School Psychology Adv. Cert. - Curriculum

This course presents counseling theories, techniques and strategies for working with children and adolescents and their families. It is designed to develop basic counseling and crisis intervention skills. Three areas that are given the most attention are developing one's counseling knowledge base, developing one's basic psychotherapeutic communication skills and developing one's self awareness. (This course is restricted to SCPSYC-ACT or SCPSYC-MS Major students.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

Students of this course will study assessment generally, types of tests and their uses, strengths and weaknesses of specific instruments, principles of reliability and validity, scales, and norms. Students will acquire an understanding of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of measurement. Extensive practice will be given in the administration and scoring of standardized assessment procedures. Emphasis will be placed on the use of various academic assessment procedures in schools and other settings. (This course is restricted to SCPSYC-ACT or SCPSYC-MS Major students.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course explores various types of applied research methods as well as important methodological issues and concepts in areas of applied psychology. Methodologies studied include experimentation, quasi-experimentation, content analysis, surveys, and interviews. Methodological issues cover research ethics, reliability, threats to internal and external validity, demand characteristics, volunteer participant problems, and issues in sampling. Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course reviews scientifically-based principles, concepts, and methods of behavior analysis. Topics covered include behavioral assessment, data analysis, and approaches to behavior change. A special focus is on the functional behavioral assessment process within schools. Students will learn to develop assessment-based behavior intervention plans, which are tailored to the unique needs of individual students, through a collaborative problem-solving process involving families and school staff. (This course is restricted to SCPSYC-ACT or SCPSYC-MS Major students.) Lecture 3 (Spring).

This course reviews descriptive and inferential statistics. Basic and advanced conceptual material will be presented to assist students in their understanding of diverse data analytic methods, their appropriate application, and how to interpret statistical analyses. Topics include one- and two-sample inferential procedures, interval estimation, correlation, nonparametric tests, linear regression, and analysis of variance. Students will learn to integrate concepts with computer applications. Course content will be taught through lectures, discussion, and applied data analysis exercises. Student mastery of the material will be evaluated through small group discussion of data set analyses, written results of the analyses following APA style, and two exams. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer).

This course focuses on the development of beginning competencies in consultation that will help students assist school professionals in building capacity to deliver effective services. Contextual influences on school consultation, models of consultation, and the stages of the consultation process within a problem-solving model will be emphasized. Issues relevant to individual case and classroom consultation will be covered. (Prerequisites: PSYC-620 or equivalent course.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course will assist students in building their consultation skills, with an explicit focus on systems-level issues and interventions. Students will learn principles of population-based prevention and intervention services and family-school collaboration. An array of evidence-based schoolwide interventions will be explored in depth with a focus on the role of the school psychologist within the larger system. (Prerequisites: PSYC-620, PSYC-630, PSYC-650 and PSYC-721 or equivalent courses.) Lecture 3 (Spring).