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Gaining Competence in Practical Skills (Practical Strand)

Module description

In EDPS004, you started to develop your practical skills and gain new skills through observation, discussion and research. In this module, you will become more critical in evaluating the evidence base for the assessments and interventions that you may use. The EPS practicum will encourage you to wrestle with the demands of developing your skills and evaluating your own competence at using those skills alongside reflecting on whether the tools and skills are fit for purpose. You will continue your evaluation of the models of casework you met for the first time in Year 1. You will consider and evaluate your casework in terms of: has my work promoted equality for this child and family? You will have regular supervision to enable reflective and safe practice.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module we will provide you with extensive opportunities to practice some of the basic skills you gained in module EDPS004. These skills are the skills that educational psychologists use when testing formulations and hypotheses that they hold about a child or young person. Additionally, you will experience settings where you will work collaboratively with other professionals from different agencies. In particular, this module aims to

• Extend your understanding of current issues relating to the practice of Educational Psychology.
• Augment a critical appraisal of the Educational Psychologist within a range of broader systems.
• Provide you with the opportunity to work alongside various other professional groups.
• Enable you to work synergistically with parents, children, and other professional groups.
• Extend your understanding of the educational psychologist as an agent of change and develop a complex of skills as part of a model of professional practice.
• Enable you to become more competent in extending a practice that works within ethical guidelines and promotes equality of opportunity.
• Enable you to demonstrate how psychological theories can be applied in educational, family and community contexts with an evidence base for practice.
• Provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate reflexivity of practice.
• Provide you with the opportunity to use and apply and critique a range of models of problem solving.
• Provide the opportunity for you to consider how effective your practice is at supporting the educational development of vulnerable children and young people.

The Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) for this module are based upon the competency statements that form part of the BPS programme standards

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. incorporate appropriate therapeutic techniques and processes when working directly with children and young people in distress and identify and implement evidence-informed psychological interventions to promote mental and emotional wellbeing.
• 2. demonstrate knowledge of parenting and family functioning and evidence working in partnership with parents and carers
• 3. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of different cultural, faith and ethnic groups, and how to work with individuals from these backgrounds in professional practice.
• 4. demonstrate skill in empowering consultees and in working collaboratively, identifying the strengths and skills of others that can be utilised.
• 5. undertake needs analyses to check commissioner expectations and critically appraise contextual influences on training content, delivery, monitoring and evaluation.
• 6. negotiate, design and implement evaluation of training against derived outcomes both for the participants and for the group intended to benefit from the implementation and application of the knowledge and skills addressed.
• 7. demonstrate increased effectiveness and proficiency in the use of the skills gained during Year 1 as part of EDPS004.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. use evidence-informed person-centred approaches to ensure that children, young people and other consultees are appropriately included within the process and are able to contribute to plans and decisions that are made for them.
• 9. establish agreed criteria to evaluate response to intervention (using qualitative and /or quantitative measures) and set up appropriate monitoring arrangements.
• 10. develop ‘bespoke’ training with clear, defensible, psychological foundations to address the training needs of service users and commissioners.
• 11. prepare, develop and/or deliver training carefully attuned to participant needs, drawing on explicit instructional and adult learning theories.
• 12. access and critically evaluate the application of complex research relevant to their professional work;
• 13. apply relevant educational and psychological theory that may underpin the complex problems encountered across a range of contexts;
• 14. ensure that your actions are ones which promote opportunity for the persons with whom you work.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 15. demonstrate understanding and application of equality and diversity principles and actively promote inclusion and equity in their professional practice.
• 16. demonstrate effective interpersonal communication skills across a range of settings and activities (including use of interpreters, taking account of the strengths and limitations).
• 17. demonstrate effective reporting and recording skills across a range of settings and activities
• 18. challenge views and actions judged potentially harmful to the child/young person.
• 19. evaluate outcomes of intervention and offer formative and summative feedback to key stakeholders (including the child/young person).
• 20. Innovate, gain independence and confidence and to exercise personal responsibility and autonomous initiative in complex professional situations;
• 21. Take a critical and reflective stance that seeks to overcome obstacles and barriers;
• 22. Work respectfully and with empathy;
• 23. Work and communicate effectively with a wide range of relevant people and agencies;
• 24. Be aware of the power differential inherent in the relationship that exists between the professional and the client, and take steps to ensure that the client is empowered as a result of the relationship

Syllabus plan

In this module you will develop new skills from observation, exploration, training and refine and develop those skills you learned in EDPS004.

The contextual focus this year is about establishing you as a successful and competent member of a multi-professional group, able to contribute effectively and help the group to move on with outcomes that are going to benefit the child or young person.

Your learning and development is supported by regular supervision from fieldwork supervisors alongside sessions with tutors at university setting.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Beaver, R. (2011). Educational Psychology Casework: A Practice Guide (2nd ed.). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Butler, R., & Green, D. (2007). The Child Within (2nd ed.). London: Butterworth Heinemann.

Frederickson, N., & Cline, T. (2002). Special Educational Needs: inclusion and diversity . Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Gillham, B. (Ed.). (1978). Reconstructing Educational Psychology . London: Croom Helm.

Haywood, H. C., & LIdz, C. S. (2007). Dynamic Assessment in Practice: Clinical and Educational Applications . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kelly, B., Woolfson, L., & Boyle, J. (Eds.). (2008). Frameworks for Practice in Educational Psychology . London: Jessica Kingsley.

Naglieri, J. A., & Pickering, E. B. (2003). Helping Children Learn . Baltimore: Paul H Brookes Publishing.

Villarruel, F. A., Perkins, D. F., Borden, L. M., & Keith, J. G. (Eds.). (2003). Community Youth Development: Programs, Policies, and Practices . Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Inc

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE

Key words search

DEdPsych

Practical Skills

Doctorate in Educational, Child and Community Psychology