school and educational psychology

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, 1994,43 (2) 175-191

School and Educational Psychology

CCsar Coll University of Barcelona

Les relations entre la psychologie et les sciences de I’tducation remontent au XIX” sitcle. Au cows de la seconde moitit de ce sitcle, I’tcole et la psychologie de I’tducation ont subi des changements considtrables, acqutrant statut et prestige, s’attaquant A et rtsolvant des probltmes de complexitt varite. Le prtsent article dtcrit les traits caracttristiques de la recherche et de la pratique. En Espagne, I’implication des psychologues praticiens dans difftrentes sortes d’activitts de soutien du systtme d’kduca- tion gtnCrale ttait bien en avance sur I’implantation de cette sptcialitt dans les dCpartements et les facultts de psychologie. Environ le tiers des praticiens ont un poste permanent dans ce secteur. La situation est tout autre dans les universitks ou la confusion existe encore entre les psychologies scolaire, de I’Cducation et du dtveloppement. Dans le nouveau cursus, un cours d’intro- duction a la psychologie de I’tducation est obligatoire pour tout ttudiant inscrit dans une facultt de psychologie. Ce fait contribuera certainement a bient6t renforcer I’enseignement et la recherche dans ce domaine.

The relationship between Psychology and Educational Sciences might be traced back to the 19th century. During the second half of this century, school and educational psychology went through considerable changes, achieving status and prestige, coping with and solving problems of varying complexity. The present paper describes characteristic features of research and practice. In Spain, the involvement of applied psychologists in different types of support activities to the General Education System was well in advance of the acceptance and consolidation of this field of speciality in Departments and Faculties of Psychology. Approximately one out of three practitioners have stable jobs in this field. The situation is quite different in universities where there still exists confusion between developmental, school, and educational psychology. In the new curriculum, an introductory course in educational psychology is a basic subject for every student enrolled in a Faculty of Psychology. This fact will doubtless contribute to strengthening teaching and research lines in the near future.

Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Cesar Coll, Departamento Psicologia Evaluativa y de la Educacibn. Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad de Barcelona, dAdolf Florensa s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

0 1994 International Association of Applied Psychology

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: THE BEGINNING

The first attempts towards scientifically and psychologically based education in Spain were carried out at the end of the 19th century. These efforts continued with renewed intensity during the first decades of this present century until the beginning of the Spanish civil war in 1936. According to Carpintero (1980), this course of action must be viewed within the framework of the social, political, and cultural conflict occurring ever since the middle of the 19th century. Such conflict existed between liberal and progressive ideas and Catholic, orthodox, and conservative ideas, stemming from neoscholastic philosophy.

In 1876, Giner de 10s Rios founded the ‘Free Institute of Teaching’ (Instituto Libre de Ensefianza), an organisation whose priority was the social and political renewal of Spain by means of pedagogical innovations. They emphasised a scientifically sound syllabus and freedom in the school system. For the liberal and progressive thinking of the epoch, ‘freedom in the school system’ meant the right to teach without the pressures of the Catholic orthodoxy or the Government. A scientifically sound syllabus content meant teaching based on positive science and particularly on scientific knowledge in psychology.

The Free Institute of Teaching’s interest in pedagogy and its psychological foundations is seen very clearly in the bulletin that the Institute published from 1887 to 1936, called the Boleti’n de la Znsritucibn Libre de Enserianzu. Bibliometric analyses of this journal, carried out by Peir6 and Carpintero (1981), emphasise several interesting facts. From 1887 to 1900, the Bulletin gave about one third of its space (32.70%) to pedagogical subjects and 6% to psychological subjects. During the period 1900 to 1936, the number of psychological studies increased, although pedagogical studies continued to outnumber them. Contributions from foreign authors included those of John Dewey, Edouard Claparkde, and G. Stanley Hall, all of whom were pioneer authors in the incipient field.

