The two papers in the Applied Practices section of the current journal both provide a perspective on the breadth of the school counsellor's/school psychologist's role. In her paper titled “Conceptualising and facilitating success in interagency collaborations: Implications for practice from the literature” Miriam Herlihy, an educational psychologist in New Zealand, explores and discusses collaboration, as a key area of practice. In a well-structured examination of the issues, she explores the importance of collaboration between agencies to best support children, noting that wide differences exist about the nature of and enactment of collaborative practices.
As the lead author of the second paper: “A pilot classroom-based study of attention and working memory strategies for primary-aged students”, I am pleased to present our important, unique and continuing work examining a working memory intervention, with a Year 3 primary teacher working in the Experimental classroom, and her colleague in the Control classroom. With Nash Davis and Linda Sheldon, we conducted a small-scale study using Memory Mates, a set of icons with explanations specifically aimed at students within classrooms. Although not statistically significant, our findings in this research helped us to develop Memory Mates further, with a teachers’ booklet published and a website close to completion. This is a program that school counsellors and school psychologists can facilitate within schools.
Essentially both applied papers for this issue provide knowledge, strategies and research pertinent to better meeting students’ needs in schools, which is core work for school counsellors and school psychologists.
I am delighted with the response to date in papers being submitted and would welcome many more. In this section of the journal, papers need to have an applied focus, with scope for colleagues to offer papers, such as:
➢ Small scale evaluations of practice, where the findings are interesting and noted as preliminary and worthy of further exploration, even if these are not methodologically at the standard required for contributions to the main journal (e.g., no control group).
➢ Conceptual or research literature reviews with implications for practice, with a specific reflective argument addressing practice, possibly provocatively.
➢ Linked case study/ies in therapeutic, learning, and behaviour areas of intervention integrated around a common theme.
Papers are refereed and review guidelines include the following:
1. The article is of interest and relevance to members.
2. It is well written, and properly referenced using APA 6th edition guidelines.
3. It has a literature base for the work/findings/thinking.
4. It is approximately 3000 words, with some flexibility.
5. It contains a 120-word abstract.
6. It has a clearly articulated argument, looks to future directions etc.; thus, it goes beyond simple description and is analytic.
Submissions are via Scholar One. Enquiries can be forwarded to Dr Susan Colmar by email susan.colmar@sydney.edu.au
