From the perspective of the students: Reporting counselor educators’ teaching practices

Teaching practices have been reported by educators using the outcomes from their students or documents from their reports and accomplishment. Feedback from the students is seldom used in reporting the teaching practices, especially in graduate studies. The study intended to discover counselor educators’ teaching practices such as teaching methods and strategies, assessment, follow-up activities, and assignments in the eyes of their students. So, the teaching practices of counselor educators were reported by their students by answering the questionnaire and interview questions. Class observations were also conducted to verify the responses of the students. This study was an explanatory sequential design where quantitative data were collected first followed by qualitative. A total of eighty-two participants purposively selected were voluntarily joined the study from Region IV-A, Philippines and it was revealed that counselor educators facilitate the transfer of learning by linking conceptual learning to real-life experiences following constructivist philosophy. Various assessment tools were utilized by the counselor educators in evaluating the needs of the students and measuring the learning outcomes. Feedback from the students was also used right after the given activity or examination. Counselor educators maximize the potential of the students by allowing them to explore their learning in the community. Moreover, they make themselves available for consultations and interviews as the means of extending their services.


Introduction
For the past years, considering the voices of the students had been explicitly growing interested in research. Students' voices had been included in data for determining the experiences of learning rather than considering the outcomes. For instance, findings from the empirical studies have shown collaboration between teachers and students not only creates a good relationship but also better learning which eventually increases the students' engagement, interaction, sensitivity with others, and motivation (Arnot, McIntyre, Pedder, & Reay, 2004;Cook-Sather & Alter, 2011;Bovill, Cook-Sather, & Felten, 2011;Cook-Sather, 2002) The idea of authorizing students' perspectives is important because it can enhance present educational practices, revisits the current aspect of educational reform and topic to explore more, and change endeavors needed to investigate (Cook-Sather, 2002). Moreover, it can add to the conception of teaching relevant to the needs of students. To understand more entirely, utilizing the students' perspectives is not just to combine them in actual discussions within the current power network. Utilizing student perspectives denotes providing the existence of appropriate and appreciated spaces wherein students are communicating, talking to teachers' ears to hear what the students want to express, and switching actions to respond based on what the teacher heard. Caporrimo (2001) called students as one of the most important variables which are the missing voice in educational research. Since the ultimate beneficiaries of any educational endeavors are the students, their voices served us feedback of what teaching practices might be employed in every learning situation. Constructivists believed that students actively construct their understandings. They positioned students like the people who are responsible for their knowledge creation not just a passive recipient of knowledge from others. It means students are the authors of their learning and they must act as assessors on how they learn and how much they learned.

