Time for change: The reformulation of applied psychology for LEAs and schools

Collaboratively Managing the Behaviour of a Reception Class Pupil

“…There is currently much debate around the development of local authority educational psychology services (Dowd & Kidd, 1998;Gibb, 1998;Leyden, 1998;Wood, 1998) and a DfEE working party is currently considering these issues. In the view of these authors, some of the key challenges which our profession faces currently include:…”

Applied psychology and the case for individual casework: some reflections on the role of the educational psychologist

“…at post-graduate level also), so why are EPs not applying their discipline more frequently? The usual obstacles are cited as getting in the way of applied psychology: time constraints (Boxer, Foot, Greaves, & Harris, 1998), too much statutory work (DfEE, 1997;Leyden, 1999), expectations of teachers and schools that EPs do other things (see MacKay & Boyle, 1994), and reluctance to change from the security of traditional practice (Lyons, 1999;Stringer, Elliott, & Lauchlan, 1997). But are these reasons for not applying psychology, or excuses?…”

“…Most authors felt that the ideas promulgated in REP, while applied by many EPs, had still not penetrated practice to the extent that they constituted the common practice role of the EP (Burden, 1996). It was felt that aspects of EP practice considered outdated and ill-judged in 1978, were still being practised in 1999, for example, the use of IQ tests, and the consequent "gate-keeping" role of EPs with regard to obtaining resources for children with special educational needs (Leyden, 1999;Lyons, 1999). Thomson (1996) argued that EPs were "losing sight of psychology" (p. 102) and since then there has been a consistent call within the profession for returning to the discipline of psychology, i.e.…”

Processes of 'Change' and 'Continuity' in Educational Psychology--Part I

“…This is because they are not necessarily required by their employing local authority to evaluate their work and feed intervention outcomes back to inform the Local Education Authority (LEA)'s strategic planning (Leyden, 1999). Lack of evaluation of practice and service delivery, however, results in the routinised practices typical for status quo positions rather than change or reconstruction.…”

“…Although there is a substantial literature about novel EP practice (for example, Frederickson, 1990;Frederickson et al, 1991;Stoker, 1992;Gersch & Nolan, 1994;Gersch, 1996;Wolfendale, 1996;Burden, 1997;Monsen et al, 1998;Cline, 1999;Wagner, 2000), there is also evidence that traditional methods and approaches prevail (Thomson, 1996(Thomson, , 1998 and that change is necessary (Leyden, 1999). While the need for discontinuity has been recognised in education (Fullan & Stiegelbaur, Manuscript Fullan, 1993;Morrison, 1998), in business (Morgan, 1986(Morgan, , 1993Dawson, 1994;McWhinney, 1997) and in the public sector (Farnham & Horton, 1996;Lawton & Rose, 1991), there has been a relative dearth of literature on 'change' in professional educational psychology itself.…”