The influence of child psychology on the renewal of pedagogical thought is also seen in the Revistu de Pedagogia, founded in 1922. The Editorial Board of this journal included two pioneers in the history of scientific psychology: Gonzalo Rodriguez Lafora and Emilio Mira i L6pez. The journal proved a great instrument of pedagogical renewal prior to the Spanish civil war, with contributions from authors such as Claparkde, Piaget, and Montessori. This gives us an idea of the predominant influence of child psychology and developmental psychology in the pedagogical renovation at the beginning of this century. At the same time, it is a testimony to the prevalence of a French tradition.

Similar initiatives occurred with an attempt to start a psychological service applicable to education and to the workforce. The Professional

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Institute of Work Invalids was created in Madrid. Its members included Mercedes Rodrigo, Pedro Rosell6, and Jose Mallart, former students of Claparkde (Germain, 1980a, 1980b).

In Barcelona, which was proving another great centre for the expansion of psychological ideas at this time, the Social Museum was created in 1908. According to Kirchner (1974, p.7) it was an institution dedicated to:

stimulate and promote all kinds of initiatives favoring the working class and to provide to the workforce free access to documents, plans, statutes and other elements of scientific information of the institute whose goal is the moral and material improvement of popular classes.

The volume of activities that the Social Museum carried out made its reorganisation advisable, and hence, in 1914, the Learning Secretariat was created. Its goal was to carry out vocational guidance tasks. In 1918 it became the Institute of Vocational Guidance. Lluis Trias de Bes and Emili Mira i Lopez respectively were in charge of the medical-anthropometrical and psychometrical sections of the Institute. Evidence of the interest that it awakened among specialists stems from the fact that in 1921, the Second International Congress of Psychotechnics was held “in international recog- nition of the model functioning of the institute” (SiguBn, 1981a, p.187). This circumstance was repeated in 1930 when the Sixth International Con- gress of Psychotechnics was again held in Barcelona.

In 1933 the Institute of Vocational Guidance, became the Institute of Psychotechnics of Catalonia. This establishment, in addition to carrying on with the development of vocational guidance and personnel selection activities, started a section of Psychopedagogics. The purpose of this unit was to assist children with school difficulties and to collaborate with the movement of pedagogical renovation that was very strong in Catalonia at this time. At the same time, Joaquim Xirau, a professor at the University of Barcelona became a member of the Institute, establishing a link between applied psychology and the scholars’ milieu. This is an exception in the history of Spanish psychology until relatively recent times.

After the 1933 reorganisation and the development of the department of Pedagogy and Psychology, the Institut of Psicotechnics began to publish a journal of Psychology and Pedagogy in Catalan language. The founders were Emili Mira i L6pez and Joaquim Xirau. In the first issue of this journal, there is an explicit declaration of intentions’:

The Revista de Psicologiu i Pedugogiu will try to gather whatever is produced in our country regarding psychology and education. For this purpose, it will enter in contact with Institutes as well as with national and foreign person-

‘Revista de Psicologia i Pedagogia [Journal of Psychology & Pedagogy], 1933 vol 1. no 1 . Presentacib.

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alities who are devoted to this end. Besides which, it will try to become more and more a source of information and orientation.

For four years, from 1933 to 1937, the quarterly publication of this journal was a meeting place for exchange and a source of stimulus for the ideas of psychologists, pedagogues, university professors, teachers, and researchers.

In Madrid and in Barcelona, education’s scientific foundation is sought mainly in child psychology. References to experimental psychology and learning psychology are scarce, whereas there is a privileged link between psychotechnics and the search for a scientific pedagogy. The ideological implications of these attempts to apply psychology to education were plentiful: in both cases, they identify themselves with a liberal, progressive and lay ideology, but in Barcelona there are also nationalists.

A retrospective assessment of the events of 1936 leaves the impression that Spanish psychology was about to make a qualitative leap forward. However achievements and projects were brutally cut short by the civil war. The triumph of Catholic and fascist ideology led to the regression and stagnation of the application of psychology to education. After the civil war (193639), the new rkgime’s control over psychology and education was total.

