Consultation Practices of Nova Scotia School Psychologists
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Date
2007-09
Authors
Murray, Kelly
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Abstract
School psychologists engage in consultation practices to better serve the
psychological and educational needs of their students (Siegel & Cole, 2003). School
consultation has been described as a collaborative and interdependent problem-solving
process between consultants and consultees for the purpose of exchanging information.
Consultants provide specialized knowledge to others while consultees seek information
or assistance from others (Zins & Erchul, 2002). This model of consultation is
appropriate for the school setting because consultants and consultees form a partnership
and share responsibility for student outcomes (Erchul & Myers, 1996; Henning-Stout &
Bonner, 1996). Consultation may be particularly important for school psychologists who
work in rural communities as research has suggested that rural school psychologists
encounter challenges that are unique to working in more isolated areas such as
professional isolation, lack of available or accessible resources, and having to assume the
role of a generalist.
This study was conducted to identify and compare rural and urban Nova Scotia
school psychologists’ consultation practices in their roles as consultants and consultees. It
also explored what they perceived as some of the barriers and facilitators to effective
consultation practices, and examined whether these differed for psychologists in urban as
compared to rural settings.
Surveys were sent to 66 school psychologists believed to be practicing in Nova
Scotia. Thirty-eight, or 58%, were included in the data analysis. Most respondents had
limited experience in the field. Fifty percent of participants had been practicing for five
years or less and 92% had been practicing for 15 years or less. Findings indicated that
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many school psychologists who were practicing in Nova Scotia engaged in consultation
practices, as consultants and consultees, on a regular basis. Significant positive
correlations were found between how often school psychologists acted as consultants and
consultees with various others suggesting an interdependent and reciprocal relationship
between school psychologists and other professionals and non-professionals. Participants
viewed working collaboratively with others to solve problems and gathering and
receiving knowledge and support as important to them in their practice. Most consultation
appeared to be occurring at the school-level with participants reporting that they
consulted most often with school personnel and parents. School psychologists reported
consulting most often for academic and behavioral issues and most reported being
confident or very confident in their ability to act as a consultant for these issues.
Although most participants indicated they were somewhat satisfied or satisfied
with their current level of consultation, almost three quarters of all respondents reported
they would like to spend more time on consultation. Respondents indicated the most
significant barriers to effective consultation were heavy caseloads, doing too many
psycho-educational assessments, and servicing too many schools. Facilitators to effective
consultation were administrative support, time allocated for consultation, common
planning time with staff, flexibility in scheduling, promoting the role of the school
psychologist, effective communication, parental involvement and participation in sitebased
and program planning teams, being a regular presence in schools, and shifting from
a psycho-educational assessment focus to a comprehensive service delivery model.
Few significant differences in consultation practices were identified among rural,
urban, and combined rural and urban school psychologists. Urban participants were more
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likely than rural and combined participants to act as a consultant for family doctors.
Urban and combined participants were more likely to provide information to social
workers. Rural participants reported being sought out more often than urban and
combined participants for assistance with social-emotional issues and rated gathering
information for social-emotional issues as more important. No significant differences
were identified with respect to barriers or facilitators to effective consultation. The lack
of significant differences may have been a result of the small number of participants in
the urban and combined rural and urban groups.
Description
Keywords
Counselors , Teachers , School psychology , Nova Scotia , School psychologists