Our approach to assessment is guided by the Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland (2014) Position Paper.
This Position Paper was developed by a Working Group of representatives from the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP) and the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Scottish Division of Educational Psychologists (SDEP), in consultation with staff from the Universities of Dundee and Strathclyde’s postgraduate training programmes in Educational Psychology
Features of Educational Psychology Assessment
“Throughout the process of educational psychology assessment, educational psychologists
work with children, parents/carers, partners and strategic managers to ensure that
children are safe, healthy, active, nurtured, achieving, respected, responsible and included.
Features of the work of an educational psychologist include:
- Working collaboratively with people who know the young person in order to gather good quality information, about the child or young person, in context including strengths and capabilities.
- Highlighting the importance of the interactive nature of assessment, learning and teaching.
- Working with others to analyse the information gathered to inform the design and implementation of interventions, which reduce barriers to learning and lead to the successful inclusion of the child or young person in their class, school and community.
- Working with local authority managers to develop and evaluate the most effective delivery of teaching and learning methods, in order to achieve the most inclusive environment, for all children and young people.
The educational psychologist usually joins the assessment process after people directly involved with the child or young person have already gathered information and implemented a cycle of intervention and review. An educational psychologist’s contribution to the assessment process will often be agreed within a consultation process and may be based on direct or indirect involvement with the child, or a combination of both.
Assessment information may be gathered through consultation with a teacher, parent, carer or other professional, or through a teacher using an agreed investigative framework. In order to supplement this, where necessary, it may also involve approaches including classroom observation, analysis of work, questionnaires, curriculum-based assessment, dynamic assessment, and measures of social-emotional factors, using recognised assessment materials as appropriate. The approaches used will depend on the questions to be answered and on the context within which the difficulties arise.
In keeping with the Additional Support for Learning legislation, the views of the parent(s)/carer(s) and child/young person must be sought and taken account of in the assessment process.
This position paper urges caution regarding the use of psychometric testing as a measure of educational progress in an educational context. Various forms of standardised assessment may be used to supplement contextual assessment information but the use and interpretation of standardised assessment alone is not considered to be best practice in an educational context. Triangulation of information from a variety of sources will produce a more robust assessment of needs and interventions.”
– ASPEP (2014, p.3)
EP assessment can be any number of things which help to develop a holistic understanding of a child’s life – their needs, views and most importantly, their strengths.
Sometimes there is a view that the role of EPs in assessment means one particular way of working, or doing one particular thing and so it can be a confusing term. Really, EP assessment is anything that an EP does to try and make sense of the situation.
We know that every child is different. They have their own needs, strengths, skills and aspirations. Also, every family, school, setting, classroom, teacher and practitioner is different. With all this difference it might be odd if an EP did the same thing with every case they worked on.
So what types of things might an EP do to make sense of a situation?
There are a range of tools, techniques and approaches an EP might use to try and make sense of the situation they are working with. It’s impossible to list all of them and the best advice would be to talk to your EP to ask them what they are doing and why. We’ve tried to cover the most common ones below:
Having a conversation
Having a conversation can often be the most useful way of trying to understand what is going on, from different perspectives. Parents, teachers and children will all have different views about ‘the problem’ and it’s important to try to understand these views. EPs might call these conversations different things e.g. a consultation, solution-oriented meeting, or a Team Around the Child (TAC) meeting.
These conversations involve a great deal of psychology. EPs think carefully about the questions they ask, including when and how these questions are said. An EP’s work is really helped by those involved allowing plenty of time in a safe space to really talk and think about the situation that is causing concern.
Gaining the views of the child or young person
This is an important part of an EP’s job. Often, we’re asked to become involved to support a child or young person who seems to be experiencing difficulties. Children and young people are at the centre of our thinking and work and so it’s important to try to understand what they think about what is going on, what the difficulties are and what they think is working well.
Again, there are a huge range of tools, techniques and approaches that an EP can use to gain a child’s view and no two children will be the same. In most cases, an EP will decide what approach they will take based on the conversations they have with adults that know that child best.
Visiting a child or young person’s school or nursery
You might hear this being called an “observation.” In some circumstances, it can be useful to see a child or young person at their school, nursery or setting. This can sometimes help an EP understand what life might be like for the children or young person they’re working with. Observations can sometimes give an EP the chance to find out more about what’s already working well in a particular situation or give an insight into some of the things that may not be working so well. A key focus of these visits is exploring environmental influences on a child or young person’s learning, wellbeing and development. EPs might carry out visits or observations in lots of different ways e.g. at different times, in different places. This is because we know that children and young people can have different experiences, in different environments.
Credit: Adapted from O’Hare, D.P. (2021, October 22). Educational psychology. edpsy. https://edpsy.org.uk/about/educational-psychology/
