School of Psychology

I am seconded currently on a part-time basis (0.9 fte) to the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, where I work as a Professional Tutor and Academic Director with  the DEdPsy Professional Training Programme for educational psychologists. Although I spend most of my time at Cardiff University, my permanent post is with the City and County of Swansea Council, Education Directorate, where I am employed as an educational psychologist within the Educational Psychology Service.

Employment Experience

Before training as an educational psychologist in 1989, I worked as a qualified teacher for nine years within a variety of educational settings, including:

• four years in a mainstream secondary school;
• two years in an authority-wide project to encourage girls to study science;
• two years as a home tutor working with pupils unable to attend school due to illness or exclusion;
• one year teaching Psychology in a FE college.

For the past seventeen years I have worked as an educational psychologist in a Local Authority Psychology Service. For just under thirteen years of that time I have also been seconded on a part-time basis to contribute to the initial professional training of educational psychologists. This work has included:

• three years as a professional tutor (0.2 fte) with the Master’s Degree Programme of Professional Training in Educational Psychology at Swansea University;
• nine years as a professional tutor (0.3 fte) with the Master’s Degree Programme of Professional Training in Educational Psychology at Cardiff University; and
• two years as a professional tutor and academic director (0.9 fte) with the DEdPsy Professional Training Programme at Cardiff University.

As an educational psychologist I am applying psychology, working as a practitioner with pupils in a group of schools; with pre-school children living in the catchment areas of those schools; with the staff in those schools; with the parents and families of the pupils; and with other professionals working with those pupils, families and schools. The work can be with individuals, groups (of pupils or staff), with whole classes or year groups, and with organisations and is based on the promotion of positive change that individuals or groups choose and create themselves. In addition, I have been involved with strategic work for the local authority, for example on a project to promote and highlight teacher research taking place within schools in Swansea and I was also a member of a multi-disciplinary family therapy team working with families in the local area for several years.

Whilst some of my work as a practitioner is in direct response to a specific consultation request, planning with schools has enabled preventative work to be carried out, training teachers and teaching support staff, or preparing Year 6 pupils for the transition from primary to secondary school, for example.

In my work, I draw upon positive psychology; theories of change; therapeutic approaches such as family therapy, narrative therapy, solution-oriented brief therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy; motivational interviewing; choice theory; the psychology of groups and organisations; and social constructionism.

Together with my colleagues, I am developing and using the Constructionist Model of Informed Reasoned Action (COMOIRA). This is a flexible, integrated model that offers a framework for professional practice and informs teaching and supervision on the DEdPsy programme. The model is concerned with change processes and has at its core informed, reasoned action based on psychology. The concepts, theories, structure, functions, processes and practice issues associated with COMOIRA are discussed in a series of publications listed below.

Professional Activities and Interests

• Member of a joint Welsh/English  action research project funded by the ESRC (as part of the Teaching and Learning Research Project, TLRP) investigating factors promoting teacher action research into Inclusion.
• Member of the national group of directors for programmes of training in educational psychology in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• Regular attendance at meetings of the National Association of Principal Educational Psychologists - Wales (NAPEP-W).
• Frequent contributions to ‘Supervision Development Sessions’ for fieldwork supervisors and other qualified EPs who engage in the process of supervision within their services.
• Using COMOIRA to contribute to whole service and team development sessions for educational psychology services.
• Publicising COMOIRA at local and national level via conference presentations.

Recent Publications

Gameson, J., Rhydderch, G., Ellis, D. and Carroll, H.C.M. (2003). ‘Constructing a flexible model of integrated professional practice: part 1, conceptual and theoretical issues’. Educational and Child Psychology 20, 4, 96-115.

Gameson, J., Rhydderch, G., Ellis, D. and Carroll, H.C.M. (2005). ‘Constructing a flexible model of integrated professional practice: part 2, process and practice issues’. Educational and Child Psychology 22, 4, 41-55.

Gameson, J. and Rhydderch, G. (in press). The Constructionist Model of Informed and Reasoned Action (COMOIRA). in B. Kelly, L. Woolfson and J. Boyle (Eds.), Frameworks for Practice in Educational Psychology: A Textbook for Trainees and Practitioners. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Rhydderch, G. and Gameson, J. (in preparation). ‘Constructing a flexible model of integrated professional practice: part 3, the model in practice.’