ECP Newsletter [Converted] · 2013. 11. 8. · ECP Newsletter Leading applied psychology to the...

ECP New slet terLeading applied psychology to the reach of the common people

A publication of Educational and Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology, DU 1

Educational and Counselling Psychology Newsletter

Issue No. 3, July 2011

Editorial Board

AdvisorDr. Parveen HaqueChairperson, Dept. of Psychology

EditorProfessor Shaheen Islam

Co-editorDr. Shirin Zaman Munir

Sub-EditorMd. Azharul Islam

Educational and Counselling PsychologyDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of DhakaDhaka-100Bangladesh

http://www.psychebd.webs.com

PrintMother Printers8,10 Nilkhet, Babupura, Dhaka-1205

Editor's noteWe are proud to bring out the 3rd issue of Educational and Counselling Psychology Newsletter on the occasion of 3rd International Conference on Educational and Counselling Psychology, 2011. The ECP newsletter is a bi-yearly account of major issues and events taking place in the growth and development of Educational and Counselling Psychology as a profession.

You must have noticed the change in the name of the Newsletter and the logo used. With the demand of time, the two distinct professional courses on Educational and Counselling Psychology, currently running under the Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, have amalgamated into a new department of Educational and Counselling Psychology. The new department is awaiting the approval of the UGC. It will offer professional degrees with the vision and mission to expand the scope of applied psychology in the field of education and counselling.

The logo thus signifies that Educational and Counselling Psychology of Dhaka University (the blue ribbon) protecting psychological health (two hands of psi) of the people of Bangladesh to blossom (water lily-the national flower).

With all the hope to keep up the good work and the flags flying, our sincere appreciation to all the faculty, staff, students, trainees, delegates and well wishers for turning the dream into reality.


A publication of Educational and Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology, DU2

News

Exchange programme with QUT

In May 2011, Dr. Shaheen Islam, Ms. Mahjabeen Haque and two Educational Psychology trainees from the University of Dhaka visited Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) in an exchange program to build support for the newly established profession of educational and counselling psychology in Bangladesh.

In the second phase of the program, Professor Gilmore is visiting Bangladesh now to help establish a parenting program in the slums of Dhaka. She is accompanied by three QUT masters students who work alongside Bangladeshi educational psychology trainees in a range of practicum settings. The visit was enabled by a grant from the Australian Psychological Society to Associate Professors Linda Gilmore and Marilyn Campbell from QUT's School of Learning and Professional Studies.

Both Universities will benefit enormously from the exchange by the way of enhancement of knowledge of cultural differences and issues faced by psychologists in developing countries.

Finally! Dream Comes True

15 years of relentless toil has culminated in the resolution of the syndicate of the University of Dhaka on 20.4.2011 to start a new department of Educational and Counselling Psychology in the University of Dhaka. The new department will be offering one year Master and two years M.Phil professional degree in Educational Psychology and Counselling psychology. The courses include intensive training and supervision in applying psychological theories and principles of behavior to help children and adults in educational and community setting. It helps to bring desired change in their developmental, academic, occupational, situational, or personal arena to make life more meaningful and satisfying.

Trainees have a full-length exposure and experience in dealing with educational and mental health issues. Apart from trained faculty of the department, many internationally renowned trainers have facilitated the program.

Parenting Program for Disadvantaged Families

The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, Australia have launched a parenting program for the disadvantaged families of preschool children. The Project is funded by a grant from the Australian Psychological Society.Psychologists and trainees of Educational and Counselling Psychology from the University of Dhaka received training on the new program for parents of preschool children. The program was designed in collaboration with psychologists from Australia and has been offered in a community setting in Dhaka. Soroptimist International Club of Dhaka has offered for piloting the program in their literacy project at Shaheenury Model High School.

DU group members in front of School of Learning & Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, QUT



The program aims to engage parents in the health and education of their children by increasing parents' knowledge of child development and by demonstrating simple low cost activities, which they can do to promote their child's development across all these areas.

International Cooperation AgreementWith the initiative of the Educational and Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, an international cooperation agreement has been signed in April, 2011, between the University of Dhaka (DU), Bangladesh and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia with the desire for the encouragement and development of co-operation and exchange in all areas of mutual academic interest. The purpose of the agreement includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. Development of joint venture project between QUT and DU

2. Organization of joint academic and scientific activities, such as courses, conferences, seminars, symposia or lectures

3. Exchange of staff and/or students4. Exchange of materials and publications

of common interest.

The agreement will expand the basis for friendship and cooperative educational exchange. Under this agreement exchange visits of the faculty and trainees have taken place in 2011 between the Educational and Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology, DU, and the School of Learning and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, QUT.Congratulation! Two trainees have received ISPA - Cal Catterall Fund Award.

