Securing Your Practicum
PSYCHOLOGY PRACTICUM (48.497)
Coordinators:
DR. JAMES DALTON, MHS 2116, 389-4475
DR. BRETT BECK, MHS 2139, 389-4477
These are the steps for planning and securing a Practicum placement. Use this information as a guide and as a checklist to make sure you've covered all the steps.
1. INTRODUCTION
Practicum is designed to be taken during your senior year.
In addition to working in a Practicum field setting (e.g., school or clinic), you'll be expected to set and pursue learning goals, read a textbook and other readings, write papers weekly and two summary papers at the conclusion of the course, and (unless your Practicum is outside the Bloomsburg region) attend a weekly class meeting on campus.
Your performance in Practicum will be graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, not as a letter grade of A-E. You must complete all course requirements satisfactorily to pass the course. Your Practicum grade will not affect your cumulative grade point average, nor will it count toward your maximum number of pass-fail classes.
Practicum students are placed in mental health, educational, and human service settings, with job responsibilities of an entry-level staff member, under supervision of a professional in the Practicum setting and of a faculty coordinator from our department.
Practicum is offered in the fall and spring semesters and on a limited basis during the summer. During the fall and spring, full-time and part-time placements are available, for 3-15 credits. During the summer, placements are available for 3 credits only. Summer Practicum is NOT necessarily available every summer.
2. GETTING STARTED
Consider what you want to learn in a Practicum.
Write a list of your goals or reasons for taking Practicum, or a list of things that you want to learn. Also, consider these questions:
What do you want to learn about yourself?
What skills do you want to develop?
In what type of setting do you want to work?
With what client population do you wish to work?
With what client age group do you wish to work?
What occupations are you interested in exploring?
How will Practicum help you make decisions about your education and career plans?
Decide on the semester in which you plan to take a Practicum.
Discuss this with your advisor, and with a Practicum coordinator if necessary. If you plan to attend graduate school immediately after graduating from BU, a Practicum before you will be applying to graduate programs is usually best. If you plan to work immediately after graduation, a Practicum in your final semester is usually best.
Plan your courses so that you will meet the prerequisites for Practicum.
You must have completed Experimental Methods and Applications (48.281, 282) with a grade of ‘C’ in both, and will have completed 90 credits by the beginning of the Practicum.
Other courses may be required for specific settings. For instance, adult mental health settings require completion of Abnormal Psychology (48.335). Settings involving young children require the completion of Child Psychology (48.211) and/or Developmental Psychopathology (48.337). Settings involving senior citizens require Adulthood and Aging (48.311) or equivalent.
If you plan to take courses on campus while performing a part-time Practicum, understand that schedule conflicts may limit or prevent doing a Practicum. Have options in mind. Many Practicum settings require at least three full days in the setting, with no time off for classes on those days. Talk with your advisor early, before applying for the Practicum, about coursework plans. Don't delay!
It is best if you take no more than one other 300-level or 400-level psychology course concurrently with your Practicum.
You may take 3-15 Practicum credits, but all must be taken during one semester. Only three of these count toward the Psychology major; the rest are free electives.
Decide tentatively how many hours per week and how many credits that you wish to devote to Practicum. During the fall and spring semesters, you must work eight hours per week in the Practicum setting for each three credits you receive. (For example, a full-time placement involves 40 hours in the setting for 15 credits; a 6-credit Practicum requires 16 hours per week in the setting.). During the summer, Practicum is offered only for 3 credits, involving a total of 120 service hours.
For summer, fall or spring, you will also have class meetings, readings and papers assigned, beyond the service hours in the Practicum setting.
Decide if you want to perform a Practicum in the Bloomsburg area, or in another region (perhaps back home for you). A car is ordinarily needed for local placements.
Placements out of the Bloomsburg region are usually more difficult to arrange, and require more effort by you to identify and arrange. We do not guarantee that a suitable Practicum setting can be found. In addition, we must be satisfied that any Practicum placement is worthy of granting academic credit for your work there; your willingness to work there, and the setting's willingness to have you, is not sufficient to assure you a Practicum.
3. INITIAL INTERVIEW WITH FACULTY COORDINATOR
Pick up a Psychology Practicum application (department office, from Drs. Beck or Dalton, or department web site). Schedule an initial interview with Dr. Dalton or Dr. Beck, whichever who will supervise Practicum during the semester that you wish to take the course. (We are seldom able to do these interviews without an appointment ahead of time.)
Deadlines for an initial interview:
For a Practicum during Spring semester: October 1st
For a Practicum during Summer semester: February 15th
For a Practicum during the Fall semester: March 1st
Complete the application, and bring it to the interview.
At the interview, the faculty coordinator will consider your readiness for a Practicum, including your previous academic performance, prerequisites, goals and interests, and availability of placement settings.
We may not be able to tell you if you are accepted into the course at the time of the interview. We have only a limited number of placements for Practicum. Not all applicants are accepted for the course, even if they meet the prerequisites. We also may decide that a student is not ready for the responsibilities of a Practicum experience.
If the faculty coordinator accepts you as a Practicum student, he will work with you to find a Practicum setting to match your goals and interests. The Practicum coordinator will make the final decision as to whether a specific placement is acceptable for credit.
