Three Webinars on Educational/School Psychology

While it is wonderful to have a system-wide honoring to school psychologists and educators, it is critical now more than ever to recognize the impact of psychology during this global pandemic of COVID-19.

“National School Psychology Week” is observed during the second week of the month of November every year, in the United States and around the world. Recognizing this week raises the awareness of the role of the profession of the school/educational psychology and a mean of expressing our commitment to the psychological well-being of our students.

The Psychology program in the Faculty of Humanities at NDU decided to join in this celebration by preparing three webinars open to both the NDU internal community, to schools and to the public, which discuss the challenges faced by students in the school system and provide guidance on these difficult topics. Our hope is that they will stimulate additional interest in psychology and particularly in school/educational psychology in support of the national educational system.

“Being There II” is the theme adopted by the NDU Psychology program for this celebration. The theme put forward that simple definitions couldn’t capture the wealth of knowledge and experience, passion and personal commitment that school psychologists bring to their work.  Just “Being there” for these children can sometimes bring hope when all seem hopeless.

The primary goals of these webinars are:

• Describe appropriate identification practices when schoolteachers suspect the presence of a difficulty in the child’s performance.
• Discuss critical and practical issues related to “Response to Intervention" (RtI) and how to deal with all kinds of students in many different content-area classes.
• Address the role of the school psychologist in the provision of the services toward parents in the school system.
• Provide an in-depth structure of a psychoeducational report that represents the child’s needs in a way that is useful to teachers and parents.

Introduction and Welcome Note by Dr. Simon Abou Jaoude, PhD

Webinar I – Assessment in Education: Understanding Response to Intervention

This webinar is designed to provide the requisite knowledge, skills, and resources for using Response to Intervention (RtI) in schools.

The current focus is on educating school students the best of their ability. Teachers need to find out which students are having difficulties, provide them support through the school psychologist recommendations, keep delivering intensified supports with hopes that they will learn the content, and be successful. As a last resort, the struggling student may be referred for a comprehensive assessment. It is not to say that assessment is negative or bad thing but it should not be the first consideration when students are having difficulties in the classroom. The familiar term for this new approach is Response to Intervention (RtI).

Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Speakers: Mireille DerArakelian, Thouraya Sarrouh, Lea Naddour (MA, Educational Psychology student, NDU).
Supervised by: Ms. Lama Badawi, Psychomotor Therapist (MA), Learning Accommodation Officer, NDU – Louaize and curator of the IDEAL Program at SKILD Center.

Language: English

Q&A discussion will follow.

Webinar II – Psychoeducational Assessment: Guidelines for Parents

Many parents are not sure what is involved in psychoeducational evaluation and do not know what kind of testing would make sense.  Some are not sure whether an assessment is necessary. To help make this decision, this webinar is designed to help parents who are going to begin the process of obtaining a psychoeducational assessment for their child. The content will help them make the process more meaningful, useful and ultimately beneficial for their child.

Date: Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Speakers: Antoinette Rahmeh, Tara Tohme and Caren El-Kai (MA, Educational Psychology student, NDU).
Supervised by: Ms. Lea Hannouch, part-time lecturer, and Educational Psychology Practicum supervisor in the Psychology Program at NDU and a licensed clinical psychology and psychotherapist.

Language: English

Q&A discussion will follow.

Webinar III –Psychoeducational Report Writing

Report writing is important yet undervalued part of the psychoeducational assessment process. No assessment is useful until the findings are communicated to those in position to implement solutions. The value of a well-designed and focused assessment is easily obscured by a poorly organized written report and conversely. Many school psychologists graduate with much considerable knowledge about assessment and very little to report writing. This webinar outlines the basic instruction for writing a psychoeducational assessment report.

Date: Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Speakers: Haya Zentani, Asma Mollamirzaee, Melissa El Hachem (MA, Educational Psychology student, NDU).
Supervised by: Dr. Simon Abou Jaoude, Assistant Professor of Psychology, NDU.
Language: English

 

Q&A discussion will follow.

This virtual event would not have been possible without the support and cooperation from numerous offices at NDU: The Office of Communications, the Department of Creative Design and the Office of Admissions. A word of appreciation goes to the presenters and MA students in the psychology program at NDU.

A special thanks go to the three field experts: Ms. Lea Hannouch, Ms. Lama Badawi and Dr. Simon Abou Jaoude for the time and effort they devoted to our students.

We are grateful for the support we have received from the Chair of the Department of Psychology, Education and Physical Education, Fr. Dr. Joseph Tannous, from the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Professor Kamal Abou Chedid and  from Dr. Patricia Eid.