Assessment Talks

Join us as we recap Season 3 and Assessment Talks as a series! Lessons learned, favorite moments, and more!

In this episode, two of our team members Jennifer Deaton and Kyndel Tarziers are joined by Cian Brown to explore Item Response Theory. What is it? How is it used? Dr. Cian Brown is an Assistant Professor from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Brown’s research and clinical work centers around Adventure Therapy but it is his Master’s degree in Statistics and Analytics that he brings to us his knowledge and expertise in IRT.  

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Join us with returning guest Peitao Zhu as we discuss factor analysis used in instrument development! Dr. Zhu is an Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University specializing in cultural humility and the impact of culture issues on relational processes in counseling.

In this episode of Assessment Talks, Kristine and Angélica discuss focus groups. They share their firsthand experiences with qualitative research and focus groups, offering valuable insights and practical tips for their use in instrument development. Together, they highlight the significance of qualitative approaches in fostering a collaborative and inclusive process, especially when researchers aim to closely engage with the communities they study. Together, they make a compelling case for creating space for qualitative research in instrument development.

In this episode of Assessment Talks, the team discuss the process of acquiring expert review for your instrument, what to ask experts, and what to expect. They provide important insight into the process of receiving and applying feedback. And conclude with a discussion on participant recruitment, all while sharing their experiences and some fun facts from their own research, acquaintances, and communications with their IRB representatives. Find out who might get a call from their representative for oversharing.

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In this episode of Assessment Talks, the group discusses item development. They share their experiences navigating assessments as well as suggestions on the best way to approach item development. Together, they highlight the significance of collaboration and feedback, especially when researchers aim to determine the items they should include on their assessment. Interested in developing your own measure but totally unsure of how to navigate the item development process? This episode is just for you. 

Welcome back to Assessment Talks! This episode gets the team back together to tackle our focus for Season 3- Instrument Development. We review the when and why behind instrument development, and provide a few spoilers for the rest of the season. Give it a listen!

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Rick Balkin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is a Professor, Interim Department Chair of Leadership and Counselor Education, and Coordinator of Educational Research and Design in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. Dr. Balkin was the editor for the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association; an ACA Fellow; and past-president for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Rick began practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. Rick has over 100 publications, which include text books on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship, published tests and technical manuals, peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. This led to numerous published articles and a published measure, the Crisis Stabilization Scale, through Mindgarden, Inc. related to assessing and counseling at-risk youth. He co-authored a measure on life balance for adults and adolescents, the Life Balance Inventory. He has published in the area of religious diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for counseling clients through issues of forgiveness and conflict, The Forgiveness Reconciliation Inventory. He is the author of Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing, published by Oxford University Press.

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Dr. Jasmine L. Garland McKinney, Ph.D, LMHCA, NCC (she/her) earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science (MS) in Counselor Education from East Carolina University – where she also earned a graduate certificate in Substance Abuse Counseling. Most recently, Dr. Garland McKinney earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Counseling and Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Dr. Garland McKinney is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate (NC), Professional School Counselor (NC), and Nationally Certified Counselor. Dr. Garland McKinney’s clinical and scholarly efforts center on Black women’s experiences with maternal mental health, intergenerational trauma, and the relationship between Black mothers and daughters – her work has been supported by organizations including Reproductive Health Impact (formerly the National Birth Equity Collaborative), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and the National Board for Certified Counselors. Dr. Garland McKinney will begin her career in the fall 2023 semester as a postdoctoral associate in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. There, she will work within the Community, Equity, Data, and Information (CEDI) Lab to expand research on Black women’s maternal health experiences. Dr. Garland McKinney is a proud wife and mother of two girls, Blake and Cooper.

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Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a Professor and the Program Coordinator of Counseling Programs at Eastern Michigan University. A Professional Counselor (MI/CT), Board-Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Certified EMDR Therapist, she has 20 years of clinical experience with refugees, immigrant and multicultural populations, as well as trauma survivors on violence, sexuality, grief and loss. She uses narrative, somatic, and EMDR informed approaches in working with trauma. Her scholarship focuses on DEIJ issues in counseling, supervision and pedagogy, as well as cultural competency in trauma counseling, group work, and ethics. She served on the National Board of Certified Counselors from 2009-2015, the Minority Fellowship Advisory Council from 2015-2018 and as President of the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2020. She is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling; a Reviewer for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development. Currently, she is validating an instrument to measure historic trauma across diverse clients, explore multigenerational effects of trauma due to racism and colonization and develop community-based interventions.

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