Literature Review
Counselor educators use different strategies in teaching at their disposition. These strategies are seen in activity methods, audio and video materials, and self-learning methods (Morrissette & Gadbois, 2006). Frequently, activity methods and audio/video clips happen by group work, whereas self-learning methods are done individually, but combining methods is not usual practice. For instance, students can engage in role-plays and contemplative journaling concurrently. The aim of using together both methods is to support students to comprehend the influence of personal issues on their work. Griffith and Frieden (2000) argued that counselor educators employ numerous ways to facilitate reflective thinking such as a Socratic method of questioning, individual journal composition, social process review, and reflective journal teams. These didactic methods are practiced and utilized in counselor education programs. The expectations of students to acquire insights, knowledge and grasp of life skills are achieved more conveniently in an environment of cordial understanding and friendly interaction. This was also confirmed by Griffith and Frieden (2000) that novel observations can be elicited as counselors and clients cooperate in a friendly environment. Latif and Miles (2013) conducted a study about instructor characteristics and teaching practices that students value most highly. They enumerated the most vital factors for being an effective teacher as perceived by the students such as subject-matter knowledge, ability to explain the lesson clearly, and enough preparations for class interaction. Students perceived the critical teaching practice as the facilitation of guide questions, while the insignificant part is class time spent in conventional lectures. The study also acknowledged the importance of including attendance and assignment in grading the course as part of teaching practices. A study conducted by Frey and Schmitt (2010) investigated classroom assessment methods of grade 3 to 12th teachers in a Midwestern state. They revealed that the traditional objective type of paperpencil test was the most usual method of assessment across all subjects and levels. The study added that language teachers were preferred to use performance-based assessments and oral reports than science teachers who traditional methods. Lurea et al. (2011) revealed the relationship between the dominant learning style of students and learning outcomes as well as professors' teaching practices. Students' performance improved relied on the suitable teaching methods and strategies aligned to the learning style of the students used in the course by their professors. Based on the findings, they concluded that appropriate teaching method provides significant and clear teaching values which drives the students to make them mindful of their comprehension and contemplation, help them to develop critical thinking which secures their trust in their capabilities which result in a better understanding of context and ideas together with modes of combining values and skills necessary for the future career. On the other hand, Gonzales and Aliponga (2011) conducted a study about the language teachers' classroom assessment preferences in Japan and the Philippines. As a result, both groups of teachers preferred assessment practices on the notion of assessment as learning language and not for assessment to guide as communicative aspect. In contrast, Philippine language teachers favored assessment for learning which means the assessment aims to enhance the learning process and improve instruction. Ramos (2015) conducted a study about the practices of faculty members in a teacher education state university. He concluded that teachers were inspired to delve in and use other useful instructional strategies and look for other ways to attract students, require themselves to produce their approach to apply in the field to become globally competitive.
On the other hand, assessment in the 21st century has been debated differently in various literature. Besides, Dhindsa et al. (2007) characterized assessment just as a vital part of teaching and learning -"a systematic process of data gathering about students' progress". They claim that the work of the students can be assessed in different manners from conventional paper-pencil tests into authentic performance tasks, essays, observation, and reflection. Hence, the authors differentiate the two terms related to students' performance: test as a tool for calculating learning results and measurement as the way of collecting analytic information for a certain degree to which a student acquires competency.
In the Philippine context at present, students are inspired to fully collaborate in the counselor educators' teaching process. Students are encouraged to implore knowledge, language skills, and cognitive aspect in reading, comprehending, analyzing, synthesizing, comparing, contrasting, relating, articulating, writing, evaluating, and others. This comprises the foundation of formative assessment as part of the teaching practices of counselor educators to use as a vehicle to identify if the learning process takes. Though, there are various definitions of formative assessment from literature reviews, Crawford and Impara (2001), Diaz-Rico and Weed (2006), and Linn and Miller (2005), argued that alternative assessments which are widely adopted in counselor educators' teaching practices as part of instruction, group work, and related practices which brings a substitute to traditional assessment. To expedite the perspectives of students in the evaluation process, measurements and evaluations are necessary to consider both teacher and student must be included. Also, emphasizing real-life problems, works, or utilizations are related to the student's context and his/her community. Moreover, consensus rose from educators that the purpose of assessment is to diagnose students' academic achievement, assess performance, and classify students. Nonetheless, others suggested that the purpose of assessment is to improve student performance and learning. Hayward (2010) conducted a study on the effects of homework on student achievement. It revealed that the time spent outside of school on learning can affect students' achievement. Moreover, providing carefully planned, persistent, and motivating homework is expected to give a positive effect on the students' achievement. The researcher suggested that if teachers adopt giving homework as part of the class, they must be aware of the important role of assisting the students to become successful in completing the task. On the other hand, Rosário et al., (2015) did a study on the 26 teachers of English revealed that that homework follow-up practices such as checking homework orally or onboard; and gathering and grading homework creates a positive effect on the performance of the students. Besides, the prior knowledge of the students affects the performance of the students to do the homework, not by the frequency of follow-up sessions.
The present study was anchored on situated learning theory postulated by Lave and Wenger (1991) which is relevant in explaining teaching practices. Situated learning claims that learning happens through connecting prior knowledge and people with original, casual, and usually unintentional contextual learning (Oregon Technology in Education Council, 2007). Learning takes place through the active participation of students in the learning experience. Two principles view the role of the professor and the student in situated learning. First, learning occurs because of the interaction of the context, culture, and activity in which it happens. It considers learning as a process that happens in the participation of people involved in a social context. Second, engaging learners in the school environment helps the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attributes, and values needed to execute in the classroom. This situation was shaped by their professors on how to deliver the content of the courses. Teaching practices like teaching methods and strategies greatly affect how the students learned the lesson. Moreover, the assessment conducted by the professors drives the will of the students on how to study the lesson.
Another theory which the study leaned on was the activity theory as the basic philosophical approach. Two reasons are considered to justify the use of this theory. Firstly, it gives a framework for investigating various kinds of human practices wherein individual and broad social levels interact concurrently (Kuutti, 1995). The individual and broad social interactions present in counselor education at graduate studies are investigated to elaborate on the limiting and nontransformative structure of the counselor education. Secondly, the activity theory targets the localized activity of the system wholly (Uden, 2007). This theory deals not only with the learners but also with the people engaged in the system for a particular context. Activity theory was proposed by Vygotsky and Leont'ev (1978) in the Soviet Union as a psychological construct that uses the context of daily lives and works experiences of people to analyze human behavior (Uden, 2007).  Figure 1 shows how the students' perspectives on counselor educators' teaching practices were sought such as teaching methods and strategies, assessment, follow-up activities, and assignment to identify the most influential teaching practices in the eyes of their students and how did those practices affect students' learning. Teaching practices of educators greatly affect the students' performance inside and outside the school. It means what the educators deliver to their students are shown on the students' outcomes. Moreover, the effectiveness of the delivery of the lesson depends upon how the students view the practices of their teachers. It implies that the effectiveness of counselor educators lies in how the students perceive and accept their teaching practices. If the students viewed that the practices of counselor educators are relevant to their needs and interest, it may create meaningful experiences on the part of the students.
By eliciting the students' views may help the teachers evaluate their practices. This study serves as an eye-opener for counselor educators who are always thinking of providing better opportunities for their students to grow in the field of guidance and counseling. This may serve as their basis for rethinking and reforming their practices based on the views of their students. This study strongly believed that the success of teaching is based on how the students interpret and make use of what they learned from their teachers. Specifically, how great the teachers' practices are just based on the views of the students. Theall (2001) claimed that the students can provide information on the quality of teaching, relevance of assignment and materials, and accuracy of the teacher's explanation. Students have the right to say something about the teaching practices of their teachers if they are satisfied or not, express the thoughts and experiences as useful, relevant, motivating worthy, or satisfying (Sajjad, 2010).
For the past ten years, there were researches conducted about counselor education and supervision abroad. However, in the Philippine setting, guidance counseling is one of the courses offered in graduate studies, but few studies were conducted about the practices of counselor educators. Through this study, practices of guidance counselors may reveal based on the eyes of their students which serve as an eye-opener for many educators in graduate studies. It is better to report what transpired inside the classroom based on the eyes of the students not on the perspective of the professors.
This study aimed to report the perspectives of the students about the teaching practices of counselor educators. Specifically, the following questions were addressed: 1. What are the perspectives of the students on the teaching practices of counselor educators in terms of a) teaching methods and strategies; b) assessment; and c) follow-up activities and assignment? 2. What counselor educators' teaching practices most influential to student learning? 3. How do counselor educators' teaching practices affect students' learning?

