Psychology Students Try on the Role of Educational Diagnosticians. Preliminary Studies

The aim of the studies was to ascertain how far psychology students are ready to learn the vocation of education assistants to children and youth. Four general ways of acquiring knowledge and skills - by assimilation, by doing, by discovering, and by impression - were distinguished and interpreted with regard to the students’ prospective employment in educational institutions. Learning by doing (model Beta) and by impression (model Delta) turned out to be more expressive in the student self-reports than learning by assimilation (model Alpha) and by discovering (model Gamma). A proof that the Nosal/Paluchowski typology of diagnosticians applies to psychology students was also in search. However, the pertinent Educational Diagnostician Inventory appeared satisfactorily valid only for those psychology sophomores who manifested the best-shaped attitudes towards educational diagnoses. They belonged mostly to concrete-objective (Proceduralist) and global-subjective (Intuitionist) attitude categories. Transactional analysis partly supported these findings of the survey.

Service Delivery to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Students in Rural School Districts

Bilingual special education programs have been established in many school districts across the country to address the unique needs of culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional students (CLDE). Rural school districts may have difficulty meeting the specialized needs of CLDE students due to the limited availability of resources, especially individuals trained in bilingual special education. This study examines the availability of programs which could serve CLDE students, the training of personnel in these programs, and whether educational diagnosticians and speech language pathologists (SLPs) apply procedures which take into account language and cultural factors. The authors suggest that rural school districts can provide service delivery if special educators are trained in cultural and language areas while bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) teachers are trained in exceptionalities.

Competencies for Professionals in Learning Disabilities

Two hundred and sixty-one professionals in learning disabilities rated their proficiency on CLD competency statements in eleven areas. The evaluation included ratings of real competence, i.e., skills used on their jobs, and ideal competence, i.e., skills participants considered important for being able to function at maximum efficiency. The respondents were divided into subgroups based upon nine demographic conditions: Service Model, Teaching Level, Years of Teaching Experience, School Type, Years in Special Education, Degree, Location, Sex, and Age. Results revealed that reading was the most important competency area and that the majority of professionals felt most proficient in reading skills. At the other extreme, competence in cognition and career/vocational education was not viewed as particularly important. Other areas such as mathematics, written language, and oral language were regarded as important, but specific groups of professionals believed they were not fully competent in certain aspects of those areas. Other results suggested that teachers benefit from experience and academic degrees, and that they have little interest in research or professional organizations. Educational diagnosticians and supervisors believed that they had better training than other personnel; itinerant teachers viewed themselves as less competent than others in many areas.