Seminar - Overall Experience

My experience this term has been much more interesting than the previous terms. As mentioned in my latest journal, I feel as though I have had more independence this term. We are now placed in schools on a regular basis and are doing applied school psychology. There are still things that we are observing, but it feels more integrated with practice now. All of my courses this term were about practicing and very little about theory. After five years of learning about theory, it was a refreshing term.


One of the main concepts I learned about while in practicum is the nature of school systems. While we learn many possible ways of implementing ideas in our coursework, the actual format of implementation in a school can be very different. Things that seems to be common sense to a school psychology student (like progress monitoring) are not necessarily common sense in the schools. For example, PBIS is a research based program that we have been taught is an effective means by which to increase positive behavior in students. This idea is so ingrained in my mind that I thought anyone would jump on it for the same reasons that I saw. However, to implement a program like PBIS would require that 80% of the staff were on board (which can be a lot of work in a high school). Therefore, simply introducing the idea does not mean everyone will agree.

The mechanics of systems change are fascinating to me. I feel like my school is sometimes too afraid to make changes, yet it has also been around a long time and has gone through many things. It feels as though there is some resistance. Perhaps the people who run the school are familiar with "what works." Regardless, if I were the school psychologist, I would want to present researched ideas to the school and work on implementing them before assuming they would not work. I have not gotten too much of an opportunity yet, but I have been keeping track of the people at my school who seem to be motivated by creating changes. If I were to ever continue work with my high school, I would want to find the people with a similar vision for change and build off of that.

This term was also great for developing my research project. I feel I have not been able to gather enough background literature for this project, but am hoping I can add to it over break. I have so far enjoyed working with the ED program team in determining what their program is all about. It is my hope that I can help create a framework for their program and a consistent system for reevaluation.

While this term has been interesting, I imagine that the next two terms will be even more busy. The winter and spring are testing seasons for the traditional schools and I expect to get a lot of testing experience. This will be helpful for the school psychologist and I will feel more confident in my abilities to give standardized tests. I do have some ethical questions about using these tests, but I realize the value that is placed on them by society at large. Besides, if I hope to be a facilitator of change, I will need to know both sides of the coin. In general, this term has been a good experience and has helped me to connect theories with practice.