Interviewing

The responses to Section One o f Questionnaire A (IPS) confirmed the view outlined in chapter two regarding the importance that interviewing skills have within the training curriculum for educational psychologists. Interviewing skills were seen as being a core

skill in supporting educational psychology practice. All courses indicated that they taught such skills, with the majority of tutors perceiving that they were doing "a more than adequate job" in preparing their EPITs for the task of interviewing teachers.

Despite the importance attached to interviewing, most courses reported spending no more than 9 hours covering such skills during the training year. It could well be the case that further hours of interview theory and practice are added whilst EPITs are on placement. Unfortunately, this is an assumption, as we do not have any data outlining exactly what work, and in what proportions, and to what degree o f competency EPITs undertake whilst on placements. This suggests that any interpretation of responses to Question 1 needs to be undertaken with caution and is acknowledged as a limitation of this research.

Within the constraints imposed by one-year training, most courses have opted to present a range of interviewing frameworks, with just over 50% also teaching one of these approaches in greater detail. To teach EPITs interviewing approaches, the majority o f courses provide tutor demonstrations of interview techniques, including some lecture input, and in 69% o f courses they also provide critiques o f EPIT with EPIT role plays. In Carroll's (1974) research only 22% o f courses used EPIT-EPIT role plays. Over the past 25 years little appears to have altered in the proportion o f courses providing lecture input, with 67% reporting its use in Carroll's research and 69% in this study. Follow-up placement exercises are mentioned by about 70% of courses, presumably to consolidate and extend skills demonstrated and practised at university. In Carroll's research 89% of courses mentioned that EPITs' interviewing skills were rated whilst on placement.

It is beyond the scope o f this section to present a detailed discussion regarding the issues around competency-based research. For the purposes o f this section, there is research which indicates that, if the aim of training is to develop skills to competency level, then detailed regular practice and feedback within a meaningful context (structured micro-teaching sessions using realistic content and settings) can assist people to integrate skills and knowledge (Eraut, 1994, 1998; Ormrod, 1998; Woolfolk, 1998). Those courses which taught one interview framework in detail perceived it to be a more effective strategy than those who just presented a range o f frameworks to their EPITs.

the interview strategies being taught. This was to some extent surprising given that the common curriculum for courses, as outlined by the BPS, is more descriptive than prescriptive, and states that".. .each course brings its own orientation and specialisms to training..."(1999, p.l). Perhaps the great degree o f similarity between courses is due to the pervasive influence o f cognitive-behavioural models o f interviewing within educational psychology practice. Or it could be an artefact o f using a structured question format in the survey which influenced responses (Egan, 1994; Haley, 1976; Woolfe & Dryden, 1996).

All the courses taught open questioning, active listening, paraphrasing, reflecting back client content, and non-verbal communications. It was assumed that this last feature would include positive eye contact, facial expressions, and other signs o f attentiveness and interest from the interviewer. The majority of courses taught the importance o f planning a structure before the interview, and the use o f closed questions, sharing your views with the client, reflecting back to the client their feelings, interpreting information, developing hypotheses, framing questions to test these hypotheses, checking with the client on the accuracy of such hypotheses, and goal setting with the client. All o f these strategies were seen as being important to successful interviewing, except closed questions, giving advice and suggestions, and confronting or challenging a client, which were all seen as being less helpful.

The information collected on the types of personality and communication characteristics o f successful interviewers were not unexpected. An effective interviewer was seen as scoring highly on Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, and Openness, with Neuroticism being seen as not important. These features seem to make logical sense, if establishing a positive relationship with a teacher is seen as being important. Whether they are also related to the interviewer's ability to reach a high quality understanding of the teacher's problem situation is not so clear.

3.4.2. Problem solving

The responses to Section Two of IPS confirmed the importance placed upon problem solving within the training curriculum for educational psychologists, with problem solving being seen as "very important" by all tutors surveyed. All courses taught such

skills, with the majority of tutors perceiving that they were doing a "more than adequate job" in preparing EPITs to problem solve with teachers. Due to difficulties with one o f the question formats, all that can be concluded was that most courses spend more than 9 hours covering such skills. This is not particularly illuminating and reflects a weakness in the construction o f the question.

Within the constraints imposed on courses by one-year training, most programmes had opted to present a range of problem-solving firameworks, with less than half (46%) also teaching one o f these in much greater detail. To teach their EPIT's problem solving the majority of courses provided EPIT to EPIT role play exercises, with tutor feedback, with some video/audio analysis of role plays, lecture input, including some tutor demonstrations, pre-lecture and follow-up readings. Follow-up placement exercises were mentioned by about 73% of courses, presumably to consolidate and extend skills demonstrated and practised in class. Unfortunately comparisons with Caroll's study are not possible as he did not collect any data on problem-solving. Perhaps this reflects the growing importance placed upon problem solving over the past 25 years or so.

Research quoted earlier has shown that teaching one fi*amework in detail, within a micro-teaching context, can greatly enhance the development o f competency (Eraut, 1994,1998). The present study showed that courses which taught one problem-solving fi*amework in detail, only rated it as being slightly more effective than courses which had presented a range o f approaches. Given the constraints o f one-year training, perhaps those courses which teach a range of approaches do not expect the same level o f competency as those courses which teach one framework in detail. Presumably such courses would have greater expectations that the increased level o f input would result in greater demonstrations of competency.

Results showed a great degree o f consistency between the various training courses in terms o f the problem-solving steps taught. All courses reported following all o f the 9-steps mentioned on the questionnaire schedule, except for one course who did not teach EPITs to "encourage the client to select a priority issue, and specify a desired goal".

desirability effect could well have been operating. When course tutors were presented with a list o f steps, processes, and teaching strategies they may not have wanted to present their course as being less rigorous or thorough than any other. In some cases tutors may have not wanted to appear "old fashioned" if they did not identify the use o f technology in supporting their teaching. With hindsight, one way to have reduced the influence of any social desirability effects, would have been to simply ask tutors to list the steps which made up their interviewing and problem-solving approaches, and the teaching strategies used (i.e. using a semi-structured questionnaire format, Cohen & Manion, 1980).