Research Design
The design of this study was explanatory sequential mixed methods wherein the researcher combines the tenets of qualitative and quantitative research approaches to deeply understand the problem and elicit thick data (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie, & Turner, 2007). This was aligned on the structure of the Rationale and Purpose (RAP) model (Collins, Onwuegbuzie, & Sutton, 2006) in which the reason for choosing mixed methods was a significant enhancement. This is because of the hope of revealing thicker meaning and findings as to the result of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods.
Using a descriptive survey design for the quantitative part as well as phenomenological design for the qualitative part, the researchers trust the data would give a better understanding of how graduate students in guidance and counseling experienced the teaching practices of their educators. The survey responses drive the researchers to treat further analysis of the responses through a semi-structured interview and class observation to clarify the true meaning of the responses of the respondents. This study stands for the belief that the mixed methods approach provides more relevant findings to give a wider view of the teaching practices of counselor educators. So, it was vital to do qualitative analyses based on the findings of quantitative analyses.

Participants
The participants of the study were students from master's degree program of Guidance and Counseling in different schools such as fifteen from Tomas Claudio Colleges, eight from University of Rizal System, five from Laguna College of Business Administration, thirty-five from Laguna State Polytechnic University-San Pablo City Campus, 10 from Union College and nine from Laguna State Polytechnic University-Sta. Cruz Campus. A total of eighty-two students were participated in the study by answering the questionnaire and interview questions. Class observations were conducted to verify the reported teaching practices. Purposive sampling was used to determine the target respondents using the criteria of students who are currently enrolled in the master's degree program for Guidance and Counseling.
The table below shows that most of the respondents were female at a young age and pursuing a master's degree program. The respondents were the students in Master of Arts in Guidance and Counseling in the different schools in Region IV-A. Most of them were new in the teaching profession and aspiring to get a graduate degree. It reveals that many of the young age teachers want to continue professional growth through attending graduate school to earn a master's degree and they were predominantly female.

