This paper reports the findings of a study that involved 236 primary and secondary school counsellors employed by the Queensland Department of Education. The study was undertaken as a formative evaluation process prior to the redevelopment of the counsellor education program offered by the Department of Education at The University of Queensland. The survey questionnaire asked informants to evaluate the importance of various practices and skills and the degree to which these were developed during training. Another section of the questionnaire asked counsellors to identify the relevance of several conceptual or knowledge bases to their day-to-day counselling practice and, again, how well these were covered during counsellor training. The results have provided an understanding of the identity of counsellors in primary and secondary settings based upon their perceptions, and indicated areas in which counsellor education can be augmented.

Unresponsive design guidelines for open spaces and the continuous allocation of land for the construction of buildings has led to the 'concretisation' of urbanscapes. This has resulted in the urban heat island effect marking the increase in air temperature making urban spaces almost unbearable for urban residents to dwell in. However, new effort is being made to reduce the effect of heat gain at the pedestrian level by planting vegetation in open spaces particularly urban nodes to create a comfortable outdoor environment. Appropriate vegetation selection in landscape design which is capable of reducing outdoor air temperature, is needed in designing urban nodes in hot-humid climates. The study is aimed to investigate the effectiveness of different vegetation types and their planting arrangement in adequately shading outdoor spaces for pedestrian activities. Two node intersections in Kuala Lumpur's urban space were selected based on vegetation type and planting arrangement. Daylight intensity was measured using the lux meters and the shadow casted underneath the vegetation. Human activity within the area was also observed to determine which vegetation type and planting arrangement is most suitable for pedestrian activity. Results revealed that the vegetation types and its planting arrangements significantly influences the amount of daylight penetrating the tree foliage and shadow casted on the ground which encourages human interaction at the node intersections.