Unravelling the Components of Chinese College Counsellors' Mental Models: A Three-Step Coding-Based Content Analysis

This paper explores the components of Chinese college counsellors' mental models in their daily work based on a rich content analysis of the story accounts of 152 exemplary college counsellors over the past 8 years. On the basis of a rigid three-step coding procedure, this study reveals that Chinese college counsellors' mental models generally comprise four common constituents, namely a love-filled faith system, a rule-based thinking system, a professionalism-based knowledge system and action-based performance. These components jointly illustrate the general landscape of Chinese college counsellors' internal well-being and fill a research gap regarding the sparse attention given to counsellors in the global literature on faculty professionalism.