PSYC 781: School Psychology Practicum I
Prerequisites: Admittance into the school psychology Educational Specialist degree program. Earning a “B” or better in PSYC 631, PSY 632, PSY 633 & PSY 665. Permission of the school psychology program faculty
Credit Hours: (3)
A pre-internship experience for second-year school psychology students offering supervised field work. Includes intellectual, behavioral and curriculum-based assessment techniques with emphasis on educational interpretation and remedial implications of assessment data. Supervised field interventions include pre-referral interventions, consultation, individual and group counseling, behavior management, in-service education, parent training and counseling and program evaluation. Students work under the dual supervision of practicum instructor and on-site field supervisor (certified, experienced school psychologist). Students spend a minimum of eight hours per week in the schools plus a two-hour weekly seminar.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
1. Introduction to Role of School Psychologist in conducting Complete Case Evaluation
2. Steps to Special Education Placement: Review of Regulations and Procedures
3. Various Exceptionalities and Handicapping Conditions: Characteristics, Approaches
to Assessment, Necessary Modifications
4. Psychological Tests: Measures of Ability, Visual-Motor Coordination, Personality,
Achievement, Reading Diagnostic, Social Maturity, Neuro-Psychological, Etc.
5. Other Approaches to Assessment: Ecological, Psychosituational, Informal, Criterion-Referenced,
etc.
6. Integration Results of Battery of Tests With Other Available Information: Case
History, Observations, Teacher and Parent Reports, Interviews, Records, Work Samples,
Etc.
7. The Psychological Report: Purpose, Context, Pitfalls, Responsibility, Effectiveness,
Content, etc.
8. Follow-Up on Cases: Parent Conferences, Placement Committees, I.E.P. Preparation,
Teacher Conferences, Etc.
9. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and School Psychologists
10. Recommendations and Meaningful Interventions
11. Contemporary Issues
12. Multicultural Issues in the Delivery of School Psychological Services: Assessment,
Interventions, and Consultation
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
The course will consist of a minimum of 8 hours per week spent in an approved public school practicum site and a weekly 2 hour class meeting. Practicum site experiences will be pre-arranged so that students are exposed to a wide variety of activities related to the delivery of school psychological services. Class meetings will be in the form of informal group discussions of the problems, issues, and challenges that students have confronted in the practicum site. In addition, students and faculty will make presentations on those assessment techniques, intervention strategies, legislation and procedures, and other material that is pertinent to students' work in the practicum site.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
This course is intended to provide school psychology students in training with "hands on" experiences in assessment, consultation, interviewing, intervention, and other relevant activities under the supervision of both an on-site field supervisor and a university supervisor. The course is purposely structured to introduce students to the widest possible variety of professional activities while meeting the practical service delivery demands of the system they are working in. Through weekly group class meetings as well as regularly scheduled individual supervision by the field and university supervisors, students are afforded the opportunity to extensively brainstorm and problem solve referrals, generate strategies for collecting data, implement plans of action, and evaluate the success of interventions on a continuous basis. Both traditional and recently-introduced techniques and strategies for assessment, interviewing, observation, data collection, and intervention will be introduced and examined by the class.
Assessment Measures
Student progress will be based on written evaluations of performance in the practicum site (completed by the on-site supervisor), quality of written reports submitted to both the course instructor and the on-site supervisor, quality of the personal narrative journal completed by each student during the course of the semester, successful completion and submission of weekly log sheets throughout the semester, and quality of work completed for a project and/or presentation to the class.
Other Course Information
Several field trips to specialize programs, classrooms, and facilities in the local area will be scheduled during the semester.
Review and Approval
March 1999 Revised
February 10, 2014