Please respond to one of these scenarios or reflective questions. Please limit two responses to each. Put the scenario number you have chosen in the title of your post (ex. Vignette 1 response). NO NAMES PLEASE If you are the second to respond, make sure you comment on the first responder's remarks.
Vignette #1: Barbara has been working as a
school psychologist for 10 years and feels reasonably capable and competent in
the position. This year, one of her schools is entering into an agreement with
a nearby university to become a professional development school, which means
that she is now expected to supervise interns. She feels that the supervision she received as an intern was
excellent, but that was a long time ago.
She is not sure her skills are completely up to date, she no longer has
a supervisor, and she has neither had a course in supervision nor ever worked
in a setting in which she received supervision other than her internship. She feels that having interns would be
exciting and enriching but is concerned that she is being asked to practice in
an area beyond her expertise. Imagine
that you are Barbara’s intern. What conversation would you like her to have
with you and what concerns would you express?
Vignette #2: Intern
Fran had two remarkably different supervisors. At the high school, her supervisor Sam was highly
suspicious, monitored every minute of her time, and in general made her feel
incompetent even at the end of her internship year. Her supervisor at the middle and elementary schools, Joan,
was the complete opposite – she fostered Fran’s professional growth through
guided practice and encouraged Fran to take on substantial responsibility. Joan would have liked Fran to take over
her position upon her retirement that August, but Fran declined the job
offer. Her experience with Sam had
so undermined her self-confidence that she left the field of school psychology.
Imagine you are in Fran’s cohort. What would
you tell Fran if she told you she was thinking of leaving school psychology
after this experience?
Dilemma #1: Your
supervisor knows your university has very specific expectations for the
internship year. The intern is expected to perform the full range of school
psychological services, including direct and indirect interventions and
assessment. While your supervisor
was trained in direct interventions such as counseling, their job has been
restricted, omitting many of these activities, so it seems they feel extremely
rusty and incompetent with these skills, and their job description has limited
their access to these types of activities. How would you, the
intern approach this situation? What would you want your supervisor to say or
do to help?
Dilemma #2: It is the beginning of a new school
year, and you have emailed your supervisor about their expectations as supervisor
and your wishes for learning opportunities for the school year. The supervisor
writes back that they have just found out about many unexpected evaluations
that have appeared on their case load and these need to be completed in a short
amount of time. This is going to
put additional time constraints on what introductions and topic the supervisor
intended on covering with your intern at the beginning of the year. They are afraid they may not have time
to complete your beginning of the year intern evaluation. As the intern, ow can you approach this situation?
Reflective Question #1:
Discuss the development of supervision
goals as part of a comprehensive supervision contract. Why are they important and how should
they be formulated?
Reflective Question #2:
Describe the fundamental learning
principals to which supervisors should attend when they design supervisory
teaching strategies. How might
these principles have ramifications on the evaluations of your work as an
intern?
