Saturday, May 21, 2016

PREFACE OF ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM ON SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY:CRITICAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES MAY 30,2016

School Psychology is a field that applies principles of educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and applied behavior analysis to meet children's and adolescents' behavioral health and learning needs in a collaborative manner with educators and parents. School Psychology is profession. According to American Board of Professional Psychology School psychology practice promotes the protection and fosters the promotion of the educational and personal development of students. The practice of school psychology includes psychological and psycho-educational evaluation, individual/group/family intervention with students and parents, health promotion, consultation with educators and parents, program development and evaluation, and research. School psychologists intervene at the individual and system levels to develop, implement, and evaluate preventive programs. School psychologists practice in public and private schools, clinics and hospitals, forensic settings, universities and in independent practice.

In the time line of the history of School Psychology, from 1890-1969, school psychology
school” psychology was a blend of many kinds of educational and psychological practitioners loosely mobilized around a dominant role of psycho-educational assessment for special class placement. In Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Social reform implemented in US, which included compulsory schooling, juvenile courts, child labor laws, mental health, and vocational guidance. These cultural and social advances were a major force in the push for the need for school psychologists.

Early models of school psychology evolved primarily from Lightner Witmer (focusing on clinical model) and G. Stanley Hall (normative characteristics for groups).No individual is more recognized in the forefront of this testing movement than Alfred Binet. (1857-1911). Together with Theodore Simon, the two helped spur the individual testing movement by developing the first practical intelligence test battery, which assessed higher level cognitive skills and produced substantial correlations with measures of school achievement. (Ref:http://www.nyasp.org/pdf/sp_timeline.pdf)

When the ability testing movement started in Europe and US,visionary leader of Statistics, Professor P .C. Mahalanobis published his first paper in 'Sankhya'
titled "Studies in educational tests. No.1. The reliability of a group test of intelligence in Bengali". Professor observed huge potentiality of statistics in Psychological testing. He invited statistician Prof.Edwin Harper(Jr.) to start Psychometric Research and Service unit. After the 3rd review committee, the name has been changed to Psychology Research Unit. The unit has done extensive research on different areas of school psychology by development of psychological instruments as
Non-language ability test,attitude to school infrastructure, picture drawing test, Reading and Writing motivation, verbal reasoning test etc.

In 2009, six educationists under the guidance of Prof. B. Mukhopahyay observed that academic psychology is predominantly dominated by the Western concepts and principles. Therefore, it is needed to develop research based school psychology profession under the banner of Indian School Psychology Association (InSPA). As the concept is new, they were trying to develop the concept in association with International School Psychology Association (ISPA). Under the leadership of Prof. Panchramalingam, InSPA conducted International Conference of School Psychology in Vellore Institute of Technology.


The InSPA professionals conduct periodical training programmes professional services for the psychologists/students so as to promote school psychology in India. The association offers a)Professional training and employment of school psychologists; b)Workshop on School Psychology; c)Psychological counselling for school children; d)Special training programme for school teachers on school psychology.

This one-day symposium will focus on front lining  challenges of school psychology ( Brain Computer Interface to Treat Mental Health Disorders in Children; Identifying Genes underlying Autism; Learning and adaptability of brain; Applied Behaviour Analyses for Children with Diverse Behavioural Needs, ethics of school psychology). Besides, the symposium will illuminate the challenges of school psychology in India. We have invited eminent speakers so that you will be enlightened more and be able to disseminate the inputs to the larger community of school psychology.

This souvenir will help you in understanding basic ideas about school psychology, abstracts of the scientific research papers to be delivered in the symposium, unique contribution of the Psychology Research Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and Indian Psychology Association.

Hope, deliberations in this symposium will enrich you more about School psychology.

Debdulal Dutta Roy
(Convener)

                                                                  MY SPEECH


Good morning

Respected Professor







Brain-Computer interface or BCI 

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a collaboration between a brain and a device that enables signals from the brain to direct some external activity, such as control of a cursor or a prosthetic limb. The interface enables a direct communications pathway between the brain and the object to be controlled. Recent research has shown how BCI helps cerebral palsy in communicating daily activities. Since they cannot express themselves, these children do not connect with other people and end up not developing their intelligence," says Biomechanics Institute of Valencia (IBV) researcher Juanma Belda.
Ref: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/braincomputer_interface_makes_communication_for_kids_with_cerebral_palsy_easier-155804















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