Psychological reports of novice and expert school psychologists, an analysis of teachers' perceptions

Abstract

It is very important that the school psychologist present the information in the psychological report in a manner that will maximize the chances that his or her message is received as intended. School psychologists are not a homogenous group and vary, among other things, in their level of experience and expertise. The question becomes, how would a school psychologist's experience level affect the relevance of his/her psychological reports from the perspectives of teachers' expectations and preferences? An extensive literature fails to provide any answers to the above question. The present study is, therefore, exploratory in nature. In the present study, two classroom teachers were each asked to read 14 psychological reports written by novice school pychologists and 15 pychological reports written by experienced school psychologists and evaluate and categorize them in terms of their overall quality and relevance to teachers. For purposes of the present study, novice school psychologists were defined with up to 2 years of professional experience, while experienced school psychologists were defined as those with more than 5 years of professional experience. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)