Educational psychologist

The use of plural in these three cases assumes two meanings; the traditional or official one and other more general derived from our information and knowledge society.

The triangle vertexes are connected by two-directional arrows, allowing four-fold typologies instead of the traditional two-way relationships (e.g., teacher-student).

This specific work of an educational psychologist takes place in different contexts: micro-, meso- and macro-systems.

Macrosystem has a much more general and global nature, leading us, for example, to consider the influence that the different societies or countries have on educational final products.

Evaluation involves collecting information, in a valid and reliable way, about the three target groups of the triangle diagram (in their respective contexts): teachers, students and curricula.

[11] This must be directed to students, in their various dimensions (intellectual, obviously, but also their social, affective and professional dimensions), parents, as ‘paraprofessionals’ who may implement programs, selected or developed by educational psychologists, to solve their child/student problems, teachers, to whom will be offered psycho-educational support to face psychological difficulties that may be found when implementing and adapting curricula to diversity shown by students, academic authorities, who will be helped in their decision-making, regarding the teaching (teaching process) and administrative duties (providing necessary support for students with specific educational needs, decisions about promotion to the next level, and so on).

The complement to all of these interventions is constituted by a series of optimizing activities, meant for the academic, professional, social, family, and personal improvement of all agents in an educational community, especially learners.

A fourth function, or specific activity, is a referral of those with dysfunctions to other professionals, following a previous diagnostic evaluation, with the aim to coordinate future treatment implementation.

This coordination will take place with parents, teachers, and other professionals, promoting collaboration among all educational agents in order to get the fastest and best case resolution.

This second triangle represents the essential components of school psychology, for some European researchers or division 16 of APA.

Recently a specific Doctoral degree (Masters in Scotland) is generally required for the professional preparation of educational psychologists in the UK.

[23] However, the resounding majority seems to sit at the $67,000 per year range, making the previous income average considerably modest.