My doctorate is in educational psychology, with a specialty in school psychology. It is important to me to be out of the university occasionally and go into the public schools. For example, I am working with the Howard County school system to change the way schools work with children who have learning and behavior problems. Students who come into the graduate program in school psychology have usually gained an understanding about human behavior and about the way people interact with their environments, from their undergraduate psychology courses. One of the courses I teach is a class on consultation skills taken in the second year of our graduate program in school psychology.
Students spend a whole year working with teachers on solving problems in the classroom.
Each week the student and I listen to tapes of those discussions to make certain that the student is acquiring the skills critical to a school psychologist. I can remember when computers were in basements of huge university buildings. Now they're in many classrooms and most schools. We're using them to keep track of information about children and their academic achievements. Also, we use them to get information.