Improving Professional Practice in an Ontario School Psychological Service

Abstract

One of the benefits gained from changing positions is the opportunity to reflect on former work and roles. The senior author is having an opportunity for such reflection on his work as Coordinator of Psychological Services for the York County Board of Education (YCBE) in Ontario, while he is an exchange psychologist working with the Warwickshire Education Committee in England. As he reflects on his introduction to an education system strange to him, to communities considerably different from those with which he is familiar and a service that attends to twice as many students with half as many staff, he has reviewed how he helped members joining the psychological service of the YCBE adjust to their roles. The induction of new members parallels the attention given to improving the professional practices of all school psychologists in YCBE. This paper records the supervisory practices undertaken in the YCBE psychology department, for supervision is seen as the most important of the efforts extended to improve the professional practice of all members of the service.