ANALYSIS OF INITIAL TRAINING IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS

Abstract The growing demand for the specialized work of psychologists in the school context has highlighted concerns regarding initial training in School Psychological Assessment (SPA). The main objective of this work was to investigate the initial training in SPA as taught in undergraduate Psychology courses at Higher Education Institutions in the state of Minas Gerais. Undergraduate programs contained an average of 3.57 Psychological Assessment (PA) disciplines (N=42), associated with a low workload (5.3% of a total of 4000 hours) (N=36). Content analyses of both discipline names and syllabi uncovered little emphasis given by undergraduate Psychology courses in Minas Gerais to the specific area of School Psychology Assessment. Our results indicate that training in PA emphasizes mechanistic application of tests, rather than a more holistic approach with the use of diverse evaluation techniques (interviews, behavioral observation, psychometry, instrument design), a fact that may lead to inadequate deployment of instruments.