If you wish to do a Practicum in Bloomsburg, the coordinator may simply give you a name and phone number to contact for an interview with the field supervisor. Do not interview for a Practicum at a Bloomsburg-area placement without our approval.
If you wish to do a Practicum outside the region, you and the coordinator will work together to identify and contact possible settings. You may interview initially at an out to-of-town placement before your first interview with us, but understand that we must approve your readiness for Practicum as well as the appropriateness of that setting before you can schedule a Practicum there.
If you want to see where previous Practicum students have done a Practicum in your area, go to the Academic Internships Office (223 SSC) or to their webpage.
4. RESUME, BACKGROUND CHECKS
You will need a resume for the next step: contacting settings and interviewing. If you do not have one ready, see Dr. Dalton or Dr. Beck for suggestions, and check some of the models in the University Internship Office handout on how to obtain an internship.
If you plan to work with children or adolescents, you MUST obtain criminal and child abuse background checks. There are two of these: one is a check of police files for any criminal conviction. The other is a check of files for any report of committing child abuse. Both of these checks require completing a form and paying a fee. Dr. Dalton, Dr. Beck, and the University Internship Office have copies of these forms. Ordinarily it tales 6-8 weeks for these checks to be completed, so send in the forms as soon as you interview for a Practicum with Dr. Dalton or Dr. Beck.
5. INTERVIEW IN PRACTICUM SETTING
Next you will interview with a person in the setting where you wish to perform your Practicum. It is your responsibility to schedule this interview, with the approval of your faculty coordinator. Ordinarily, it is best interview with only one setting and decide about the appropriateness of that setting for you.
If you're interviewing in a setting outside the Bloomsburg region, your faculty coordinator has a statement of "Expectations for Placement Settings and Supervisors" that you should take to the interview. It describes the Practicum course and procedures.
The interviewer may be the director of the agency or may be the person who will supervise you directly during your Practicum. In either case, that person will be seeking to answer these questions: Is this person suitable for working in our setting? What are the student's interests and goals, and can they be pursued here? Will this student dress and behave responsibly and professionally? Does this student understand responsibilities of a Practicum placement?
As an interviewee, you should also have some questions. These may include: What are the specific duties I will have here? With whom will I be working (supervisor, other staff, and clients)? How much independent work will I be expected to perform? Discuss your weekly Practicum work schedule and make sure the interviewer knows the dates of the semester during which you will be working. If you must take other classes on campus that semester, find out if that can be accommodated.
If you are interviewing in a setting where we have not placed students recently, make sure you do the following: obtain the "Expectations for Placement Settings and Supervisors" from Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton, and obtain a brief (one paragraph) description of your expected duties from the person with whom you interview in the proposed Practicum setting. You will need this description of duties for scheduling the Practicum.
The interview in the field setting leads to two decisions: (1) Does the setting accept you as a Practicum student? and (2) Do you wish to perform your Practicum there? The interviewer may not be able to tell you whether you are accepted at the time of the interview, and you may wish to think about it yourself.
After you know if you are accepted by the setting, and whether you wish to do your Practicum there, see Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton for a second interview. If you are not satisfied, discuss other possibilities. If you do not choose to work in a Practicum setting that has accepted you, you must inform the interviewer and Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton of your decision.
6. SECOND INTERVIEW WITH FACULTY COORDINATOR
When you have been accepted for Practicum in a setting that is acceptable to you, schedule a second interview with Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton. They may need to contact the field setting to discuss duties, supervision and evaluation procedures, to assure that your experience will be well-supervised and credit-worthy.
This is also the time to discuss and finalize your schedule for classes you wish to take other than Practicum. Remember you must attend Practicum classes weekly, and that you will have weekly reading and writing assignments.
7. FORM 509 AND SCHEDULING
When Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton has approved the setting for your Practicum, you are ready to schedule the Practicum course. This is done with Form 509, not through the computerized scheduling used for other courses. Dr. Beck and Dr. Dalton have copies of Form 509; it is also available at the University Internship office and at the Registrar. Complete all questions on this form and return to Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton.
Form 509 requires information about you, your Practicum setting, and four signatures: your faculty Practicum coordinator, department chair, University Internship office, and Dean of Liberal Arts. Form 509 must be accompanied by a written description of your Practicum duties. (If you are performing a Practicum in a setting where we place students frequently, obtain this from your faculty coordinator. If you are in another setting, this must be obtained at or after your field interview.)
Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton will forward Form 509 to the other signers. You should receive a schedule from the Registrar that lists Practicum (48.497) for the proper number of credits. If you have not received this at least two weeks before the Practicum begins, contact Dr. Beck or Dr. Dalton.
If you withdraw from a Practicum for any reason, it is your responsibility to contact the setting and your field supervisor, as well as your faculty coordinator.
8. BEGINNING YOUR PRACTICUM
At last, you're ready to start!
At least one week before the semester begins, contact your Practicum setting to arrange your first day of Practicum work. (Some supervisors prefer to do this at the interview.) You are responsible to begin work in your Practicum setting at the beginning of the semester, unless your supervisor arranges otherwise.
The Practicum class meetings begin during the first week of class, even if you have not yet started in your Practicum setting. Obtain a copy of the Practicum textbook at the Bookstore by then.
Have a productive and satisfying Practicum!
Rev. 3/04