The CCF Committee has awarded two trainees, Irfana Samia and Nafiza Ferdowsi of Educational Psychology for the year of 2011. The award

offers full participation in the International School Psychology Association (ISPA) 2011 conference at Chennai and ISPA membership for a year. Nafiza's paper co-authored with Professor Shaheen Islam on "Parental and Children's Attitude toward Homework" received award while Irfana awarded for her paper on "Exploring Educational Psychology in School-A New Perspective to Improve the Learning Situation in Bangladesh."

ArticlesThe Significance of Empathy in the Healing Alliance

"Empathy is to see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, and to feel with the heart of another" Alfred Adler (1931)In our life, the way we act and express our feelings

and emotions as adults were learned from our childhood experiences. Our parents or caregivers are actually the educators of our emotional expression. Most common external messages in response to our emotional release are 'Don't cry', 'Babies cry', 'Boys don't cry', 'Others will see you crying', 'Look silly when you cry' and so on. We learn to inhibit our emotions and suffer all alone with 'the burden of 'don't feel injunctions' and 'be strong' driver. In course of time we become a slave of our emotion.

Emotion is the most natural human response controlled by our primitive brain and true healing takes place at emotional level. Empathetic understanding is the key to such emotional freedom. We usually hear what people say, but if we don't know how to listen then basically we are telling the person we are talking to, to go and



and talk to a brick wall. To keep in mind, hearing is done with our ears, listening comes from our heart. If we can really take what they are saying to our heart, then we will be able to truly understand the person from his or her context. Empathy involves active listening, cultural sensitivity, diversified perception, self-awareness, ability to communicate and dissociate. Essentially, when we listen with empathy focus is on bringing awareness to what the person is thinking or feeling rather than attempting to solve or fix their problem. The person feels, for the first time, being valued as a human being.

Researchers and practitioners in the field of mental health have indisputably agreed upon the significance and impact of empathy in healing. A study of empathetic understanding among the mental health professionals, such as counselor, psychiatrist, and clinical psychologist in Bangladesh has shown that professionally trained psychologists have remarkably high score in perceived empathetic understanding than professionals involved in other human service delivery system like doctors and lawyers. In general, females were found to be significantly more empathic than males. No correlation of empathy score with the years of experience of mental health professionals emphasized empathy as a skill that can be developed through training. Ability to respond to non-verbal messages and emotion seemed to be an important component of empathetic understanding.

Our personal experience with diverse client population in counselling and psychotherapy session consistently demonstrated that empathetic response helped the client to feel safe and free to unload their thoughts and feelings without the fear of being judged. We were more able to be with our clients and communicate that 'I am here for you…' The sense of importance and feeling of release was inevitable in their words and expressions.

"This is the first time I am telling someone", "Nobody listened to me like this before" are some of the common responses of our clients. The foundation of therapeutic relationship was thus laid and most of the therapeutic work was complete.

Empathy is embedded in all of our relationships having immense impact on the satisfaction and effectiveness with which we interact with others. However, flexibility and context-dependent response are vital for showing empathy effectively.

Sanjida Afroz* and Professor Shaheen Islam*Trainee Counselling Psychologist (Batch I) Department of Psychology, DU

Improving the Quality of Life of Challenged Children: Building ResilienceResilience implies the capacity to resist or "bounce back" from adversities or bad experiences and function competently under stress.Resilience is important because it is the human capacity to face, overcome and be strengthened by or even transformed by the adversities of life. Everyone faces adversities. With resilience, children can triumph over trauma; without it, trauma triumphs.

Resilience is a matter of concern which needs immediate attention, especially because today's children face a great deal of stress - academic performance, heavy scheduling, high achievement standards, media messages, peer pressures, family tension. Without healthier solutions, they often cope by talking back, giving up, or indulging in unhealthy behaviors. Two powerful predictors of resilience are family relationships that promote trust, autonomy, initiative, connections, and community support systems that reinforce self-esteem and self-efficacy. Parents and educators can do a lot in fostering resilience in children.



Now what does all this mean for our children who are challenged? Children, who lack the language, motor, memory, or other learning skills to negotiate everyday life, can quickly sink into a defeatist frame of mind. Children with developmental or emotional challenges become failure-avoiders when the efforts of parents and teachers don't work. These children starts believing that they don't have control over their lives, that the world is unfair, that emotions get them into trouble, that they're good for nothing.

We as parents and educators need to cultivate in our children beliefs, values, and strategies to counteract these failure-focused attitudes. It requires that we adopt a teaching strategy rather than trying to find the cause in our children when something takes longer for them to do or learn. We must show the child how to bounce back and -THRIVE - with coping strategies. The question is how we can foster a resilient mindset in our children who are challenged.

We as an educator and parent can foster a resilient mindset in children by being empathetic to the child. We should be more sensitive when our children fail to meet our expectations. A child who can't sit still in class, are labeled as "immature," "hyperactive," "ADHD," and "disruptive." The empathetic response might be to simply let this child move more.

We often fail to recognize that children are born with a genetically programmed drive to help and to master skills. We can encourage their sense of autonomy by encouraging them to help both at home and at school and teach responsibility by encouraging their contribution.

