School Psychology symposium report

ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM ON

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: CRITICAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

MAY 30, 2016

Organized by

Psychology Research Unit

INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE

&

INDIAN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY ASSOCIATION, (InSPA)

A REPORT

One day symposium on school psychology was held at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata on 30th May, 2016. The symposium was organized by the Psychology Research Unit in collaboration with Indian School Psychology Association (InSPA).

Goals of the symposium were not only to generate awareness of school psychology profession but also to explore some critical challenges of school psychology. Almost 45 research fellows/scholars, faculties, project workers and school counsellors were present in the symposium. There were six technical memorial sessions with names of six statisticians and ex-heads of the Psychology Research Unit.

They were Prof.Edwin Harper(Jr.), Prof.Shib Mitra, Prof.Rhea Stagner Das, Prof.S.Chatterjee, Prof.Manjula Mukerjee and Prof.Purnendu Kumar Bose. Their contributions were presented before deliberations in respective sessions.

After the Invocation by Dr. D. Dutta Roy, Professor Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, the Director of the Indian Statistical Institute, inaugurated the symposium. In her inaugural speech, she gave special emphasis on research in School Psychology. She observed rapid incidence of mental health problems among the children and youth in schools and colleges. Prof. Amita Majumdar, the Head of the Psychology Research Unit, highlighted the school psychology related research activities of the unit. As Convener of the symposium, Dr. Debdulal Dutta Roy justified relevance of the symposium and his design of symposium. In the justification, he highlighted the contribution of Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, the founder of the institute in assessing mental abilities of school children.

Professor Anjali Ray, the Professor of the Department of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta and Regional Convener of InSPA gave keynote speech. She highlighted some key issues as well as challenges of school psychology in India. The key issues are psychosocial change and challenges, nutrition and reproductive health care, mental health status, learning disabled and special children, crimes, violence and legal protection, communication and interpersonal relationship, life skills, career counseling and readiness, curriculum updating, etc. for the students. In order to reach the objectives, the major Challenges of Indian School Psychology is to sensitize the policy makers and administrators for creation of posts of school psychologists, development of their desirable training modules, implementation of uniform principles for their qualification, professional ethics for psychologists, provision of mental health, and academic support services for all students, nurturing of partnership and development of networking among different agencies.

Professor Ravindranath Rai, Professor of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong and the Vice President of InSPA discussed the prospects of school psychology in North-East India. He pointed out high dropout rates and recent failure of school leaving examinations of schools in Manipur. The inaugural session was ended with vote of thanks by Dr. Rumki Gupta of the Psychology Research Unit.

After inauguration. in the Prof.Edwin Harper(Jr.) memorial session, Dr. D. Dutta Roy observed that sustainability of school psychology in India depends on the professional ethics of school psychology. The professional ethics should follow the fundamental rights of the Indian Constitution for its acceptability. He discussed professional ethics in light of 5 fundamental rights of Indian Constitution (Right to Equality, Right to Freedom, Right against Exploitation, Right to Freedom of Religion, Educational and Cultural rights) and the four principles of National Association of School Psychology(respecting the dignity and rights of all persons; professional competence and responsibility; honesty and integrity in professional relationships ; and, responsibility to schools, families, communities, the profession and the society). This session was chaired by professor Anjali Ray.

In Prof.Shib Mitra memorial session, Prof. Ravindra Nath Rai, of Centre for Distance Education,NEHU,(Bijni Campus) discussed prospects of School Psychology in the North-East India. He stated that the states of North-East India have both private and public schools in urban and rural areas. The schools need proper psychological guidance to overcome number of problems in the areas of substance use, self-esteem, social competence for students with disabilities. This session was chaired by professor Anjali Ray.

