From the very first quarter of School Psychology training through an end-of-training internship, NLU students are working in schools and community organizations for parent training. Among the many reasons for continuous field-based experiences is to gain knowledge of how things are done, to learn what is working and what is not working in the interests of teachers, students, and families, and to provide students with real life opportunities to practice.
Year 1 practicum (EPS 563A) is a 1-credit experience per term, repeated 2 additional terms. This practicum is linked explicitly to 3 courses so that students can get hands on experiences and opportunities to use the skills they are learning, observe what school psychologists do in actual practice, and see how schools operate in providing instruction and behavior support. Students complete many class assignments in their practicum school. Expectations are a 4-8 hours per week.
Year 2 practicum (EPS 563B) is a 3-credit experience per term, repeated 2 additional terms. This practicum is a 2-day per week expectation where students work under the supervision of approved school psychologist supervisors and receive a minimum of 2.5 hours of weekly university-based supervision. Students have the opportunity to practice skills they learned in their first year and expand the tools and skills they are learning in their second year.
Year 1 and 2 Practicum Goals
- Practice skills students are learning in their courses and create “real life” situations in which to do and learn things.
- Identify discrepancies in practice “systems regularities” and “best practices”
- Disrupt students’ beliefs about professional practice, expand their perspectives about human development, educational services and systems, and improve their self-analysis and critical thinking skills.
- Instill hope that as a professional, students can facilitate healthy development and prevent problems for ALL STUDENTS by helping them learn more about what they need to learn and know.
Year 1 and 2 Practicum Big Ideas
- Having a model of service delivery that is based on explicit assumptions and values as well as procedures creates more effective practice.
- Most of us think of effective practice as knowing “what to do” and “when,” yet too often fail to ask why or whether it is likely to work.
- There is a body of knowledge about development relevant to learning. Some things work better than others. Some things purported to work rarely work.
- Development is an interaction of within-person and environmental variables (ecological). However, typical practice emphasizes primarily within-the-person causes (and solutions) to problems.
- We achieve improvements in the human conditions most often by managing the environment and context and by evaluating the unique effects of our solutions.
Year 3 Doctoral practicum (EPS 692) is a 2-credit experience per term, repeated 2 additional terms. This practicum is a minimum of 8 hours per week of direct service, with an additional 1 hour of on-site supervision. Students meet with their university supervision at least twice per month. Direct service hours may be flexible depending on the nature of the practicum responsibilities.
Year 3 Practicum Big Ideas
- Students anchor, integrate, and deepen the learning of the first 2 years of the program. They begin to identify a focus in line with the national professional standards and training guidelines.
- Students begin to identify and harvest professional relationships within the domain of specialization.
- At this level of practice, students are involved in initiatives that require systemic integration of personnel and/or projects.
- Students begin to exercise leadership skills within the working environment.
- Students engage in district, state and nation-wide conversations on policy and practice.
- Students cultivate professional voice with the ability to articulate, debate and revise professional values and beliefs as they collaborate with other professionals.