Children should be taught in decision-making by modeling problem solving that fosters self-discipline. Help children frame solutions by asking, "What's the problem? What options do you have? How can you break this up into steps?" As children become interested and involved, their self-

discipline will increase. Self-discipline is a strong predictor of future success in school and in life.

Parents, as first teachers, can teach optimism to their children by offering encouragement. They can model resilient thinking means changing from negative to positive thinking to their children by replacing "I can't" with "I'll do that again, Let me have another try, Let me look at that differently".

While reinforcing a child to build self-confidence, regular one-to-one special time with a parent helps to create a strong sense of self-image. This time could even be made more special by asking the child to suggest the activity they would like. This way parents get to know what is really important to their children. Often parents do all the running with their children by providing the ideas and suggestions.

Teaching competency by providing opportunities to practice is a strategy for fostering a resilient mindset in children. All children need special skills and talents to use to their advantage in life. What is your child's special talent, what is his/her strength? As he or she works to refine it, offer reminders that mistakes are an opportunity to learn.

By building resilience in children, you give your challenged children the opportunity to master the hard things in life for themselves. Don't do everything for them - it makes it hard work for you and cheats them of opportunities for building emotional and mental stamina. With caring connections and child-centered practices in our schools, we can help even the most challenged children to grow to be resilient in the face of adversity.

Shirin Z. Munir Ph.DSpecial Education Expert andPart-time teacherDepartment of PsychologyDhaka University



Counselling and Mental Health

"Peace of mind is a natural condition, and is available to everyone."

Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. Mental health is an integrated part of this. Mental health can be conceptualized as a state of wellbeing in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with normal stress of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make contribution to his or her community (World Health Organization- WHO).

Mental health strengthens and supports person's ability to have healthy relationships, make good life choices. It is also necessity if a person wants to live a complete and full life. We need to be aware about the need of mental health. Child abuse, acid assault, sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence, suicide run rampant every year because of these disturbances in mental health. Without peaceful mental health people cannot be free from these disturbance like- depressions, anxiety, excessive stress and worry, addictions, and other psychological problems, they are not able to live their life to the fullest. Moreover, natural calamities and man-made disaster takes its toll on people's mental health. Yet people in our country are ignorant of mental health concerns and often subjected to ill-treatment by the non-professionals.

Mental health counselling can help a child or adult in educational or community setting to reinstate psychological safety. Counselling helps them to overcome their personal and environmental barriers by looking into own strength to bring the necessary change. They build upon their own abilities and learn to deal with the inevitability of human life to work

productively. But unfortunately only 0.007% psychologists are working in mental health facilities or private practice in Bangladesh (WHO-AIMS, 2007). Reports of meetings, seminar, symposium and experts' opinion on daily newspapers ceaselessly remind us about the severity of long term psychological impact of social malice in our life and recognize the need for mental health counsellors. In response to this great need, many are working in this field without or little training in mental health counselling. Now the time has come for us to establish scope for counselling psychologists as professionals to provide effective service. Authority and policy makers must take stride to patronize the effort taken by the University of Dhaka in the development of standard training and ethical practice of educational and counselling psychology.

With adequate assistance and encouragement, counselling psychologists can serve as a vanguard to mental health of the country.

Tasnuva Huque* and Dr. Shaheen Islam*Trainee Counselling Psychologist (Batch-II) Department of Psychology, DU

"Ghost from the Mathematics Class" Case Study of Rubina

"Selection test for J.S.C. exam is knocking at my door - whenever I think about it I can't eat; I awake up at the middle of the night and my sleep runs away; I'm sure I will fail in Mathematics again......... I am the only reason of my parental conflict."...... Rubina (not her real name)

Problem: Rubina's parents took her to a physician with complaints of severe pain in both legs and loss of appetite. Finding no physical problem the physician referred to me.



Background: 14 years old, Rubina is attending class VIII in a renowned girls' school of Dhaka. She has a younger sister studying in class V. Her mother is a housewife and father is businessman. They come from an upper middle class family.

She failed in mathematics in both the first and second term only for 2 and 9 marks respectively. After failing for the first time, she started memorizing mathematics that eventually yielded worse result. Currently she is very anxious since she believes that she would fail again.

She is an average student and never failed in any subjects until class VII. Her mother said, "I was poor in mathematics and my daughter is as well. I never had a high expectation but emphasized on just passing in mathematics. Her father blames me for her failure and starts blaming with me for her situation. He compares his investment on her daughter's education with her unsatisfactory results. If she will fail again I don't know what consequences await".

Rubina said, "My mathematics teacher reminded me in front of whole class that if I fail this time school will not allow me to attend J.S.C. exam".

