Due to the nature of work of a professional counselor, quality training is imperative. Standards have been created and continue to be revised on an ongoing basis to better suit this need. Much has been written in the literature on the importance of counselor education regarding the trainee-educator relationship. However, the majority of information concerns what the counseling student can contribute to increase student success. For quality training of counseling students to be present, an understanding, through empirical research, needs be solidly established concerning the factors that contribute to student success. An understanding of what it takes for counseling trainees to be fully trained to their potential is needed so that they may assist other individuals with the variety of issues that will be presented.
A review of related literature found no study conducted on the efficacy of teaching style on counseling student success. This pilot study was designed to examining the relationship between process versus product-oriented teaching style and graduate counseling student success based on CACREP objectives. Differences in teaching style and counseling student success between 34 counseling student classes were compared. This pilot study revealed that a process-oriented teaching style resulted in increased student success based on CACREP objectives.