Deliberate practice of consultation microskills: An exploratory study of training.

Abstract

Consultation is a pivotal competency area for psychologists, yet little is known about how graduate training supports psychologists in consultation competency development. This study reports on the application of a deliberate practice approach to consultation training for 13 school psychology trainees, with a focus on communication skill development and application. Over 4 weeks, trainees viewed a series of four brief videos of a teacher consultee describing actual school-based problems and applied explicitly defined communication skill responses (i.e., paraphrasing, clarifying, and reflecting feelings). Responses were recorded and uploaded by trainees weekly on the Flipgrid online platform, shared with the instructor, and supervisory feedback provided regarding the accuracy and quality of final responses. Pre and posttraining data indicated trainees’ increased communication self-efficacy and overall satisfaction with the training. Areas for training improvement were also noted, including the supervision feedback process. The promise of a deliberate practice approach in supporting psychological consultation competency development is discussed, as are the future directions for training and research.

Deliberate practice of consultation communication skills: A randomized controlled trial.

“…Additionally, selection bias may have inflated the training satisfaction outcome data, with data only collected from participants who completed the DP training. Finally, it was not possible to record the amount of practice for each individual participant for each skill, as consistent with prior DP research (e.g., Newman et al, 2021) much practice likely occurred off video.…”

“…In the present study, students practiced responding to four different consultee concerns over multiple weeks, with rubrics and supervisor feedback guiding these activities. The training included what may be considered low-stakes practice opportunities, as they used simulated rather than real cases (Newman et al, 2021), and students could practice off video and/or record as many times as they wished before submitting a final response.…”

“…Participants completed a researcher-developed training satisfaction scale informed by prior consultation literature (e.g., Newman et al, 2021; Kratochwill et al, 1987; Lepage et al, 2004; Sheridan, 1992) and a general training satisfaction questionnaire (Larsen et al, 1979). The scale included eight items (α = .89), such as “How would you rate the quality of the training activity you completed?” and “In an overall, general sense, how satisfied are you with the training you received?” Responses were scored on a Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 to 4.…”

“…Despite its promise in psychotherapy training, research is needed to understand how DP can be incorporated into consultation training, and with what impact (Newman et al, 2021). Communication skills development can be supported through a DP approach including a focus on specific, measurable communication skills that are amenable to a systematic and cyclic teaching and learning process including skill assessment (by self and supervisor); ongoing opportunities for practice incrementally beyond the student’s comfort zone; and direct supervisor observation using an objective metric, followed by corrective feedback (Ericsson & Pool, 2016; Goodyear & Rousmaniere, 2017).…”

The Role of Autonomous Agents in Training School Psychology Graduate Students

“…More recently, integrating technology into training experiences has been explored. Studies incorporating technology using a deliberate practice approach to improve school psychology graduate students' communication skills has shown great promise, while also building the self-efficacy of students within their professional interactions (Newman et al, 2021). Applications from computer science, specifically using autonomous agents and artificial intelligence, holds great promise in providing advanced training to prepare school psychology students for the plethora of skills they will need to be successful in their careers.…”