The resurgence of scientific and applied psychology was aided by the publication of a new journal, Psicotechnics. In 1946 Germain and Mallart managed to start the Revista de Psicologfa General y Aplicada (Journal of General and Applied Psychology). Another immediate antecedent of the reappearance of educational psychology was the Unit of Experimental Psychology at the Luis Vives Institute, supported by the National Council of Scientific Research. Germain was the director of this Unit. According to Siguan (1981b), this Unit became the germ of scientific psychology at the University in Spain.

From this nucleus the Spanish Society of Psychology was to emerge in 1952, followed by the creation of the Graduate School of Psychology at the Complutense’s University of Madrid in 1953. This school offered a training programme of two years of specialisation in industrial psychology, clinical psychology, and education psychology (Siguiin, 1978). In 1964, M. Sigu6n became professor of Psychology at the University of Barcelona where he created a similar school. Until 1968 both Schools were the main nuclei of psychological activity in Spain.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In the decades following the beginning of the pre-doctoral degree in Psychology, Spanish Psychology has developed rapidly, being as it were obliged to make up in a very short time for the three decades’ vacuum


which was the result of the aftermath of the civil war. Successive gener- ations of graduates in Psychology have become progressively incorporated into the labour market which is always complex and diversified. In con- junction with the Spanish Society of Psychology (SEP), new scientific societies and associations have been created. In December 1979 the Spanish Parliament and the Crown created the Colegio Oficial de Psic6- logos (COP). New specialised journals have appeared, often linked to university departments or faculties of psychology, reflecting the results of their research activity which is increasing in quantity and quality. The truncated relationships with higher education and research centres in other countries have been renewed, and new bridges and ways of collaboration and exchange have been forged.

In short, the panorama of academic and professional psychology in Spain has gone through a considerable change in these years, achieving status and prestige, and coping with and solving problems of varying complexity, as is often the case in other countries of similar geographic and cultural milieu.

School Psychology and the School Support Services

The first group of graduates with a predoctoral degree in Psychology who entered the labour market coincided with the first steps of educational reform, propelled by the General Education Law of 1970. This law, stating the need and right of students in High School to vocational guidance, caused applied psychologists to harbour great hopes, with a priority interest in carrying out their professional activity in tasks related to schools and education. However, neither this law nor later directives enacted in 1982 by the Educational Authorities, which oversees the creation of Vocational Guidance Services in the school system, produced immediate developments.

About 31.5% of those graduates who obtained their degree in Psycho- logy before 1980 were self-employed, part-time, or temporary employees in the school system. So, for many years, the professional action of psychologists in the education field was carried out mostly in the competitive profit system. They offered their services to school centres, mainly private schools, and to parents looking for help for their children’s learning difficulties or other school-related problems. Special education centres with financial resources also paid for this type of specialised service. In this phase, the emphasis was on the psychological assessment of intelligence, aptitudes, skills, achievement, personality traits, and so on using standard tests and questionnaires (most of them validated in Spain under the framework of factor-analysis procedures or specific psychometrics procedures).

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Diagnoses of students with learning difficulties and developmental or behavioural disorders were camed out. These diagnoses were followed by the design and implementation of re-education programmes to treat such problems.

Thus, the practice of school psychology was understood as psychotechnics in the education system, that is, the application of psychological principles, theories, methods, and instruments to analyse, control, or alter a child’s behaviour. A great deal of attention was focused on psychological actions with difficult children. Gifted or normal students received scarce attention. The emphasis was on the development of diagnostic and re- education techniques. Perhaps this practice and the social image of school psychology associated with it, is how it remains today.

A number of initiatives were taken at the end of the 1970s, the goal of which was to support school services. Though they were not in any strict sense school psychology services, all of them foresaw the contributions of school psychology as an essential element and, more important, they foresaw this collaboration as ‘school support’.

