School Psychology Goals and Objectives and Responsibilities of School Psychologists

School psychologists can play an important role in strengthening school and family partnerships and community outreach. 

School psychologists can work with students of all ages, individually and in groups, to support students' social, behavioral, and learning outcomes, improve academic performance, resolve emotional and personal problems, learning disabilities, by providing targeted training to students and teachers within an educational institution and promoting a positive learning environment.

The Role of School Psychologists in Educational Institutions

School Psychology Goals and Objectives and Responsibilities of School Psychologists in Educational Institutions

What is School Psychology?

School psychology combines the principles of educational psychology and clinical psychology, in order to understand and treat students with learning disabilities. 

School psychology supports the intellectual development of gifted students, promotes constructive social behaviors among adolescents, and encourages a safe, effective way of education and helps develop an active learning environment. 

School psychology is also concerned with behavioral and educational assessment, intervention methods, prevention, and counseling.

The field of school psychology has become the only area where a specialist can be called a psychologist without a Ph.D.

National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) confers the title of specialist for recent graduates.  This is unlike the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) which does not recognize that a person is a specialist if he has less than a Ph.D.

Psychologists who have undergone three years of post-graduate training work only in schools, while PhDs work in other educational institutions such as universities, hospitals, psychiatric clinics and private and public practices.

School psychologists need to receive intensive and in-depth training in psychology in general.

School Psychology Goals and Objectives

As a branch of educational psychology, school psychology targets counseling for secondary, elementary, and junior high school students.

This emerging branch of psychology contributes to curriculum development, and improvement, ridding it of excesses, inaccuracies, additional padding, or outdated subjects.

The school psychologist also seeks to diagnose or measure educational deficits as well as emotional or psychological disorders.

The school psychologist is studying how to use psychology principles, procedures, and methods to address school problems in order to improve school performance and study human relations within educational institutions.

The school psychologist determines the child's eligibility to study at school, which calls for the use of tests, psychological measures and tests of study preparations in addition to the use of intelligence tests.

School Psychologists - Roles and Functions

The main tasks of the school psychologists are to use concepts, conceptions, meanings and psychological theories in the school field and to apply psychological procedures and curricula to improve school conditions, including student achievement and academic adaptation. 

The most important tasks of school psychologists may include:

The diagnosis of diseases, disorders, crises, school problems and behavioral problems for schoolchildren.

The work of the school psychologist is not only about diagnosing and treating disorders but also studying the good or non-good school environment (learning environment), as well as studying the problems resulting from curricula and courses such as being difficult or far from the interests of students.

The school psychologist also examines the assignments that teachers assign to their students.

There are also some students who find it difficult to fulfill their homework.

It is also the task of the school psychologist to practice some types of psychotherapy with students who exhibit some behavioral difficulties. 

The school psychologist engages in dialogue, discussion or consultation with parents, peers, and teachers, makes plans for the child's success in the classroom and at home helps teachers with the information they need and makes suggestions for adapting to classroom problems.

The school psychologist works in the treatment of problems faced by pupils in the learning environment, as well as the application of intelligence tests, as well as the interpretation of grades and knowledge of their meaning and determines the mental level of pupils, and assesses the ability of the child, as well as the application of personality tests.

The school psychologist studies the causes of academic failure. Of course, there are many reasons: from mental retardation to psychiatric and emotional illnesses, to the child's neglect of schooling, suffering from family problems, attending a school that is not suitable for him. He also learns about subjects that suit students' interests.

The school psychologist is concerned with the study of the educational system in general, guides students, and contributes to the planning of the curriculum units, as well as applies psychological tests, analyzes school exams and their results and applies psychological concepts and psychological procedures.

His role leads to the development of the school atmosphere and he is keen to provide a good school atmosphere in the classroom.

What Training Do School Psychologists Receive?

School psychologists study the following topics and receive educational training:

- Psychological development of children, including: physical, mental, psychological, social, moral, spiritual stages, the characteristics of each stage, growth constraints, as well as the inertia of growth.

- Study of the educational system and academic/learning interventions.

- Data collection and analysis

- Clinical Psychology, including the study of diagnostic, therapeutic and counseling processes.

- Study emotional problems in children.

- School-wide practices to promote learning.

- Study the educational or academic problems in children.

- Study behavioral problems such as theft or escape from school ... and others.

- Assessment and progress monitoring.

How School Psychology can Help Improve the School System?

School psychology can help improve the education system by designing student progress monitoring systems, evaluating teaching parenting skills, estimating the eligibility for special education services, implementing school-wide prevention programs and making referrals to help coordinate community support.

School psychologists can play an important role in strengthening school and family partnerships and community outreach.

They can work with students of all ages, individually and in groups, to support students' social, behavioral, and learning outcomes, improve academic performance, resolve emotional, behavioral, and personal problems and learning disabilities.

School psychologists can help students with crisis situations or many serious issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, by providing targeted training to students and teachers within the institution and education sector and promoting a positive school climate and good learning environment.

Educators consider the school an important social center where the child spends many hours of his or her daily life.

Traditional educational thought that confined the role of the school as a teaching process focused mainly on the cognitive aspects.

The main characteristic of the school is that it is an official social organization, with cultural and social characteristics that are unique to any other institution.

On the part of the community, school psychologist defined the functions of the modern school in several points summarizing its dual role, which, as far as preserving the authenticity of the community, seeks to modernize and develop it as follows:

1. Prepare children to understand social life as a complex society in which economic/political/religious/social systems exist.

2. Establish a balance between the elements of the social environment, which can be defined as a melting pot in which members of society are fused.

3. Create a society for the emerging refinery impurities.

4. Unify the psyche of the individual so as not attracted by the sects of the nation arises fanatic.

5. Preserve the legacy of the past and adhere to it and keep abreast of current and future developments.