Practice Placement Experiences and Needs of Trainee Educational Psychologists in England

Abstract

As part of initial professional training, educational psychologists in England undertake substantial periods of practice placement, within which the role of supervision is instrumental to their professional learning and effectiveness. The research reported here provides up-to-date and comprehensive information on the experiences and needs of trainee educational psychologists within practice placement. Focus group meetings were held with trainee educational psychologists from each year group at four English training universities. Through a rigorous process of thematic analysis, data from the 12 focus group meetings identified the valued processes and learning outcomes of practice placement in the context of a facilitative supervisory relationship and service context. The need to understand more fully the patterns and dynamics of trainee educational psychologists' practice placement experience is highlighted.

Supervision for school psychologists in training: Developing a framework from empirical findings

“…Within school psychology literature, this study represents the first representative, quantitative study of supervisory factors. The results indicate both parallels and differences with pre-existing models popular within school psychology and suggest the need to build upon work by Annan and Ryba (2013), Atkinson and Woods, (2007), Simon et al, (2014) and Woods et al, (2015) in developing models tailored specifically for school psychology practice. The developmental components of the model illustrated here and the apparent diminishing need for instructional support suggest that a model could exist which accommodates the supervisory needs of both training and qualified school psychologists throughout their professional career.…”

“…From the results of the current study, the themes derived by (Woods et al, 2015) and from recognition of the developmental, contextual and socio-legislative factors which influence school psychology supervision, the authors propose the following framework (see Figure 3). It offers 'safe space for authentic learning' as an overarching component, with the other two dimensions represented as other key elements.…”

“…Annan & Ryba, 2013;Chafouleas, Clonan, & Vanauken, 2002;Lam & Yuen, 2004;Smith Harvey & Pearrow, 2010;Thielking et al, 2006); the supervision of school psychologists in training (Atkinson & Woods, 2007;Carrington, 2004;Haboush, 2003;Hill et al, 2015;Sayeed & Lunt, 1992;Woods et al, 2015) and the supervision of professionals from other disciplines by school psychologists (Callicott & Leadbetter, 2013;Maxwell, 2013;Osborne & Burton, 2014). The empirical element of this paper focuses on the second of these, given that the need for supervision is considered to be particularly important during professional training and critical to ensuring both the effectiveness of practice placements and the experience of the trainee (Woods et al, 2015). However, in seeking to explore the theoretical models and approaches to supervision used by school psychologists, this study draws on literature from all three areas.…”

“…In a study from England, Woods et al (2015) explored the needs and experiences of school psychologists undertaking three-year professional doctorate training in four of the 12 English universities offering the programme. The design extended previous research by Heaney (2010), comprising 12 focus groups (involving a total of 111 trainee psychologists) representing each training year group (Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3) at each of the universities.…”

“…Firstly, given that the sample in this study comprises only school psychologists in training, more empirical research is required to discover if the supervisory needs of qualified school psychologists are comprehensively covered within these dimensions. The developed theoretical model relies heavily upon the structure of the questionnaire, its interpretation by respondents, and from the analyses undertaken by the researchers which will be informed by perspectives gained from previous literature and research, particularly the study by Woods et al (2015). Specificity of the present questionnaire could be enhanced by differentiating the meaning of the 'opinion' sought as relating to value rather than current experience; sensitivity could be improved by the addition of a item which asks trainee respondents to indicate their overall judgement of the level of effectiveness of their supervisory experience.…”