The first of these initiatives was taken by the Ministry of Education in 1977. The Ministry created services for Educational Counselling and Vocational Guidance in each province of the country. According to the directives, these services should include at least three practitioners, although in some cases this number has since increased in accordance with the school population index in each province. The service emphasised the counselling of students, teachers, and parents concerning the child’s problems and progress. Special education-related tasks, diagnosis of pupil- behaviour problems, school phobias, learning block, and so on were not excluded, but more emphasis was placed on tasks and functions linked to normal education and the normal pace of student schooling. Conditions of practice in these services required the individual to have civil servant status (in the Educational System) and the degree of Licenciatura (5 years in a Faculty) in Psychology or Pedagogy2. These Services of Educational Counselling and Vocational Guidance, in spite of having their growth limited after the implementation phase (from 1977 to 1982), are still active at present in some Spanish provinces.

In 1978, the National Institute of Special Education developed a plan of action for the creation of multiprofessional teams with expertise in special education needs and programmes. These teams were to act in coordination with the Services of Educational Counselling and Vocational Guidance. In each team psychologists, pedagogues, and social workers work together. Entry to multiprofessional teams requires that the indi-

~

’The reformed General Education System increased obligatory schooling to 10 courses; six years of Primary education, and four years of Secondary education.


vidual has obtained a university degree. Unlike the civil servant status of counsellors in services of educational counselling and vocational guidance, members of multiprofessional teams work under a termed contract of employment.

By 1982, Multiprofessional Teams in Special Education existed all around the country. These teams were to maintain standard procedures in their service, while promoting the integration of disabled students by offering them personalised attention. As a consequence Multiprofessional Teams in Special Education work in a close contact with teachers and schools. In this way, there is a progressive overlap with the function of the Services of Educational Counselling and Vocational Guidance. Although conflict may at times arise between the two services, both provide expert knowledge and support to the Spanish educational system.

A third initiative came from Local Authorities or City Councils. It was in response to infrastructural deficiencies in public schools, resulting from extreme poverty in the industrial belts of big cities. This poverty was a consequence of the migratory movements from rural to urban milieux. In 1950,69% of the Spanish population lived in small towns, whereas in 1980 this figure declined to 42%.

In 1973, Municipal Psychopedagogical Teams in the industrial belt of Barcelona were created. With the advent of the first democratic municipal elections in 1979, the initiative developed in Catalonia and other industrial locations. In 1984, a follow-up study was carried out, which showed the existence of 50 teams in Catalonia, 100 in Valencia and 15 in Madrid (Gilolmo, 1989). These teams differed from one another, in terms of their training, types of graduates, membership, and conditions of employment. However, psychologists played an important role, together with pedagogues and, occasionally, social workers.

There was no common plan in the way each team conceived their support functions to the public school system. In many cases, they were still paying more attention to ‘difficult pupils’ and, quite often, they followed psychotechnic approaches. In some cases, emphasis was placed on collaboration with schools and teachers to improve the quality of learning achieved. In other cases, attempts were made to compensate for social and cultural inequalities. Efforts were directed towards a community focus, strengthening “direct contact with the population and permanent coordination with political priorities and municipal resources at the communities’ service” (Bassedas & Huguet, 1983).

These municipal teams started to decrease as a consequence of the network of services and teams, previously discussed. Nevertheless, their role in building up school psychology in Spain has been noteworthy. Until the mid-l980s, these municipal teams were the only existing psychological and pedagogical support service to the public school system in Spain. Some

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teams developed research projects and programmes on educational questions and issues that forged a new way of understanding school psychology. In contrast to school psychology attending to the diagnosis and treatment of difficult pupils and school problems (i .e. exclusively individual phenom- ena), municipal teams called people’s attention to the importance of an institutional point of view. This approach puts the student back into the school context and takes into consideration the goals and characteristics of the school in all its complexity. Municipal teams led to the understanding that school psychology can and should be considered not only as a support service to students with problems, but also a service of benefit to the entire school community.

The Decentralisation of the Educational Support System

The transference of educational responsibilities to Territorial Authorities (Comunidades Autonomas) in the country produced a new challenge in what concerns the coordination and even the permanence of the Psycho- logical and Pedagogical network already discussed3.