At  Prof.Rhea Stagner Das memorial session, Prof. Saurabh Ghosh of  Human Genetics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, discussed about identifying genes underlying Autism.  He believed that irregularities in serotonin reuptake and its homeostasis could be the basis of behavioral impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) patients. He discussed two competing study designs namely population based and family based through which he observed that the prevalence of ASD is very high among males. This session was chaired by Professor Pritha Mukhopadhyay

At  Prof.S.Chatterjee memorial session, Professor Pritha Mukhopadhyay of Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, discussed about Learning and Adaptive brain. Professor Mukhopadhyay stated that in(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with cognitive training the change could be brought in P3 latency in the frontal, central and posterior parts of the brain, which is associated with the improvement in speed of processing of attention task. Adaptation could have both positive and negative consequence. If an organism recovers after a stroke to normal levels of performance (spontaneous recovery), that adaptiveness could be considered as "positive plasticity" but an excessive level of neuronal growth leading to tonic paralysis that may be considered "negative plasticity". This session was chaired by Professor Saurabh Ghosh.

At Prof.Manjula Mukerjee memorial session,Dr.Koel Das of Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, discussed about using Brain Computer Interface(BCI) to treat mental health disorders in children. According to Dr. Das a BCI is a communication link between brain and an external device like computers which facilitates individuals to control and communicate with the external world. In a BCI system, the brain activity acts as an independent variable and by using neurofeedback, the user can learn to control his or her brain activity and thereby perform intended task. Recently, BCIs are used for treating mental health disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder. Using neural training, ADHD children can retain their attention for longer period and can avoid distraction. Professor Ravindra Nath Rai was the Chair Person in this session.

Prof.Purnendu Kumar Bose memorial session, Dr.Santoshi Halder of Department of Education, University of Calcutta, discussed about Applied Behaviour Analyses for children with diverse behavioural needs. She presented the application of applied behaviour analyses(ABA) conducted in three behaviour modification strategies- trial based functional analysis of self-injurious behaviour, echoic and exemplar training in children having phonological disorder, and video modelling to teach play skills to ASD children. This session was chaired by Dr. Rumki Gupta.

After all the technical sessions, participants were asked for their feedback about the symposium. It was noted that they were happy as all the topics were very much interesting to them and had wide application in school psychology. They were satisfied with the refreshments, working lunch and the hospitality. Some of them felt the need for school psychology training. After the feedback session certificates were distributed to the speakers and participants by Professor Anjali Ray and Professor Ravindra Nath Rai.

Convener speech on School Psychology Symposium

In this speech, I want to focus on three things - importance of school psychology, relevance of school Psychology , and design of topic selection.

IMPORTANCE
There is growing evidence of increased psychological problems in children and adolescents especially behaviour problems and suicides. The prevalence rate of psychiatric disorders in India is 12.5% among children aged 0-16 years and 12% among the 4-16 year’s children (Srinata et al., 2005).  This suggests very high psychological stress on school going children. Psychological stress affects their scholastic and non-scholastic performance in school.
Worldwide increasing attention has been given on primary prevention of mental illness and risk reduction to vulnerability to mental illness in both school going children and the adolescents. Here in school psychology can play proactive role. Their presence can provide safety and security to the students, teachers, staffs, parents and the larger community. Presence of school psychologists prevents violence, decreases bullying, improves self-esteem, peer relations, student-teacher relations. Since, there is no separate comprehensive policy to deal with child mental health issues in India, school psychologists can play more critical role. 

RELEVANCE IN ISI

In coining this symposium , I thought of its relevance in ISI. 
         

Why school psychology in ISI ?  :  As school psychology principles are based on both academic and action researches, there is enough scope of statistics and mathematics in school psychology. Measurement of human abilities is most important. Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, the founder of this institute published research paper on human ability in 1933 in the International journal 'Sankhya' publication of ISI. Professor himself gave thrust on educational assessment. Therefore, he brought Prof. Edwin Harper from US. His student Late Prof. Purnendu kumar Bose gave emphasis on psychometrics. Another area is research methodology. Both experimental and survey methods are followed to evaluate effectiveness of intervention strategies. Psychometric principles are taken into account in psycho-educational test selection, in interpretation of test scores. 

DESIGN

This symposium has given emphasis on determinants, intervention strategies and policy making. Prof. Saurav Ghosh will focus on genetic determinants, Prof. Pritha Mukhopadhyay, Dr.Koel Das and Dr. Santoshi Halder will discuss remedial teaching and intervention strategies. Prof. Anjali Ray, Prof. R.N.Rai and Dr. D. Dutta Roy will focus on policy making.

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