1. Analysis of the situation:Rubina constantly heard that her mother was not good in Mathematics and she went after her mother. This has reinforced her belief about her weakness and gradually confined her ability to flourish or utilize her full potential. Parental expectation plays an important role (positive linear relationship) in academic achievement

Too much and low both expectation are harmful for academic achievement. Rubina's mother expectation was low "used to say please at least pass in mathematics"...this statement reminded Rubina of her weakness as opposed to strength. An individual cannot be expected to find encouragement to improve if his /her weakness is frequently highlighted.

Consequently, she developed the idea (self-concept) about herself that hereditarily she is poor in math and has to try for pass mark only. This is an anchoring effect. Rubina's case the anchor was set to a low standard, and a consistent discouragement led her to develop low-self esteem.

2. School Factors:Schools in general should be more responsible about the evaluation system. Rubina's school should have considered her past results (never fail) and prevented her from failing by managing the situation through some effective initiatives e.g. meeting with her parents (and also Rubina), providing special care for math or seeking help from an Educational Psychologist. If the school had taken these measures, I am confident that Rubina would not be my client anymore.

3. Family Factors:

Rubina took by heart the message from family conflict that "failing is the biggest sin and she is the main factor of her family feud". This adolescent girl tried to solve the problem by taking a wrong approach to learning maths; i.e. attempted to memorize mathematics. As a result, she was further jeopardized. Now she is depressed and unconsciously tries to avoid exam. Having failed the last attempt for a solution, she now has developed an immense psychological stress (i.e. mental pressure). This stress psychosomatically (the effect of psychology expressed through the body) manifested as pain/cramps in her leg and loses her appetite.

Conclusion: I had completed a series of successful and methodologically appropriate steps for Rubina. At the last session Rubina's mother admitted that, "Had we known before that you are here, my daughter wouldn't have suffered these severity. We scolded and she cried. We should say sorry to her. We did not know that 'we parents' and 'the school' are criminals. Actually we failed not my daughter."

In our country, very few people know about the services of Educational Psychologist. So my earnest request to you who has read our writings please inform others about us - Educational Psychologist. May be your little effort would be a great help to others.

Fatima Khan BasuTrainee Educational Psychologist (M.Phil Part-I) Hospital Counselor, Apollo Hospitals, Dhaka

A Way to Improve Learning OutcomeAs a human being, we have a "self" which differentiates us from other organisms in the world. Self is the basis of personality. Our thinking, feeling and emotion are directed by the nature of self. There are various ways of talking about self. But among those two most important are self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept is a cognitive aspect of self that is the image about oneself regarding some academic and non-academic aspects. It may be positive or negative depending on early life experiences. On the other hand, self-esteem is basically an affective aspect that is, it means one's feelings and perception about self-importance or self-worthiness. It serves as a basis for motivation and taking initiatives. The goal of education is to cultivate the development of self to maximize its potential for greater success in life. Unfortunately, education system is frequently been reproved for demoralization of value system, frustration, agitation causing all social malice.

In school, children come in all shapes and sizes from varied background. They start with a difference and these differences escalate with differences in school performance. The self-image or self-concept a student comes to school with influences his/her way to learn. In turn, subsequent performance taxes on self-concept. Because how much effort we are going to put, how much control do we have in learning a particular subject, how much confident we are in

doing something without others' assistance are the pre-requisites to learn anything. Educators, teachers, and school managing committee put all their efforts to develop programs that will improve learning outcome. Several initiatives such as infrastructure development both for schools and classrooms, curriculum development, teachers' training, incorporating rules and regulations as well as improving education system have been taken for this purpose. It is true that all of these are very important for improving learning outcome but it is not confined to those only.

Actually learning outcome is influenced by the interaction among physical, social as well as psychological aspects of the learning environment. The main focus of psychologists, i.e., educational and counselling psychologists, working in educational institutions is on psychological aspects of the learning environment taking the other two important aspects into consideration. Importance of psychological aspect on academic achievement has also been demonstrated by several studies. Like many aspects of self such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, self-concept was also found to have a connection with academic achievement. In a recent study on 100 adolescent school children showed greater emotional and social stability among the top one-third in the merit list than the bottom one-third. Students who performed well had more positive self-concept than the poor performer in the class. On the other hand, poor performer rate higher in anger, depression, and disruptive behavior than the top performer. Learning theorists suggest that success itself has a reinforcing value and can be self-motivating to do well. Good performance in turn will lead to enhanced self-concept.

The professional psychologists working in the field of education and counselling are playing a vital role in improving learning outcome by



Background: 14 years old, Rubina is attending class VIII in a renowned girls' school of Dhaka. She has a younger sister studying in class V. Her mother is a housewife and father is businessman. They come from an upper middle class family.

She failed in mathematics in both the first and second term only for 2 and 9 marks respectively. After failing for the first time, she started memorizing mathematics that eventually yielded worse result. Currently she is very anxious since she believes that she would fail again.

She is an average student and never failed in any subjects until class VII. Her mother said, "I was poor in mathematics and my daughter is as well. I never had a high expectation but emphasized on just passing in mathematics. Her father blames me for her failure and starts blaming with me for her situation. He compares his investment on her daughter's education with her unsatisfactory results. If she will fail again I don't know what consequences await".