Instruments
The instrument for the survey was a researcher-made questionnaire formulated by the researcher based on the emerged themes from the related literature. The first draft was criticized by the guidance counselors to exclude unnecessary items. After that, a letter was given to the three experts in the field of Psychology, Guidance, and Counseling to validate the instruments. The expert rated the questionnaire to establish its content validity. Samosa (2016) said that content validity chiefly targeting on the usefulness, originality, and representativeness of the items of the test to assess the characteristics to look for. This is usually done when a group of experts in the field of interest has inspected rigorously the test items. Suggestions from the experts were considered for the final draft of the instrument with a rate of 2.83 which means suitable. After the validity has been established, it was pilot tested for ten nonrespondent-students from the target population to determine its reliability. Using Cronbach's alpha, the instrument was reliable at 0.86 which means a good instrument. The final instrument consisted of two parts -part I demographic profile of the respondents in terms of the name (optional), age, school affiliation, sex, address, highest educational attainment, and years of teaching experience; and part II was in questionnaire form consisted of 10 items for each variable such as teaching methods and strategies; assessment; and follow-up activities and assignments in 4-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The items reflected the present teaching practices of counselor educators based on the eyes of their students.
For qualitative data, interview questions were formulated by the researchers based on the related literature. It has five items open-ended questions about the teaching practices of counselor educators such as teaching methods and strategies, assessment, follow-up activities, and assignment to elicit the students' experiences on the teaching practices of their counselor educators. Moreover, class observations were conducted to see the actual practices inside the classroom as a means of triangulating the findings.

Procedure
A formal letter was presented to the school authorities to allow us to conduct research work on their campuses. After permission was secured, it was time to talk to the professors of Guidance and Counseling classes for their assistance in determining their students. Simple orientation was given first to the respondents about the purpose of the study and the procedure of data collection before the questionnaires were distributed. A letter of request for the respondents was attached to the questionnaire to inform them about the nature of the present study. Ample time was given to the respondents so that they were free to answer the questionnaire without any interference from others. After that, they were instructed to retrieve the questionnaire by next week. The researchers collected the answered questionnaire one week after the administration.
Data were encoded in an MS Excel file to analyze the responses. The environmental and methodological triangulation was applied to verify the data and strengthen the findings of the study. Triangulation is a highly recommended methodological approach used to obtain multiple perspectives on the same reality (Wa-Mbaleka, 2017). Environmental triangulation comprises various settings, locations, and other key components relevant to the locale in which the investigation takes place, like the time, day, or season (O'Donoghue & Punch, 2003). In this study, different locations of the participants were used to raise the trustworthiness in research data, building creative means of investigating a research problem, and reporting unique findings. Moreover, methodological triangulation was employed to verify if the true data were captured by comparing the findings obtained from each method. Methodological triangulation comprises the combination of different qualitative and/or quantitative approaches to collect data for ensuring the validity of data (Creswell, 2012).

Data Analysis
Data were analyzed quantitatively using MS Excel and SPSS 23, and after that, interviews were handled to elicit a rich description of data, verify the quantitative responses, and to see their experiences from the teaching practices of counselor educators. Also, class observations were conducted to verify the experiences of the students during class hours.
Data were treated statistically with frequency, percentage, weighted mean, standard deviation, and multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) for quantitative to present the data and identify the existence of a significant difference in the responses using a questionnaire. For qualitative data, thematic analysis was used to determine the themes from the responses in interviews and observation. Member checking was used to check the accuracy and completeness of data and verify if the collected data were represented by student's experiences on the teaching practices of counselor educators. Moreover, peer debriefing was conducted by asking the help of the counselor educators to carefully examine the process of this study to increase its credibility.