In Catalonia, for instance, it was decided to unify the three kinds of services available. Negotiations, conflicts, functional overlapping, and priorities were considered (Gin6 & FernAndez, 1986), and now almost complete integration has been achieved. In the other regions, the unifica- tion process has been rather slow and, in some cases, nonexistent.

School Psychology as a Stable Profession There is little information concerning the number of psychologists that, at present, carry out school and education-related tasks in Spain as a whole4. Some data suggest, however, that the number of psychologists working in the educational field has grown spectacularly in the last two decades and that, comparatively, it represents a high percentage of psychologists involved in all professional activities (Coll, 1989; Hernandez, 1982a, 1982b, 1983, 1984a, 1984b).

In 1989, according to information received directly from the Department of Teaching of the Generalitat of Catalonia, in this Comunidad Autonoma

%e 1978 Spanish Constitution acknowledges the existence of Comunidades Autonomas in the Spanish Kingdom. Each Comunidad Autonoma has a Territorial Self-Government and a Parliament. Quite often, the responsibility, the decision-making, and the financing of the Educational System has been transferred.

’The author of this paper did not have access to the survey carried in the Colegio Oficial de Psicologos in 1990 as the final report was published in June 1992 and this paper was already written in the Spanish version. Updated data are introduced here under the editor’s responsiblity. In August 92 the author of this paper was the General Director of Education at the Ministry of Education and he could not review this manuscript.


alone, there were 64 teams of Psychopedagogical Counselling and Voca- tional Guidance. Of the 287 professionals working in these teams, 142 were psychologists. In the same framework of Catalonia there are stable teams devoted to “Infantile and Adolescence Attention”, “Social Primary Atten- tion Services”, and “Precocious Stimulation Services”. These services include a certain number of psychologists who carry out tasks related to informal or extra-curricular education. There are also a few Municipal Teams of Psychologists and Pedagogues.

The situation is similar in other Comunidades Autonomas. In 1989, a total of 506 psychologists carried out their professional activity on Multi- professional Teams and in Services of School Counselling and Vocational Guidance. This number is exceeded by 175 for psychologists who work in Vocational Education units in school centres within the framework of a pilot programme.

A survey carried out by the Colegio Oficial de Psicologos in March 1990 (Diaz & Quintanilla, 1992) shows that 38.5% of Spanish psychologists view educational psychology as their main field of professional activity. Of these psychologists, 75.9% are over 30 years of age and 63.2% are female; 67.1% obtained their degree in psychology during the 1980s. 28.4% have been tenured in a senior position for 2-5 years, whereas 58.3% have been tenured for more than 5 years.

Among educational psychologists, 19.5% are stable civil servants and 1.5% are temporary. 9.8% have a stable contract of employment in the Public Administration. 7.6% have a temporary contract of employment. 15.1% have stable jobs in private schools whereas 8.2% have temporary contracts of employment in private schools. Finally 30% are self-employed psychologists working in support to the school system. 8.1% are volun- teers, mainly in a period of practicum. The average salary is below the average salary among other specialities in applied psychology.

Of the 38.5% of Spanish psychologists working in educational psychology, 64% of them carry out clinical psychology as a secondary activity. Conversely, of the 29.9% of psychologists working in clinical psychology, 60.3% of them state that educational psychology is their secondary field of activity. It seems that there is an overlap between both fields of speciality.

The 10 tasks carried out most regularly by educational psychologists include the following: counselling parents about emotional problems and school difficulties of their children; diagnosis and treatment of learning difficulties; diagnosis and treatment of problems of adjustment in school; individualised attention to children with emotional and personality disorders; diagnosis and treatment of pupils behaviour in the class; report authoring for parents, for the management, and several authorities; regular collaboration with teachers in syllabus planning and teaching methods; diagnosis and treatment of language dysfunctions; and, finally, regular lectures to parents about school psychology issues.

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68.1 YO of educational psychologists are registered in the Social Security System and 30.2% have insurance policies in private firms covering medical services. Only 12.4% of them are affiliated to a trade union. 76.4% of them have a workweek of five days. 42.1% of them work 30-40 hours a week.

