Narrowing the theory-practice divide: an evaluation of teaching psychological theories in the educational psychology professional training programme

An important aspect of Educational Psychology (EP) practice is the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. We, the authors, are part of an academic team on a training programme for educational psychologists. Our presentation concerns the recent revision of the manner in which we ‘teach’ key developmental theories in educational psychology. In the past, these theories were imparted as discrete pieces of knowledge, with students then required to integrate theory and practice by presenting an assessment of how a particular theory can be applied in practice. The discrete ‘teaching’ that this approach necessitated was identified by the programme team as being a major limitation as it did not reflect the often messy and complex interplay of theories that real life practice often presents.

Following our evaluation of this, we sought to engage with the question of what students are expected to learn and decided to come to the theories of development through real life scenarios which reflect the complexity that EPs in practice face on a daily basis. We now approach this teaching by starting from such a vignette, which we then seek to unpick by discussing (in a co-teaching format) how different aspects of the vignette reflects a variety of theories, some of which interact with each other. Stories can bring abstract principles to life by giving them concrete form and tends to have more depth than a simple example (Green, 2004).

Research question: How can we “reimagine” the teaching of developmental theories in educational psychologists’ professional training?

This approach reflects the humanising drive which we seek in the professional training of EPs, where we actively position ourselves, in our role as practitioners as well as teachers, as subjects rather than objects. And as subjects engaging in the contradictions and tensions in a complex social world, we develop our “critical awareness and willingness to engage in transformative action” (Roberts 2008, 2). Using the problem-posing andragogy, seen by Paolo Freire as ‘liberating education’, we start from the posing of problems rather than the giving of answers, and its dialogical nature means that teachers and students learn from each other. Our planning also involved a graduated approach, where trainees would first see us, as members of academic staff, have a discussion about the psychological theories in a story, after which we would then gradually support the trainees to do the same with other casework vignettes. This graduated approach to having the trainees work on the vignettes independently was aimed at supporting their thinking and their self-efficacy in a process of conscientisation as the trainees’ (indeed even that of academic staff) understanding of the social world is deepened through the dialogue.

This approach, we believe, contributes to increasing the trainees’ capacity for critical reflection and engaging in praxis, both ethical processes which are inherent in the formation of a professional. This is important for educational practitioners as it highlights the interaction that is needed between theorising and acting in order to critically reflect on reality and therefore create change through action. This ties in with our previous work phronêsis, the capacity ‘to see’ and be sensitive to a situation, discern, deliberate, reflect, judge and act (see Carr, 2006). The suggestion that trainees are viewing the more experienced lecturers deliberate and uncover complexities in the stories is in line with Joseph Dunne’s (1993) work that trainees need to experience this virtue to enable them to embed it in their character, in both their thinking and their practice (K3, V3).

This change was partly brought about because of a long-standing dissatisfaction felt by the academic team about our teaching of psychological theories, and a perceived confusion on the part of the trainees as to how these theories are applicable to practice. The precipitating factor which prompted the academic team to make the change was the sudden need to alter the delivery of the sessions due to restrictions caused by the pandemic. We embarked on an action research project and went through the stages of Assessment and Planning, followed by Doing through lecture delivery.

In our assessment we considered how teaching the theories in a sterile neatly packaged manner was not enabling our students in their first semester of training to gain a sense of the function of theories in practice. Instead we planned our lectures using vignettes from practice as a starting point, and planned to then model to the trainees how to see theories of psychology work in these stories through our delivery of the lectures. Our planning also involved a graduated approach, where trainees would first see us, as members of academic staff, have a discussion about the psychological theories in a story, after which we would then gradually support the trainees to do the same with other casework vignettes.

We are now in the Reviewing phase of this action research project and carried out a qualitative survey of the views of trainees about this manner of delivery. Through a short questionnaire asking open-ended questions, we encouraged the trainees to anonymously provide feedback around the teaching of psychological theories in their professional training programme. Those who agreed to participate were asked to reflect on

- What they think about the teaching of this area was approached

- Whether this had an impact on the way they are embedding theory in practice into their thinking and assessment.

Responses were analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach which aligns with the teaching methodology itself. This allowed us as lecturers and researchers to position ourselves as an integral part of the interpretation of the data. This review phase was also supported by colleagues in the academic team who participated in the assessment of the trainees’ submitted work.