnaire was sent to all Delphi panelists. These were returned to the researcher who compiled all the ideas that were presented. A second survey instrument was created based on this information. The second survey was then sent out to all panelists, who were asked to rank order, modify, and/or add to their initial responses based upon their review of other members' ideas. This data was collected and reviewed by the researcher who created a final questionnaire based on the accumulated information that was presented by the panelists. The final instrument asked for further clarification and/or rank ordering of ideas that had been presented throughout the study process. A final report was prepared and distributed to panel members before results of the study were released to others.

Panelists were nominated to participate in this study based on their considerable knowledge and expertise in the field of school counseling. We believe their contribution to this study was invaluable, as each of them is already making exceptional contributions to the field of school counseling.