Rubina said, "My mathematics teacher reminded me in front of whole class that if I fail this time school will not allow me to attend J.S.C. exam".

1. Analysis of the situation:Rubina constantly heard that her mother was not good in Mathematics and she went after her mother. This has reinforced her belief about her weakness and gradually confined her ability to flourish or utilize her full potential. Parental expectation plays an important role (positive linear relationship) in academic achievement

Too much and low both expectation are harmful for academic achievement. Rubina's mother expectation was low "used to say please at least pass in mathematics"...this statement reminded Rubina of her weakness as opposed to strength. An individual cannot be expected to find encouragement to improve if his /her weakness is frequently highlighted.

Consequently, she developed the idea (self-concept) about herself that hereditarily she is poor in math and has to try for pass mark only. This is an anchoring effect. Rubina's case the anchor was set to a low standard, and a consistent discouragement led her to develop low-self esteem.

2. School Factors:Schools in general should be more responsible about the evaluation system. Rubina's school should have considered her past results (never fail) and prevented her from failing by managing the situation through some effective initiatives e.g. meeting with her parents (and also Rubina), providing special care for math or seeking help from an Educational Psychologist. If the school had taken these measures, I am confident that Rubina would not be my client anymore.

3. Family Factors:

Rubina took by heart the message from family conflict that "failing is the biggest sin and she is the main factor of her family feud". This adolescent girl tried to solve the problem by taking a wrong approach to learning maths; i.e. attempted to memorize mathematics. As a result, she was further jeopardized. Now she is depressed and unconsciously tries to avoid exam. Having failed the last attempt for a solution, she now has developed an immense psychological stress (i.e. mental pressure). This stress psychosomatically (the effect of psychology expressed through the body) manifested as pain/cramps in her leg and loses her appetite.

Conclusion: I had completed a series of successful and methodologically appropriate steps for Rubina. At the last session Rubina's mother admitted that, "Had we known before that you are here, my daughter wouldn't have suffered these severity. We scolded and she cried. We should say sorry to her. We did not know that 'we parents' and 'the school' are criminals. Actually we failed not my daughter."

In our country, very few people know about the services of Educational Psychologist. So my earnest request to you who has read our writings please inform others about us - Educational Psychologist. May be your little effort would be a great help to others.

Fatima Khan BasuTrainee Educational Psychologist (M.Phil Part-I) Hospital Counselor, Apollo Hospitals, Dhaka

A Way to Improve Learning OutcomeAs a human being, we have a "self" which differentiates us from other organisms in the world. Self is the basis of personality. Our thinking, feeling and emotion are directed by the nature of self. There are various ways of talking about self. But among those two most important are self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept is a cognitive aspect of self that is the image about oneself regarding some academic and non-academic aspects. It may be positive or negative depending on early life experiences. On the other hand, self-esteem is basically an affective aspect that is, it means one's feelings and perception about self-importance or self-worthiness. It serves as a basis for motivation and taking initiatives. The goal of education is to cultivate the development of self to maximize its potential for greater success in life. Unfortunately, education system is frequently been reproved for demoralization of value system, frustration, agitation causing all social malice.

In school, children come in all shapes and sizes from varied background. They start with a difference and these differences escalate with differences in school performance. The self-image or self-concept a student comes to school with influences his/her way to learn. In turn, subsequent performance taxes on self-concept. Because how much effort we are going to put, how much control do we have in learning a particular subject, how much confident we are in

doing something without others' assistance are the pre-requisites to learn anything. Educators, teachers, and school managing committee put all their efforts to develop programs that will improve learning outcome. Several initiatives such as infrastructure development both for schools and classrooms, curriculum development, teachers' training, incorporating rules and regulations as well as improving education system have been taken for this purpose. It is true that all of these are very important for improving learning outcome but it is not confined to those only.

Actually learning outcome is influenced by the interaction among physical, social as well as psychological aspects of the learning environment. The main focus of psychologists, i.e., educational and counselling psychologists, working in educational institutions is on psychological aspects of the learning environment taking the other two important aspects into consideration. Importance of psychological aspect on academic achievement has also been demonstrated by several studies. Like many aspects of self such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, self-concept was also found to have a connection with academic achievement. In a recent study on 100 adolescent school children showed greater emotional and social stability among the top one-third in the merit list than the bottom one-third. Students who performed well had more positive self-concept than the poor performer in the class. On the other hand, poor performer rate higher in anger, depression, and disruptive behavior than the top performer. Learning theorists suggest that success itself has a reinforcing value and can be self-motivating to do well. Good performance in turn will lead to enhanced self-concept.