Ethical Considerations
Ethical practices are basic standards required to all researchers especially dealing with humans. These practices comprise informed consent, emergency contact, security and confidentiality, and crisis management (Layne & Hohenshil, 2005;Shaw & Shaw, 2006;Vaccaro & Lambie, 2007;Watson, 2003). To follow this idea, the researchers asked permission from the authorities by giving a formal letter to conduct data collection to the students during their free time. Moreover, students were also asked about their voluntary participation in the study by orienting them on the purpose of the study and eliciting their consent. They were free anytime if they want to quit or not to participate in the study. Similarly, professors in graduate studies who are teaching the student-participants were informed about the objectives of the study. Their consent was secured first before the distribution of the questionnaire, conduct of interview, and class observation. Moreover, their identities were secured, and data collected from them were treated with the utmost confidentiality. Also, contact numbers of the researcher were given to the participants whenever they have queries on the present study so that they were free to clarify or ask something about the study.

Results and Discussion
Counselor educators embraced reflective teaching practices, adopt technology in teaching, connected experiential education and reflections, employed role-playing to stimulate an emotional response that contributes to the learner's understanding of different points of views, concepts, and situational pressures, employed constructivist teaching, acted as facilitator in the transfer of learning by linking conceptual learning to real-life experiences and utilized mini-lecture to solicit feedback in terms of the lessons. Various teaching methods and strategies were employed by counselor educators. This finding was similar to the findings of Ramos (2015) where faculty use computer technology and reflective teaching as effective teaching strategies. However, distance learning, out of the class activities, and journal writing were moderately practiced by the counselor educators. It implies that by the teaching practices of counselor educators, students were affected in focusing on their lessons, understanding it, and applying it in everyday life. Counselor educators use discussion, group work, and employ technology in teaching. The professors deliver lessons well and give information relevant to the topic based on their experiences as seen in Table 3. They deliver a lesson using different teaching strategies like sharing insight about scenarios and simulation. They conscientiously attend to the needs of the students academically. There are some situational activities in discussing the lesson and reporting for the students to better explore the assigned topics. This was supported by the words of the three participants. "Our professors deliver a lesson using different teaching strategies. There are some activities and reporting for the students to better explore the assigned topics."-Student # 10 My professor delivers her lessons very well and by sharing her knowledge, experiences, and expertise. -Student # 13 "By profound and clear discussion using technology and also relating the lesson to current and real-life situations." -Student # 17 Counselor educators utilize different tools in assessing the learning outcomes of the students appropriate to the students' level (See Table 4). They used the assessment tool to evaluate the needs of the students. This was called assessment as learning which is similar to the findings of Gonzales and Aliponga (2011). Those assessments are in the form of questioning, quizzes, mini assignments, and presentation. They employed an objective type of test in test construction focusing on a situational basis related to the practice of counseling. It means the traditional paper-and-pencil test was still used by counselor educators. Both formative and summative assessments are utilized to assess the prior knowledge and learning of the students. Assessment practices are highly observed as an integral part of the teaching-learning process. This was the same as the findings of Frey and Schmitt (2010) and supported by McMillan, Myran, and Workman (2002). They always asked for feedback from the students about the examination or activities done by them. The result of the assessment serves as a basis to modify their teaching practices. The assessment was highly practiced by counselor educators as an essential part of the teaching-learning processes.  The traditional method of assessment was still used by counselor educators like paper-pencil tests or examinations. They added authentic assessments like portfolios and researches as output which manifests the learning of their students. The authentic assessments can notify on-going instruction by reporting what students understand well which are adequate to use (Darling-Hammond and Snyder, 2000). These were the requirements of the course before they got passed. This was supported by the words of two participants in this study.
"They give quizzes, reports, and home-based learning activities."-Student # 5 "To test our understanding of the subject, we do researches and assess us through examination."-Student # 22 Counselor educators allowed their students to explore their learning to apply their learning in the community by immersing them and conduct extension services. They served as a model to the students to take the lead in school improvement and success and making themselves available for consultation and interview as a way of extending their hands. Follow-up activities and assignments were moderately practiced by counselor educators (See Table 5). The different types of follow-up activities and assignments used by counselor educators as an extension of the self-learning of their students were shown in figure 3. They preferred to give research work and reflection on reading. Their students were expected to apply what they have learned in the master's degree program as evidence of their learning. They also gave the situation to analyze and elicit their insights about the concepts they learned. This has a positive impact on the students' performance as like the findings of Rosario et al., (2015). Moreover, reflections of reading were required to submit as part of the output in every course. This was supported by the words of two participants of this study: "Report, it helps me a lot because I can use my knowledge, research, and experiences to explain what I have been reporting to them."-Student 1 "Researches and situational analysis were given to help improve the understanding of the activity or topic."-Student # 16 Figure 2. Types of follow-up activities and assignment given by the counsellor educators Different teaching practices were influential to the students of Master of Arts in Guidance and Counseling. Most of the participants agreed that discussion, explanation with examples, sharing experiences and expertise, reflective activities in real-life situations, and collaboration with brainstorming were the influential teaching practices for them. This was the same with the findings of Casado (2000) where discussion is one of the preferred teaching methods of the students. Carpenter (2006) said that the lecture/discussion teaching method was the most preferred among students because they have a desire to become active learners using this method. This was supported by the words of the two participants.
Application to real-life situations and other reflective activities are so influential for me. It enables us to grasp the learning well."-Student # 10 "Her discussion, especially when she shares her experiences being a guidance counselor because I find it more relatable."-Student 18 The effects of teaching practices on students' learning based on the experiences of the students are developed critical thinking and perseverance on the part of their students. Students realized how they going to put the concepts in guidance and counseling into practice and make use of what they have learned from their professors. They also want to pursue to finish graduate studies to become a more competitive guidance counselor. Also, students apply what they have learned from their professors in their work especially in dealing with the client. This was supported by the words of two participants.
"It affects a lot in terms of studying more and focusing on my lessons, understanding it, and applying it in my everyday life." -Student # 15 "It makes me strive more to do more and to pursue the course because I find it more interesting." -Student # 16 To verify the findings from qualitative and quantitative data, class observations were conducted by the researcher using an evaluation of the teaching effectiveness form used in one of the universities in Laguna. To sum up, what the observer had seen, the counselor educators practiced a student-centered approach in delivering the lesson where they allow the students to construct their meaning and learning experiences by facilitating the transfer of learning through linking the concepts in real-life practices and experiences. They used simulation and role-playing as a tool in showing the students acquired knowledge, skills, and values needed in the counseling process. They encourage their students to become more creative and think critically about the given scenario. Technology and ethics integration were seen in the lesson.
Meanwhile, no significant difference in the responses of the respondents at a 5% level of significance when they were classified according to their demographics as seen in Table 6. It means the respondents agreed on their answers on the questionnaire about the teaching practices of counselor educators regardless of their age, highest educational attainment, and years in teaching experience. They reported almost the same responses which were good indicators of reliable data. This justified that the reported data were true and reflecting the counselor educators teaching practices.