From another survey carried out by the Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Catalunya in July 1987, based on the answers of 20% of its members, the following percentages were calculated’: 34.23% were working in the health field; 27.52% worked in the education field; 4.70% worked in work and organisational psychology; 8.72% in the social services field; the rest were unemployed.

The main methodological differences between the two surveys described is that in the COP study (the whole country except Catalonia) the sample was randomised; however, in the COP study of Catalonia there was not a randomised distribution of questionnaires. The questionnaire of the COP included a long list of activities (following a task analysis approach) of daily tasks done in present and past jobs. The COP of Catalonia’s survey included only a shortlist of regular activities in applied psychology. In the COP of Catalonia, the main activity seems to be clinical psychology, whereas in the COP the main activity is educational psychology.

SCHOOL AND EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY

Training in educational psychology at university is in some ways discordant with what is observed in the professional sphere. Educational psychology’s presence in the university curriculum is relatively recent, and the formu- lation of research groups on educational issues and questions started barely a decade ago in the majority of the universities. In fact, comparing psychology curricula of different universities, one observes that educational psychology occupies a differentiated ranking in those that include it, and not all do so. Thus, for example, in some cases it appears only within the framework of doctorate programmes and in postgraduate courses; in others, it is an obligatory course for every student of psychology; in others--such as at the University of Barcelona-it is a course that only those students who choose the speciality on enrolment in school psychology must study. In other universities it is an optional course that a student of any of the specialities or options may study. In some cases-such as the Universities of Madrid (Complutense and Autonoma) and La Laguna-it has been turned into several courses, producing a true speciality of educational psychology.

‘Personal communication. The author does not know which criteria were used to classify the answers in one or another of the four categories.


The curricula of some universities, starting from a basic common pro- gram for all students, introduce the possibility of choosing the beginning of a specialisation. When this happens, the choices that are classically offered are those of clinical psychology, school psychology, and industrial psychology. Analysing the structure and contents of the school psychology option, one finds that the distinguishing trait is heterogeneity. In some cases, the option consists of an overview of the main theoretical and applied fields of educational psychology; in others, on the contrary, it is an amalgam of questions and issues taken from developmental psychology, life-span psychology, infantile clinical psychology, and diagnostic assessment; in the majority, however, the offer is somewhere in between the two extremes.

A point of interest pertains to students’ preferences in relation to the option of clinical, school, and industrial psychology. According to most universities, the percentage of students who choose school psychology is approximately I%, whereas those choosing clinical psychology is about 70%. These percentages contrast strongly with those already noted in previous studies. This means that, even accepting a wide margin of error, one finds a rather high percentage of psychologists practising their professional activity in the field of educational psychology, who, however, have not received any specific training in this field during their enrolment in the University. This is one of the most serious problems to face school psychology in Spain at present.

It is difficult to carry out a comprehensive synthesis of the main contributions and research lines in school and educational psychology; partly because the groups that are doing research in these fields are mostly very recent. Although they have already produced a considerable volume of work of undeniable quality and interest, they do not assess the real impact of their contributions from a more general perspective. The diversity and heterogeneity of academic and professional spheres disperse initiatives, and theoretical and methodological viewpoints, so that, although undis- putably enriching, they offer an extremely complex general effect which is practically impossible to describe briefly.

Psychometric approaches, individual differences, and behaviourism have had a strong and sometimes even predominant presence. Piaget, Wallon, Cognitive psychology, human information-processing, and Vygotsky also had a paramount influence.

The influence of Piaget’s and the Geneva School’s theoretical viewpoints was particularly strong until the mid-1980s in some research groups, especially in the Autonomous University of Madrid, in the University of Barcelona, and in the Municipal Institute of Applied Educational Research, in Barcelona. The influence of cognitive psychology and of human information-processing is more recent and perhaps also more diff-

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use. There has been quite a lot of research carried out during the last decade under this theoretical perspective. Of special interest are the contributions of some groups of researchers whose work is within the framework of the so-called ‘instructional cognitive psychology’. The most recent influence has come from the historical-cultural psychology of Vygotsky (e .g. Alvarez & Del Rio, 1991).