The professional psychologists working in the field of education and counselling are playing a vital role in improving learning outcome by



working with both teachers and students. They are helping teachers tailor learning strategies that will ensure success particularly for those students who have negative or low self-concept. Simultaneously self-development works targeted to individual student to increase self-worth and self-esteem found to be highly beneficial. All together, they are helping the school authority in creating a positive, acceptable and learner friendly learning environment, which enables students to develop positive self-concept within them. An institutional case study showed that an educational psychologist working strategically with individual students or in groups can offer the taste of success that would be effective in instilling positive self-concept among the learner thereby have positive impact on learning outcome. Undoubtedly, education can again regain its lost status and become the pillar of success.

Professor Shaheen Islam and Mst. Afroza Parvin*

*Trainee Educational Psychologist (M.Phil. Part-I)Department of Psychology, DU

Changing Life

Good Parenting is a Challenge

Parenting is a skill, which can be learned. By giving birth to a child, two adults automatically turn into parents. But parenthood is very hard and is naturally problematic. Taking care of a little child and raising him or her into a kind,

responsible, resilient, responsible and caring person is a huge responsibility. Sometimes parent are at lost and do not know how to deal with issues regarding their children. Parents are

generally worried about their children's health, food habit, safety, emotional, social and cognitive development and mostly disciplinary issues. Do parents ever think about the security of the child? Security means not only protecting your child from dangers, hazards and illnesses, it actually includes your support and presence/encouragement at proper times for healthy emotional and social development. Sense of security in early years is important because it will help your child to grow psychologically, emotionally and morally. Eventually it helps your child to succeed in school and later, at work. It helps to develop high self-esteem and the confidence to turn to you in times of trouble now and later on especially at difficult adolescent years.

I would like to present a brief talk on young children's security. Young children naturally seek security and parents or caregivers are there to provide it. All children want to feel safe and secure. It is their utmost need. So try to be 'good enough' parents, not perfect parents, because that is what our children really need. It means it is all right to make mistakes in parenting sometimes. In fact, we all do mistakes while raising our children because there is no school where parenting skills are taught. We learn by observing others and mostly from being parented.

Children are curious, they start learning by exploring the environment, but they feel hesitant and unsure. If you are there while the child plays and assure her/him to go on, you are actually providing him the security he needed to carry on with his mission. You may have noticed that while playing young children often look back to check /make sure that you the important person in her/his life is still there for her/him. Sometimes your mere presence is not enough, the child may need your assistant. It is important



for the child to know that you are willing and able to help her/him. It is true we as parents cannot be with our children all the time. But when you are with them, try not to miss the chances which will create a magical bonding between you and your child. This in turns will teach your child to be a loving child and perhaps someday your child will become a loving friend, spouse, and parent.

Parents play an essential role in their children's life. Our children depend on us to meet a fundamental need. This need is the need to be in relationship with caring parents. Children depend on us because we are the most important people in their lives. They are always looking for attachments, connecting and re-connecting with parents when needed. May be you have noticed that children often try to seek attention by doing something or turning mummy's face towards her/him if mother is looking away from the child or talking to someone else. Don't yell at your child or feel bothered by this in moment like this welcome your child. May be a little smile or assurance will put the child backed to what he/she was doing. To a child, everything is new and interesting but they need the assurance that we are giving them our full support to go out and discover their new world but time to time, they need to be re-connected and re-assured.

Children wants to be loved for being who they are, not what they do. Delight yourselves in them because it creates a sense of being inherently valuable and lovable. This foundation makes the joy of accomplishment and mastery possible. If children feel that they are valued based solely on accomplishments then their sense of self-worth and their joy in achievements are both severely compromised.

When children get hurt some parents scolds them for not listening to them or for doing that particular activity. They need comfort at

moments like this. Throughout the day especially young ones need soothing many times a day. Scolding actually makes them feel guilty and in future, they are likely to hide such incidents from parents. Another disadvantage is that scolding or shouting taught them to be indifferent to other's feelings. Empathy will not develop in your child if you keep on doing this. Considering other people's feelings and emotions is a human quality we all need to develop to become good persons. Introduce your child to the feelings and emotions he/she experiences, teach your child in expressing and controlling his/her emotions. Otherwise, they will not be able to deal with their feelings and emotions. It is all right to experience all types of emotions but it is important to learn how to express emotions in a socially acceptable way. This learning will stay with them throughout their lives.Before drawing conclusion, it is important for parents to remember three simple sentences.

1. "Always be bigger, stronger, wiser and kind"2. "Whenever possible, follow your child's

needs"3. "Whenever necessary, take charge"

I want all the parents to feel good in what they have done, what they are doing and who they are. I congratulate them for their excellent job but it is never too late to look into the parenting job from a different perspective, which will enhance your current relationship with your child.

Ms. Mahjabeen HaqueAsso. Professor, Department of Psychology, DU

Experience Sharing

Exploring the importance of Educational Psychology in School

Application of Psychology in school by a professional from Educational Psychology is a new concept in Bangladesh. In this context,



I am working at the Student Affairs Department of Scholastica Ltd., Senior Section Uttara (SRU) since October 2009 as a professional from the field of Educational Psychology.