Discussion
Students are the best evaluator of the teaching practices of their teachers because they are the ultimate beneficiaries of any educational endeavor if it was properly implemented. How the students viewed the teaching practices has a great effect on their acceptance of learning. For instance, if the students perceived that the teaching practices of their professors seem to be relevant to their lives, then they might feel that they need to pay attention to the action of their professors. The feeling of need will serve as a driving force for them to learn something new and useful to their lives. However, if they feel that the teaching practices have no something to do with them, then their interest will lose and failure on the part of the professors.
In line with situated learning theory, counselor educators practiced experiential learning by connecting concepts into real-life experiences. They facilitated the self-learning of their students by motivating them to respond to the given scenario, conducting the simulation, and share their insights on how to deal with it. They followed the principles of situated learning wherein the experiences from learning situations allow the students to create their knowledge. Social interaction and physical activity serve a vital part in the success of situated learning experiences (Oregon Technology in Education Council, 2007). They also shared their experiences as guidance counselors dealing with different clients as part of their discussions. They applied collaborative activities wherein the use of their kinesthetic abilities and critical thinking are present. These activities are relevant and suited to students' homes, workplaces, and communities (Stein, 1998). Also, soliciting feedback was practiced by counselor educators as a way of checking the relevance of teaching practices for their students. Feedback is generally relevant, regularly increases student's understanding, and usually helps the student to learn based on their responses (Maclellen, 2001).
Counselor educators practiced assessment supporting the principles in situated learning wherein the community was used as one of the learning settings. They were requiring their students to conduct researches and community visitation to apply what they have acquired from graduate studies. Assessing the intellectual progress of the individual through evaluation, validation, discussion, and reflection of the community's perspective are the ways of acquiring knowledge. Assessment as a vital part of the teaching-learning process was highly practiced by counselor educators contributing to the professional development of their students.
Both formative and summative assessments were used by counselor educators. Formative provides them information on how well ready the students are. This served as the basis of counselor educators on how to move from one lesson to another. The information collected from the formative assessment was utilized to alter the teaching and learning activities to align the desired outcomes to the students' performance (Bell & Cowie, 2001;Shavelson et al., 2002). It allows the teachers to give students information on their actions towards learning goals. However, teachers can ask a challenging question that alters the student's thinking, boosts the analysis and comparison of ideas, or makes a network of novel ideas and old ones (Ruiz-Primo & Furtak, 2007).
On the other hand, summative assessment promotes the teaching-learning process which makes the school accountable. The three major aims for assessment are to improve teaching and learning, make students responsible for learning, and to show the liability of school personnel and teachers (Warren & Nisbet, 1999). Any assessment needs to be done by teachers to promote their teaching and learning of their students, aside from diagnosing and monitoring student learning rather than increase the quantity and quality of outcomes (Brown, 2004). So assessment is for both teachers and students.
Counselor educators required their students to conduct research work as a manifestation of their accumulated knowledge. This was good evidence of outcome-based education which was implemented in a higher education institution. The culture of research opens another gate of opportunity to explore the world of scholars and build their network with other professionals. Research activity is a special kind of cognitive activity, oriented on building a scientific picture of the world which develops in the logics: educational -research activity (Vedishenkova, Efimova & Ryabova, 2015). Moreover, research activity is a special kind of continuous educational process that caters to the capabilities of the students to develop their potentials in scholarly works.

