School Psychology International

Between January 1984 and October 1985, a study group of psychologists and Board of Education members produced a report on school psychological work in Finland. The group considered the following issues: (a) what school psychological work is like in Finland and the main working routines; (b) integration of the school curriculum, educational practice and school psychological work; and (c) future plans for school psychological work in Finland. This paper considers some issues arising from the deliberations of the study group. These are presented by: (1) outlining a history of school psychological work in Finnish schools, a description of working routines and approaches and their integration with educational practice; (2) proposing an analysis of the phases of development in the work of psychologists and schools; and (3) considering how Finnish psychologists' practice might develop in the future alongside the Finnish Basic School Act. Finally, some conclusions are drawn for further consideration by practising psychologists in Finland.

Within a brief description of the socio-political and structural context that constrains school psychology related research in South Africa, current issues and selected research themes are discussed. Three central issues are identified as the socio-political relevance of research, the issue of community participation in research and the issue of interventionist vs. analytic research. The first theme, research related to the needs of underdeveloped communities, deals with research into underachievement in the Black school system looked at through different conceptual frameworks as well as with a strong, new current of community/action research. The second theme deals with research on those issues that arise in the practice of school psychology in the particular South African social context. The third theme discusses research on testing and test development as undertaken by a statefunded organization and the problematic nature of this area of research. Finally other research themes on child abuse, psycho-legal questions and vocational choice are briefly reviewed.

Paired Reading (PR) is a tutoring technique used to encourage children's oral reading skills. Most reports involving clinical applications of PR have involved parent-tutors trained to work with low-progress readers. Peertutor applications have been reported recently. This paper outlines PR, its effectiveness and some of the reasons for its substantial impact upon educational practice in the UK. The paper also reviews some of the mechanisms which may underlie the effects of PR. It is suggested that the critical components of PR may be small in number and shared with other effective tutoring approaches. The paper also examines issues relating to the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) in the Hong Kong education system. There follows a discussion of the relevance of PR in ESL teaching and a report of a Hong Kong peer-tutored PR project which focuses upon this area. Finally, after an examination of Chinese orthography, this paper considers whether PR might be applied to languages other than English and describes a study involving an application of the technique to encourage Chinese reading skills of Cantonese-speaking pupils in Hong Kong.

School psychologists who are exposed for several years to the realities and demands of professional school psychology, undergo an inevitable process of psychological erosion, which does not usually terminate in burn-out, but rather tends to be resolved through drifting away into another field of professional psychology, usually clinical psychology, which seemingly does not impose the same degree and qualities of professional stress. A whole array of factors are identified as highly pertinent to an analysis of the process of burning-out of school psychologists and their drifting away. The main factors inducing psychological erosion in school psychologists include: quantitative overload, qualitative overload, conceptual overload, contact overload, over exposure, psychological loneliness, role ambiguity, role conflicts and chronic identity crises. Two kinds of countermeasures against drifting away are proposed. One is aimed at 'inoculation' against professional disappointment during the period of university training which coincides with the phase of professional identity formation. The other countermeasure has to do with restructuring of the social-professional framework of task execution. Here we propose possible variants of the concept of the 'Psychological Task Force' (PTF) in the schools, which may replace the prevalent 'lonely hero' paradigm of operation.

Although the role of educational psychologists in the United Kingdom has expanded considerably in recent years, the assessment of children with learning difficulties remains a key function. Professional training courses therefore have a responsibility to ensure that their trainees are given a thorough preparation in the theory and practice of psychological assessment. Moreover educational psychologists in the field need to keep up to date with developments reported in the literature and modify their practice accordingly. Over the past 20 years the literature has been replete with accounts of new approaches to assessing childrern with learning difficulties most of which are derived from theories of child development, cognitive or behavioural psychology. These approaches place differing emphases on the relevance of IQ Testing, Cognitive Profiles, Curriculum Based Assessment, Metacognitive Strategies and the Assessment of Contexts. Some of the literature which reflects different views on each of these approaches is now considered.

The current state of professional training and development for educational psychologists in the UK has been heavily influenced by the changing role demands of the 1980s. This article describes the work in educational psychology training which is currently being carried out at Southampton University. The uniquely 'integrated' nature of the Southampton model is discussed and details of the organization of the three phases - preprofessional training, professional training and advanced professional training/ development - are provided. Changes which have occurred as a result of ongoing evaluation are outlined and likely future trends are identified. Finally, it is argued that professional training and development initiatives should not only respond to external demands but should also attempt to shape educational psychology practice in the 1990s.

Two boys labelled hyperactive who had followed a salicylate-free diet for over a year consumed specially prepared cookies daily for 6-7 weeks. With subject 1 (age 6), salicylates were presented in the cookies on two occasions; on other days the cookies were salicylate-free. On two occasions subject 1 violated his diet and consumed salicylates from other sources. With subject 2 (age 12), salicylates were presented five times. Observers collected daily data on out-of-seat, off-task and physically aggressive behavior in the classroom. Visual inspection of the data suggested that behavior changes were associated with salicylate ingestion for subject 1, although there was some variability, but not for subject 2. A randomization test indicated that for subject 1 differences associated with planned salicylate ingestion were significant at the 0.05 level. No significant differences were noted for subject 2.