Developmental trajectories in psychology: Applications to education and training

Psychology's knowledge is fundamental to the preparation of professionals i n human service settings, and psychology informs practice applications to t he design of community services. This article provides examples of the conc eptual developmental process in 4 applications of psychology to education-i n education and training programs for school psychologists and for elementa ry school teachers, in a professional-development program for career educat ion professionals, and in consultation to education professionals. These ex amples support 3 general propositions for promoting psychology's educationa l applications. First, the student or professional, not the professor or th e supervising psychologist, generates applications derived from the array o f problems identified. Then theory-based arguments are used to develop new perspectives. Second, the professor of psychology or the supervising psycho logist after providing opportunities to acquire knowledge tools, creates ta sks designed to develop and evaluate applications to problems. Third applic ations of psychological knowledge reflect conceptual change, which is evide nt ill the descriptions of the ways psychological knowledge is used and mod ified.