Limitations
This study used a cross-sectional design where a one-time data collection was utilized for the quantitative part. Probably, the answer of the respondents may be affected by different factors on the day they answered the questionnaire and interview questions. It is better if the data were collected longitudinally, so that pattern and true answers may be elicited. Also, this study is mixed methods in nature conducted for 8 months only, but Creswell (2012) said that the mixed methods need much time required and careful planning must be executed to see the discrepancies between the different types of data. It is suggested that future research may do an embedded or multi-phase design of mixed methods to get more meaningful and accurate data.
On the other hand, this study did not measure how effective was the teaching practices of counselor educators because the intention was just to report the actual teaching practices. It is recommended that future researchers do an investigation on the effectiveness of the teaching practices of counselor educators rather than exploration. Identification of best teaching practices may cast to the system in delivering the graduate programs effectively. Besides, students' perceptions were only used by this study; it did not include records or documents supporting the teaching practices. Future researchers may utilize more methods of collecting pieces of evidence when they want to conduct a study on teaching practices. Only class observations were utilized to verify the findings.
Moreover, the correlations of demographic variables were not explored in this study since it was intended to explore teaching practices. Demographic variables were used as grouping variables to establish the existence of a significant difference in the responses of the respondents. Hence, this study is limited to students of the master's degree program for Guidance and Counseling in Region IV-A. The next research on teaching practices should include different students from different regions in the Philippines. This may give precise data reflecting the teaching practices of the professors in graduate studies in Guidance and Counseling.

Conclusions and Recommendations
In light of the findings, this study concluded that counselor educators used reflective teaching and experiential methods following a constructivist's perspective in delivering the lesson. The discussion and the group work were the common teaching practices experienced by their students which they think effective in linking conceptual learning to real-life experiences. They used different assessment tools in assessing the learning outcomes of their students both traditional and authentic. Objective type of test was still utilized focusing on a situational basis related to counseling practice. The assessment was highly perceived by their students as part of the teaching-learning process. Moreover, they allowed their students to explore their learning in the community. Research work as evidence of learning served as a requirement given by counselor educators. However, outdoor activities and distance learning were moderately practiced. The counselor educators may use these two approaches in teaching to cater to kinestheticinterpersonal learners because this type of student enjoys doing outside the class. Also, distance learning reaches the students from different places which may help the students not to be within school just to reach their professor.
Students perceived that discussion, explanation with examples, sharing experiences, reflective activities, and collaboration with brainstorming were influential teaching practices of counselor educators where they can easily grasp the learning well and relate the topic to their lives. Those practices developed critical thinking and perseverance to continue graduate studies on the part of the students. These inspired the students to learn more in the counseling process because these make the learning more interesting. It is highly recommended that counselor educators must continue to motivate their students to keep abreast of the latest trend and current practices in counseling through attending professional works, pieces of training, seminars, workshops, and finish graduate studies.