Scholastica is an English medium co-education school. SRU ranges from Grade VI to A-level. The school has a very systematic and organized administration, which gives emphasis on holistic learning and development of the students.

One part of Student Affairs deals with the disciplinary issues and I work as School Psychologist at the other part. I have to work with four levels: Children, Parents, Teachers and Administrators. My key responsibilities and accountabilities are to:

* Counsel and provide support to students who have emotional, behavioral, learning and serious disciplinary problems;

* Follow up students (individual and group cases) regularly who are under counselling;

* Work with group of students by developing plan and activities to create awareness on different issues which are required to grow up and enrich whole school environment;

* Give psycho-education and answer the queries of students regarding the issues of adolescence period;

* Consult and counsel Teachers and Parents;

* Develop and conduct training/workshop with teachers and parents to create awareness on students' behavioral and learning issues;

* Work with the Administrators in creating plans to improve the whole school environment;

* Documentation of individual cases and report writing.

* Proper maintenance of the documents

The goals for working with children in school are to understand their issues and needs, help in finding out options to resolve different problems/issues, help them for better adjustment and interact with environment, enrich whole school environment and create ownership among students of their school, help them learn to make decisions and formulate new ways of -Thinking, Feeling and Behaving, help them develop mentally and emotionally.

On the other hand, the goals for working with parents and teachers are to resolve the problems/issues of the children through finding out the causes, set up healthy family and classroom environment, change some behavioral practices with the children, manage the learners in a better way and refresh their own mental health, etc.

Students are usually referred by Student Affairs Department, Teachers, Parents, Senior Management and by themselves. At present most of the students, teachers and parents have a positive view regarding the Psychological Services in the School. Gradually, but eventually I have succeeded in creating the space to work as a professional from the field of Educational Psychology.

This experience would be an eye-opener for the stakeholders of other schools and educational institutions regarding the importance of Educational Psychologists in improving the mental health of the learners and the quality of Education in Bangladesh.

Irfana SamiaEducational Psychologist in Training (M.Phil Part-II)Student CounselorStudent Affairs, Scholastica Limited, Dhaka



Placements of Trainee Counselling Psychologists

In the journey of becoming mental health counsellor, institutional placement plays the pivotal role since theoretical knowledge only transform into practical skill when trainees gain the opportunity of practical client oriented environment. This only happens through the institutional placement. Bearing this in mind, the MS course on Counselling Psychology has been designed with four mandatory placements within the leading mental health institutions of Bangladesh, namely, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Mental Hospital Pabna, Dhaka Shishu Hospital (DSH) and Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). The present writing will share some of the experiences trainees of second batch gained through those placements.

The endeavor began with NIMH when we started our placement there at the end of 2010. The 10 days practical client oriented experiences helped us to set our mind in professional field. A clear orientation on the most common psychiatric illnesses, role distribution of various mental health professionals and initial assessment are the notable aspects we learned there. Additionally, warding with senior doctors, history

taking, attending case seminars and research presentations, and group therapies with various cohorts of clients and caregivers appeared to be very stimulating.

In the Dhaka Shishu Hospital, shortly after finishing NIMH, our placement was at Child Development Centre (CDC). Here they have different unit for children, like General Assessment (GA), Psychological assessment (PA), Mental Health (MH), Speech Language and Communication (SLC), Inpatient Department (IPD), Outpatient Department (OPD), Epilepsy Clinic (EC). Emphasis on psycho-education has been seen, as the children are different from adult population. Besides, we learned to administer some commonly used assessment tools like Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, WISC-R, etc.

First week of April this year was an exciting period for us because we spent that week working at the Mental Hospital, Pabna. Spectacular natural beauty with obvious silence and clean atmosphere of this renowned mental hospital in the subcontinent changed our common perception on mental hospital. Here we got opportunity to visit thoroughly the entire hospital and the adjacent newly established Pabna Medical College. Joining with the medical board and theoretical

Trainee counselling psychologists in NIMH withProfessor Dr. Shah Alam

Trainee counselling psychologists in DSH withPsychologist Monowara Parveen



Trainee Counselling Psychologists in Pabna MentalHospital with Clinical Psychologist Mejbahur Rahman

DU students and teachers with members of QUT

orientation on mental health management model were additional experience.

Finishing final theoretical exam in May 2011 appeared as a chance to hang out! No way! Here came the one-month placement at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's Psychiatric Department with theoretical classes, presentation, individual sessions and many more.

Last but not least, the Student Counselling and Guidance Office of Dhaka University, our esteem place of practicing, understanding and sharing. Throughout the whole session we spent our off class time there, for either client session or supervision and discussion. We are really grateful to this office.