The subjects that attract the researchers’ attention and interest are of great variety. Their efforts, at first centred mainly on adapting, typifying, and elaborating instruments to diagnose and assess students’ development and learning, have progressively spread out in many directions as a consequence of several factors. These factors include educational psychology’s growing force in the university; the needs that arose from the practice of school psychology in the school support services; and the widespread acceptance of theoretical and methodological frameworks already men- tioned.

At the same time, increasing collaboration and exchange between Spanish and foreign researchers has caused a certain symmetry of themes studied. Thus, for example, similar to other Western countries, we are developing research projects on teaching and learning school contents and skills (in the areas of mathematics, natural science, social science, and oral and written language); learning difficulties in the basic subjects (reading, writing, and calculus); integrating students with physical or psychological deficiencies; refurbishing cognitive and motivational training strategies; acquiring learning strategies; acquiring and developing social skills; characteristics and schooling of gifted children; interaction among peers and its repercussions on learning and development; teacher-student and adult- child interaction; parents’ ideas about their children’s education and development; etc.

A number of these studies have been published in general psychology journals, including Revista de Psicologia General y Aplicada and the Anuario de Psicologia. Other psychological journals that occasionally include school and educational psychology-related studies are: Andisis y Modificacibn de Conducta, Boletin de Psicologia, Psicolbgica, Estudios de Psicologia, Cuadernos de Psicologia, Evaluacidn Psicolbgica and Papeles del Psicblogo. Contributions from school and educational psychologists frequently appear in pedagogical journals mainly directed at teachers, such as Cuadernos de Pedagogia, Investigacibn en la Escuela, or Revista de Educacibn. Recently, two new journals with the aim of reporting on advances in this field have appeared; they are Comunicacibn, Lenguaje y Educacibn, and the Revista de Psicologia de la Educacibn.

None of these journals, except the last one, as yet not well known, are publications specialising in school or educational psychology. This absence reflects the diversity and heterogeneity-of professional profiles, theor-


etical frameworks, and methodologies. Perhaps the only specialised journal is Infancia y Aprendizaje. Since its appearance, in 1978, it has played a decisive role in the configuration of school psychology and educational psychology in Spain, introducing new theoretical and methodological approaches. It has attempted to bring together developmental, learning, and educational psychology with research and practice. However the journal has not completely managed to achieve its goal of becoming the discussion and exchange organ of all Spanish school and educational psychologists, due, among other reasons, to its independence.

FUTURE PROSPECTS AND SOME PERSISTENT PROBLEMS

When summing up the attempts to apply educational psychology in Spain during the first decades of this century, we emphasised, among other aspects, the role played by child psychology, the weight of the French tradition, the strong ideological saturation, and a certain inhibition of the university in this realm. None of these traits characterise school psychology and educational psychology towards the end of this century, although some of them are still somewhat in force.

Thus, the influence of child psychology, and more specifically of developmental psychology by authors such as Piaget, Bruner, Wallon, and others, has been decisive in the recuperation and development process of the 1960s and 1970s. In Spain, as in other European countries such as France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, etc, school psychology and educational psychology still maintain a privileged relationship with developmental psychology. Among other indicators in support of this, it may be noted that, in the majority of Faculties of Psychology, these three spheres of psychology constitute an organised teaching and research unit. For many years, school psychologists have really been developmental psychologists interested in broadening the scientific foundation of education and concerned with solving educational problems.

It is still frequent, though less and less so, for no distinction to be made between developmental psychology, school psychology, and educational psychology, considering the latter two to be the applied branch, as it were, of the first. Even less frequent is the linking to learning psychology and, as a consequence, the consideration of school psychology and educational psychology as the applied branch of learning psychology.

