Supervision as Professional Growth for School Psychologists

Abstract

A good practitioner is not always a good supervisor. The author believes that the reasons why supervision is not fully developed in Japan are (1) that knowledge about supervision itself has not been conveyed to beginners and (2) that a supervision model suited to Japan does not yet exist. The purposes of this paper were to (1) organize the purpose and definition of supervision from theories in other countries, (2) introduce supervision models in clinical psychology and school psychology in the U. S., and (3) discuss the training content necessary for the professional growth of school psychologists in Japan. In conclusion, (1) the literature showed that the primary purposes of supervision were to ensure the professional growth of the supervisees and the benefit of the client. (2) The IDM (Integrative Developmental Model) was introduced as a representative psycho-clinical model, and the DEP (Developmental, Ecological, Problem-solving Model) as a representative school psychology model, and it was clear that a broader perspective is needed for supervision of school psychology. Finally, (3) based on the two models, recommendations were made regarding the current supervision training content for school psychologists.