The profession of school psychology in the coutnry of Luxembourg

by Schmitz, Clare Barnard.

Schrnitz Clare Barnard (Writer) (Last Name) (First) (Initial) (Title) The Profession of School Psvcholoav in the Countrv of Luxembourg School Psvcholony Dr. Ed Bi~nerstaff ApriV2005 80 (Graduate Major) (Research Advisor) (MonthIYear) (No. of Pages) American Psvchological Association. 5th edition (Name of Style Manual Used in this Study) This study is based on research currently underway with the International School Psychology Association's (ISPA) research committee. The ISPA7s research is intended to provide information regarding the field of school psychology around the world. Due to the fact that there is not an internationally accepted role definition for school psychologists, the profession includes extremely varied and diverse demands. Gathering information relevant to the field from different countries is important to enable us to learn from one another and to come to a more unified understanding and awareness of school psychology on a global level. To date, the ISPA has distributed surveys to school psychologists and completed data collection in five countries. Further collection is underway in several additional nations. This particular study involved distributing surveys and collecting data from school psychologists in the country of Luxembourg. In order to enable the ISPA to utilize the data yielded by this study, the association's research chairperson, Dr. Shane School Psychology iii Jimerson, requested that this research utilize the International School Psychology Survey (ISPA). The survey is available in several languages. For the purposes of this study, subjects were given the option of using the German or English language versions of the ISPS. The ISPA survey consists of 46 items that address the five principle areas of: a) Characteristics of school psychologists, b) Training and regulation of the profession, c) Roles and responsibilities, d) Challenges, and e) Research. The ISPA had already surveyed school psychologists in the five countries of Albania, Cypress, Estonia, Greece and Northern England. This study, using the same ISPA survey instrument used in the initial five countries surveyed, determined that the respondents in Luxembourg were most similar to the Greek respondents. The psychologists in Luxembourg and Greece were most similar in gender, age, level of education, years of experience and the ability to speak and read in different languages. The respondents in these two countries also shared a similar amount of supervision, which was more than the other surveyed counties. All psychologists agreed that directly working with students was their favorite activity, and administrative responsibilities were their least favorite activities. Also, the Luxembourg psychologists wanted more training on violence and drug related issues, while all other countries surveyed wanted more training on failure and differences in learning. School Psychology iv