Ministry of education, state schools’ guidance couselors and psychological consultants’ views regarding in-service training (The case of İstanbul)

In this research, the effectiveness of in-service training activities attended by psychological consultants and guidance counselors working for state schools connected to the Ministry of Education has been studied. It includes a total of seven sections consisting of research, introduction and state of problem, psychological consulting and guidance counseling, the notion of in-service training, the types of inservice training, related research, methodology, findings and commentary, discussion of results and suggestions. In the research, the views of psychological consultants and guidance counselors who have at least once in their careers in state schools have attended in-service training courses organized by the in-service training office. Their views of duration of courses, scope of courses, methodology and technical aspect of the courses, as well as the trainers? adequacy, the environmental setting of the courses and contribution to application. In the research 5-point Likert scale has been used. The data obtained as a result of the Likert scale has been analyzed using frequency (f), percentage (%), arithmetical average (x), and t test. The difference from the expected average has been signified based on whether it?s meaningful at ?=0,01 level. Scheffe test has been used to determine which groups have differences among themselves based on personal attributes. The results obtained as an outcome of the research are as follows: both the psychological consultants? and guidance counselors? views on the duration of the inservice training activities are negative and suggest that the duration is not sufficient. The psychological consultants? and guidance counselors? views on the scope of the in-service training activities are generally negative. The psychological consultants? and guidance counselors? views on methodology and technical aspect of the inservice training activities are neither positive nor negative, but indecisive. The psychological consultants? and guidance counselors? views on the adequacy of the in-service trainers are neither positive nor negative. As regards to the environmental setting in which the in-service training activities are carried out, the psychological consultants and guidance counselors have low opinions and deem the environmental aspects insufficient. The psychological consultants? and guidance counselors? views on the training?s contribution to application are mostly negative. The contribution to application of the in-service training activities has been observed to be low. Key words: Psychological consultant and guidance counselor, in-service training