This chapter explores how practicum training may be enhanced through effective collaboration between trainers and field supervisors. Successful practicum training requires strong collaboration between the trainee’s university or institution and the supervising field psychologist. Successful collaboration between the university and field site includes consideration of site development and maintenance, effective communication, and training and support across settings. Field placement and coordination play a critical role in the training of school psychologists. The individual fulfilling this role may be recognized with a variety of formal titles, such as field placement coordinator, clinical professor, or director of clinical training (DCT). One of the primary responsibilities of the DCT is the coordination and supervision of practica-related activities, including the placement of candidates in appropriate training sites. The chapter focuses on how supervisors can address trainee problems of professional competence, develop and use remediation plans successfully, and help trainees balance fieldwork with coursework.

This chapter presents the most salient psychological theories of personality. Personality is a core determinant of individual differences in everyday behaviors. The chapter discusses the difference between what psychologists broadly refer to as normal and what they regard as abnormal or clinical/mental illness. If one looks for an Elvis among personality psychologists, Sigmund Freud would be the one. During the mid-20th century, behaviorism emerged as a dominant paradigm for understanding human behavior, including personality. Although the social cognitive theory of personality has its origins in the radical behaviorist tradition, it emerged in clear opposition to it. According to the lexical hypothesis, historically, the most important and socially relevant behaviors that people display will eventually become encoded into language. Indeed, personality disorders are defined as long-standing, pervasive, and inflexible patterns of behavior and inner experience that deviate from the expectations of a person’s culture.

So here the authors are, caught between two worldviews. In one camp, they have educators and academics, attempting to overthrow the “old guard”—those of them who define giftedness through the narrow lens of IQ tests. They are hoping to establish a raison d’etre for gifted education—a field with a wobbly foundation. In the other camp, the authors have parents and the psychologists who specialize in working with the gifted, railing against the externalizing of giftedness. They want the inner world of the gifted to be recognized and appreciated. Controversy has dogged the study of giftedness since its inception, and is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Multiple views will somehow have to learn to coexist. The psychology of giftedness is a fledgling. An impressive number of people think they know more about the gifted than one does and they are delighted to share their opinions.

This chapter suggests some new directions that personality research is, or should be, taking as well as the future agenda of this research. In contrast, personality psychology provides us with a solid evidence base that people can lean on when searching for answers about human nature. Personality refers to the stable and consistent patterns we observe in how people behave, feel, and think. Associations between personality and intelligence have been found on the measurement level and hypothesized at a conceptual level. It is supposedly human nature not to trust humankind to provide the unselfish responses in questionnaires, or to possess an adequate level of self-awareness. Admittedly, this trend has been changing. An increasing number of organizations are using self-report personality measures and even laypeople seem to accept the notion of questionnaires more kindly than before.

The ideas of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato all contribute to the foundation of our understanding of the nature of human intelligence. Their ideas on topics as diverse as the origin of ability, the mind-body relationship, and general inquiry methods continued to inspire thinkers centuries later and influenced those who shaped modern psychology and intelligence theory. This chapter provides an overview of recent research on how people’s beliefs about intelligence impact their behaviors, a body of research that has significant implications for education. The emergence of reliable genetic and neurological research methodologies is creating a new area of study in which environmental, biological, and psychological facets of intelligence are studied simultaneously. Structure of Intellect (SOI) model represents a very different approach to theories of intelligence. Recent technological advances have encouraged explorations into the relationship between brain function and specific types of cognitive functioning.

This chapter addresses supervision related to trainee knowledge and skills required for the provision of special education services in the schools, including eligibility determination and service delivery. While school psychologists engage in any number of activities to support regular education, a primary focus is still special education and related services. As such, practicum trainees need to understand the link between case study evaluations and the provision of special education services. Supervisees may best understand district procedures for compliance with federal and state special education rules and regulations by reviewing relevant district resources and participating in staff orientation and other relevant professional development. Supervisors may provide instruction with the following school procedures: the student referral process, evaluation assignment and procedures, the meaning and implementation of obtaining informed consent from parents, requirements and practices for parent involvement, summarizing results, determining eligibility, and individualized education program (IEP) development and implementation.

This chapter helps trainees to develop a broader understanding of the different types of systems school psychologists interact with and how to develop meaningful trainee experiences. Practicum candidates will benefit from a basic introduction to site-specific prevention and intervention activities early in the training. This may include a review of the basic processes and structures the site has in place to support student academic and behavioral achievement, as well as the school psychologist’s role in these processes. Most school professionals recognize that students respond uniquely to instruction and have accepted that academic instruction must be differentiated for each learner. To accomplish this, school professionals often design a system of instruction following the multitiered systems of support (MTSS) framework for academic achievement. As part of the multitiered process, decisions about how students are achieving are made using data. Screening practices support the appropriate delivery of different instruction and/or interventions.

Supervision activities in the early stages are likely to be highly structured and prescriptive and require close monitoring of skill development, as supervisees are more likely to be anxious and more dependent on their supervisors. Supervisors can help trainees to explore new school psychological roles, focus on professional behaviors that will help them gain independence, and develop a repertoire of self-care strategies. Supervisors may also support trainee role expansion by assigning new activities and responsibilities, particularly in National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) domain areas that are underrepresented in current practice. Supervisors can also assist supervisees in becoming more independent by encouraging them to take risks and maintain a healthy perspective about their work in the field. Practicum supervisors can support trainee self-care with two key activities: monitoring and modeling their own professional self-care, and encouraging supervisees to develop their own set of self-care strategies.

This chapter explores supervision activities to help the school psychology practicum candidate develop skills in case conceptualization across three main roles of school psychology: assessment, consultation, and counseling. Supervisors should expect to temper this enthusiasm by teaching their supervisees to follow a structured approach to client casework. Supervisors should assist their trainees in understanding the link between assessment and intervention. Supervisors can help trainees improve their clinical judgment by providing an explicit framework for evaluating their hypotheses with the data they have collected through case study evaluation. First and foremost, supervisors should carefully select counseling cases for practicum candidates by identifying students who have relatively mild social, behavioral, or emotional difficulties. That is, supervisors should assign the easiest cases to trainees and refer students who have more significant and persistent mental health concerns to seasoned school-based mental health practitioners or outside service providers.