As far as ideological saturation is concerned, it is important to remember the role played by the demanding civil and political movements when the Municipal Psychopedagogical Teams appeared. At this point, however, the re-establishment of democracy and the implementation of a new con- stitutional and legal order in 1978 have favoured real changes. For the last

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15 years, professional practice of psychology has been progressively shedding ideological connotations and, at present, the predominant criteria in teaching, research, and everyday professional practice is of an eminently scientific character. The association between the attempts to apply educational psychology on the one hand, and a liberal and progressive ideology on the other, have not completely disappeared, but they have diminished and have ceased to be a decisive ingredient in the social image of school psychology.

Insofar as the university inhibition is concerned, with regard to the attempts to apply psychological knowledge to education, we have come a long way from what was going on in the 1920s and 1930s. The existence of Faculties of Psychology has caused a constant flow and interaction between the academic and the professional worlds; that is between teaching and research, and application of psychological expert knowledge within the framework of professional activity. At first, the Colegio Oficial de Psicologos and Faculties of Psychology spent some efforts to consolidate and reinforce their identity, but also some efforts in coordinating joint actions.

There are certain initiatives on both sides directed towards building bridges between academic and professional activity (see for example, Bassedas, Coll, & Rossell, 1981; Pelechano, 1979). The situation has changed drastically in the last decade, and joint action initiatives are in existence to such a degree that, although we are still far from achieving the desired level of articulation, there is at least a common acceptance that this is one of the tasks that must be improved.

Against this background, the development of school and educational psychology in Spain will be strongly conditioned by the repercussions of two decisive facts: the beginning of the global educational system reform and the process of updating the curriculum design in all the Spanish universities.

The directive of the Spanish University Council, concerning the Licen- ciatura en Psicologia, introduced educational psychology among the basic subjects that must be included for professional training in psychology. This fact will doubtless contribute to strengthening the teaching and research carried out by some groups in educational psychology, who have been specially active in several Faculties of Psychology during the last decade.

At the same time it will promote the appearance of new workgroups and research teams. However, from now on, universities will enjoy a wide autonomy to establish their curricula and syllabus during the 1990s. It is impossible to foresee which concrete solutions each Faculty will adopt regarding school and educational psychology training. In any case, one could expect them to take steps to solve the problem of a fairly high percentage of psychologists practising their professional activity in the


educational field without having received the necessary specific training during their enrolment in the university.

Whatever the real impact of these two processes may be-i.e. reform of the educational system and updating of cumcula in psychology-the future development of school psychology and educational psychology in Spain will have to face a series of urgent problems. Some of these are related to the epistemological, conceptual, and professional coordinates of this realm of psychology and they are, to a certain degree, problems pending solution that are shared by colleagues in other countries.

Such is the case, to cite a few examples, of the function-accumulation process which has characterised the evolution of school psychology to the extreme of blurring its priority objectives and action limits; of the overlapping with other professional spheres such as infantile clinical psychology, or educational and vocational guidance; or even the discussion about whether school psychology and educational psychology are synonymous or whether they refer to two closely related, but substantially different, fields of psychology.

Other problems however, are specific and began with the peculiar evolution of school and educational psychology in Spain since the start of the century. Among them we emphasise the need to achieve a greater approx- imation between teaching and research activities carried out in universities and in professional practice settings. In spite of the undeniable advances achieved in this sense, we still all too often hear practitioners complaining about the lack of practical and professional relevance in the initial training received in universities and research programmes that are carried out in them. It is also commonplace to hear scholars complaining about the lack of rigour and scientific bases of some professional practices. What under- lines these criticisms, aside from their adequacy or inadequacy, is mutual mistrust and ignorance.

Universities should take this into account especially when updating the curriculum in psychology and defining research lines. The Colegio Oficial de Psicdlogos should also take this into consideration when establishing requisites for the professional practice of school' psychology and when planning its own training activities. Both sides are faced with the challenge of impeding two separate branches of school and educational psychology from forming, one academic and the other professional, with few contacts and exchanges.

Manuscript received October 1992 Revised manuscript received July 1993

190 COLL

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