Becoming Autonomous in Practical Skills (Practical Strand)

Module title	Becoming Autonomous in Practical Skills (Practical Strand)
Module code	EDPS011
Academic year	2024/5
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Will Shield (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	10	10	10

Number students taking module (anticipated)	10

Module description

In this module you will work towards becoming a wholly autonomous practitioner, making decisions about what approaches to use and how to use those approaches.

You will be critically evaluating the skills and approaches that you use, and looking for areas for development and start to record your developmental work as a proto-CPD log.

In this module you will be consolidating your skills at working collaboratively with other agencies as well as exploring opportunities for working with communities as part of your practice. Additionally your case work should be increasing in its complexity. You will be considering a critical response to the various problem solving models, you will evaluate their strengths and their weaknesses, those times when the models are helpful and those times where they impede some understanding of the problem bearing situation. You will consider and evaluate your casework in terms of: has my work promoted equality for this child and family? The pre-requisite modules for this are EDPS004 and EDPS005.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module we will provide you with extensive opportunities to consolidate those skills you gained in module EDPS005. These skills are used by educational psychologists when testing hypotheses that they hold about a child or young person. They also will include skills of working in a multidisciplinary and a transdisciplinary way. Additionally you will extend your skills in community level work. 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;
Develop understanding and skills of working at a community level;
Consolidate your understanding of the educational psychologist as an agent of change, and develop a complex set 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 the promotion of the 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 monitor 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 which are referenced at the end of each ILO and additional course ILOs. There are more ILOs listed compared to some of the other units, this is a reflection of the fact that the three modules (EDPS004, 005, 006) concerned with practical work are in effect a helical curriculum. In Year 1 (EDPS001) students are introduced to the skills. In Year 2 (EDPS002) students revisit the skills learned during Year 1 in order to become more proficient in their use as well as learning new skills. In Year 3 (EDPS006) Again there is some element of rehearsal and refining of skills in order to become autonomous in the use of the skills as well as learning some new skills.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

1. be able to recognise unethical or malpractice and follow the appropriate organisational policies and procedures to respond
2. design interventions which balance applications of research evidence with concern for ecological validity and acceptability to service users, with a focus on positive outcomes.
3. be aware of attitudes to impairment and disability and where relevant, redress influences which risk diminishing opportunities for all vulnerable children and young people including those with send and their families.
4. work effectively with a range of professionals from health and social care backgrounds (e.g. speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, child and adolescent mental health service (camhs) staff, social workers) and have an understanding of their knowledge base so that collaborative working is enhanced by identification of distinctive and complementary areas of practice.
5. apply knowledge from educational and psychological theory to complex practice issues;
6. use knowledge about a wide range of professional activities to promote psychological well-being;
7. develop hypotheses deriving from complex problems, and then evaluate these hypotheses and link them to appropriate interventions that lead to successful outcomes;
8. interpret data from practice in a cogent and meaningful way through appropriate analysis and synthesis;
9. communicate and disseminate educational and psychological knowledge for the benefit of the communities served;
10. reframe, formulate and analyze problems through the application and critique of problem-solving models;
11. access the relevant evidence base to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the assessments and interventions that are proposed;
12. use various models of establishing the effectiveness of service offered and develop a rationale for the use of the chosen model.
13. demonstrate an increased autonomy, facility and effectiveness in the use of the skills learned in EDPS004 and 005

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

14. demonstrate effective personal and professional management and organisational skills.
15. demonstrate effective management of professional relationships, contributing to and fostering collaborative working practices.
16. access and critically evaluate the application of complex research relevant to their professional work;
17. apply relevant educational and psychological theory that may underpin the complex problems encountered across a range of contexts;
18. make sense of practical problems in terms of the generation of appropriate research questions.
19. ensure that your actions are ones which promote opportunity for the persons with whom you serve.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

20. take appropriate professional action to redress power imbalances and to embed principles of anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice in all professional actions.
21. engage in a dynamic, responsive and evolving process to maintain and develop professional practice through the process of appropriate professional reflection and continuing professional development (cpd).
22. innovate, gain independence and confidence and to exercise personal responsibility and autonomous professional initiative in complex professional situations;
23. take a critical and reflective stance that seeks to overcome obstacles and barriers;
24. work respectfully and with empathy;

Syllabus plan

This module builds and extends the practical module covered in the previous academic year EDPS010. The three modules EDPS004, 010 and 011 focus on the gaining developing, consolidating and becoming competent and the autonomous in the reasoning necessary to be a professional educational psychologist as well as in the demonstration and use of effective practical skills. To this extent the three modules could be considered to form a spiral curriculum. The spiral aspect refers to the way that the modules return to areas previously covered, to be covered once more. On the subsequent revisiting, the practitioner has developed and changed and therefore the experience of the return is a different one as the practitioner is informed by greater depth of learning.

The contextual focus this year is a refining of skills of working at a community level, whilst maintaining the skills gained at working in multi-agency settings.

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)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
18	22	130 days

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Placement	130 days (approx. 950 hours)	EPS Practicum including supervision
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	18	Directed activities and university sessions
Guided Independent Study	22	Coursework

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Observation Fieldwork Supervisor	Monthly	All	Verbal
Observation and Three Way Meeting with Visiting Tutor	1 occasion	All	Verbal and written
Supervision Fieldwork Supervisors	30 minutes for every 1 day practicum	All	Written
Supervision Visiting Tutor	10 hours	All	Written

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Portfolio	25	3000	All	Verbal and written
Critical Reflection on Portfolio Presentation	25	20 minute presentation	All	Annotations and written
End of year Practicum Report which includes an exploration of the extent to which the student has been able to demonstrate the HCPC Standards of Proficiency.	50	N/A	All	Report Form
	0
	0
	0

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

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Portfolio	Resubmission	All	3-6 weeks
Critical Reflection on Portfolio	Resubmission	All	3-6 weeks
End of Year Practicum Report	Extensive additional practicum of at least 6 - 12 months	All	6-12 months

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

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	EDPS004 and EDPS010
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	8
Available as distance learning?	No
Last revision date	21/07/2023