Psychology students try on the role of educational diagnosticians. Preliminary studies

Bolesław Niemierko

Abstract

The aim of the studies was to ascertain how far psychology students are ready to learn the vocation of education assistants to children and youth. Four general ways of acquiring knowledge and skills – by assimilation, by doing, by discovering, and by impression – were distinguished and interpreted with regard to the students’ prospective employment in educational institutions. Learning by doing (model Beta) and by impression (model Delta) turned out to be more expressive in the student self-reports than learning by assimilation (model Alpha) and by discovering (model Gamma). A proof that the Nosal/Paluchowski typology of diagnosticians applies to psychology students was also in search. However, the pertinent Educational Diagnostician Inventory appeared satisfactorily valid only for those psychology sophomores who manifested the best-shaped attitudes towards educational diagnoses. They belonged mostly to concrete-objective (Proceduralist) and global-subjective (Intuitionist) attitude categories. Transactional analysis partly supported these findings of the survey