Perceptions of actual and desired role functions of school psychologists by psychologists and teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of the various roles of the school psychologist as reported by psychologists and teachers. Training programs for school psychologists have often included rather arbitrarily determined requirements without a systematic assessment of the demands which are being placed on the school psychologist in actual practice (Rudnick & Berkowitz, 1968). The lack of congruence between academic training programs and the needs of practicing school psychologists becomes increasingly apparent as our schools continue to place more responsibility on the psychologist for diagnosis, educational programming, remediation, and specialization. In this situation, there is a need for an investigation of how the psychologist perceives the demands which are being made of him, the various roles which he is called upon to play, the problems he is expected to solve, the barriers to his effectiveness, and the extent to which his training is adequate or inadequate. METHODThe opinions and attitudes of all school psychologists in the state of Iowa (N = 136) were solicited. Also, responses from a randomly selected sample of elementary school teachers from the twenty-one largest school districts in the state were requested. The respondents were asked to relate their opinions concerning the variety of roles which the school psychologist typically assumes in actual practice. On most issues, responses were also requested which would indicate desired or potential roles of the psychologist under somewhat more ideal circumstances than are found in current practice. On most items a ?-point scale was utilized in which the respondent was requested to rate a particular role or activity along a continuum.In an effort to insure ample exposure to school psychological services, only teachers with five years or more experience in their respective school districts were included in this study. Local school professionals in each district were contacted and asked to distribute the teacher questionnaires. From 315 teachers, 296 responded (94%) for purposes of analysis. From the total population of 135 school psychologists,. 100 (74%) responded.In analyzmg the responses, the following comparisons were made: 1. The statistical significance of differences between actual and desired job functions as they were perceived by school psychologists were tested by t tests for related differences.2. The statistical significance of actual and desired job perceptions of the school psychologist as they were perceived by teachers were tested using t tests for related differences.3. Comparisons were made between school psychologists and teachers concerning the perceived functions of the psychologist as they actually exist in their respective settings. A chi-square analysis was used.Comparisons wefe made between school psychologists and teachers concerning the desired responsibilities and functions of the school psychologist via chi-square analysis. 4. RESULTS3 Role of PsychometristWith respect to the importance of the psychometrist ...

Perceptions and Realities: The Role of School Psychologists in Melbourne, Australia

“…Although the relationships were small, it is proposed that levels of engagement in different tasks can influence job satisfaction in opposing ways. This relates to the evidence that demonstrates that school psychologists prefer to conduct fewer assessments and engage in more non-assessment based tasks (e.g., Bramlett et al, 2002;Hatzichristou, 2004;Levinson, 1990;Roberts, 1970;Watkins et al, 2001). The only demographic factor found to be associated with job satisfaction was the student-psychologist ratio.…”

Reflections of Pre-Service Psychologists on the Role of the School Psychologist

“…Three students regarded the role of the teacher as being more that of a leader than the school psychologist, while only four students thought the two roles were equal. This finding could be thought worrying, if associated with the results of recent research in which the majority of teachers stated that they regarded the role of the school psychologist as co-operative with their own role (Poulou, 2002b), or even with the results of other research which bring to light a differentiation between the perceptions of teachers and school psychologists as regards the functions of the school psychologist (Bowen and Dalton, 1981;Fenn, 1977;Roberts, 1970). This disagreement among teachers and school psychologists, in other words, two practitioners working in a common field, with reference to the role and functions of the school psychologist, cultivates hostile relationships and attempts at domination.…”

Consistency of administrators' and psychologists' actual and ideal perceptions of school psychologists' activities

“…There have been several studies of role perceptions of the school psychologist since 1970 (e.g., Cook & Patterson, 1977;Kaplan, Clancy, & Chrin, 1977;Kirschner, 1971;Murray, 1975;Roberts, 1971;Waters, 1973). One might ask if yet another study of role perceptions is needed.…”