Российский психологический журнал (Dec 2017)
Psychological Service Activities in Various Educational Institutions
Abstract
Introduction. Goals, aims, and main directions of psychological service activities in educational institutions need revising. Uniform standards for psychological service, meeting the new realities of modern education, should be developed. The present study reveals representations about the content of professional activities, its goals and types in educational psychologists currently working in various educational institutions. Materials and Methods. The study involved 2135 educational psychologists working in various educational institutions: (a) kindergartens, (b) schools, (c) psycho-pedagogical, medical, and social assistance centers, (d) boarding schools, (e) establishments of additional education, (f) and vocational schools. The study employed online survey for the collection of empirical data. Results. The findings showed that the educational psychologists’ representations about goals and means of their own professional activities depended on characteristics of educational institutions where they worked (goals and objectives of an organization, features of its student body, organizational aspects of an educational psychologist’s work, etc.). Regardless the field of activity, the educational psychologists implemented the following labour functions: (a) psychodiagnostics, (b) correctional developing and educational work, and (c) psychological counseling. The educational psychologists supported the implementation of educational programs and the expertise of the educational environment much less frequently. Discussion. The obtained data demonstrate heterogeneity in the educational psychologists’ representations about goals of their professional activities at the present stage of the development of psychological service in educational institutions. Characteristics of educational service and also organizational conditions of professional activities affect the content of the representations. Future work will involve creating the concept of psychological service in education generalizing the needs of various educational institutions. The findings can be readily used for supplementing the Concept of the Development of Psychological Service in the Education System in the Russian Federation by 2025 by the variable models of educational psychologists’ professional activities in various educational institutions.
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