Andalib Mahmud and Shamima SultanaTrainee Counselling Psychologist (Batch-II)

Our Visit to Australia

On 2nd May 2011 at 01:20 AM, I along with another faculty member Prof. Shaheen Islam and two students of the educational psychology Irfana and Nafiza started our journey to Australia. The students were very excited, as this was their first visit aboard. After a long yet enjoyable ride on the plane we reached Brisbane

International Airport at local time 09:30 PM. Professor Linda Gilmore, Professor Marilyn Campbell and her husband Brian welcomed us kindly. Then they dropped us at our new home at Toowong. Next day Linda took us to the shopping mall, where we bought ourselves 'Go Cards' to travel in Australia on the bus, train and city cat (a kind of launch service). From there we went to Queensland University of Technology, commonly known as QUT. QUT has two campuses, one in the city and the main campus is in Kelvin Groove. We started our day at block A, School of Learning and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education. There we met all the faculty members. We had our own office room with all the facilities. Our schedule was ready for the next 4

weeks. Our visit to QUT was very effective in many ways. We had the chance to share and exchange our knowledge, skills and opinions regarding our course and service. We had the opportunity to observe and learn how they provide assessment and intervention in Psychology and Counselling Service provided by the QUT Health Clinic. We visited two schools-Holy Spirit Primary School and Coombabah State High School to learn about the educational system and mostly how educational psychologist work. Our students were much benefited because



they are also working in schools in Bangladesh. We were trained on CBT,Solution Focus Therapy, Interpersonal Process Therapy, Emotional Education and many more. We attended CPD meetings and seminars. We also had the great opportunity to visit Child Development Centre at Matar Mother's Hospital. Besides attending the lectures on related topics the students also had the opportunity to visit and learn about ADHD and autism by some learned educational psychologists at their respective working place.

Ellen Barrron Family Centre was completely a new concept to us. It is a family support centre where parenting skills are taught to the parents of young children who are facing problem with their children. We are mostly amazed by the QUT clinic, where psychological assessment and interventions are provided. The clinic has six consultation rooms, two observation rooms with one-way mirrors, four group therapy rooms, one play therapy room, student learning support centre, a library and a test library. The tests are kept in a room inside the vault. We learned to administer some of the tests. Some wonderful programs are run by the clinic like-FRIENDS, Circle of Security, etc. The clinic was a great attraction to us for learning and increasing our skills. The director of the clinic arranged a reception party for us where we had the chance to exchange our views with QUT faculty members and students.

We also visited The Department of Psychology and Counselling under the Faculty of Health at QUT. We had a meeting with the head of the department later we met other faculty members. All of them were very eager to meet us and know about our services. Three of us (cause Shaheen

Islam left after 2 weeks) presented our works on History of Educational Psychology in Bangladesh, Educational System of Bangladesh and Exploring Educational Psychology in Bangladesh at psychology department. Irfana also made her presentation in front of MS class. Some video presentations were also made in CPD meetings and other gatherings. Our presentations were highly appreciated.

Our trip to University of Queensland, ST. Louisha campus was very rewarding and promising. The campus is fabulous. There we had a meeting with the head of the Department of Psychology. The meeting was very fruitful in the sense that we agreed to work in collaboration. They were running some wonderful programs for young adults, adolescents, and children. The department also runs parenting program, they have Family Support Center within the department. My realization is that psychology is completely an applied science in developed countries like Australia. The universities run all sort of service-oriented programs. They render training, assessment, intervention and counselling services. The students get the chance to learn not only theoretically but also had hand on experiences through these services. Therefore, when they pass their MS they become registered psychologists and they can work efficiently.

This visit was partially covered by the grant received by the Australian Psychological Society (APS).Under the same grant two faculty members along with three students from QUT are now in Dhaka to exchange and share their knowledge and skills with us.

Ms. Mahjabeen HaqueAsso. Professor, Department of Psychology, DU



First Batch of trainees in Educational Psychology (2006) with Dr Zahirunessa Sayed and the faculty

2nd International conference on Making a Difference in the Life of School Children in 2009

Training on assessment of children by Dr Linda Gilmore at the laboratory of the Department of Psychology, DU

Vice Chancellor of DU visiting the stall of Counselling Psychology at Mental Health Day, 2010

Glimpses from the Past



Trainees of Educational and Counselling Psychology visiting Mental Hospital Pabna, Bangladesh

EPiT (Batch 6) in CRP with Valerie Taylor

Continuous professional development workshop on ACT by John Martin

Glimpses from the Past

Individual counselling, group and couple counselling, social skill training, stress, anger management workshops, suicide and drug prevention workshops, HIV/AIDS awareness program and many more. Counselling/psychotherapy is free for DU students, teachers and staff. Student Counselling & Guidance Office 2nd Floor (2nd Floor), TSC Building, DU www.facebook.com/scgodu

Student Counselling & Guidance OfficeUniversity of Dhaka

Mental health services at theStudent Counselling & Guidance Office

University of Dhaka

Date post:	21-Feb-2021
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	2 times
Download:	0 times

ECP Newsletter [Converted] · 2013. 11. 8. · ECP Newsletter Leading applied psychology to the...

Documents