Nonverbally: Correlation Between School Teachers And Consultants

Schools are a dynamic and challenging setting for consultation. There are many demands on a school psychologist’s time beyond consultation including conducting assessments, attending meetings, collecting and analyzing data, providing documentation, writing reports, and facilitating social skills or other therapeutic groups. Similarly, there are many demands on teachers’ time including planning lessons, providing instruction, monitoring passing periods, recess, and lunch, managing the classroom, and providing individualized instruction and attention to students. Not surprisingly, in the schools time is a finite resource in high demand. In addition, teachers and consultants in the schools find their energy and efforts spread across a wide range

Thus, consultation must be nonjudgmental and non-evaluative. To be nonjudgmental, a school psychologist should pay careful attention to both verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbally, the school psychologists should avoid statements that place blame or fault with the consultee and orient all discussion towards addressing the concern. Nonverbally, the consultant should avoid facial expressions of surprise, disgust, or doubt. Maintaining open body language and an interested facial expression will help communicate the consultant’s willingness to help with the consultee’s concerns. To ensure that the process remains non-evaluative, the consultant should not participate in consultation as part of a corrective-coaching process for teachers. Additionally, the consultant should not provide information to supervisors regarding a teacher’s classroom management, instructional techniques, or other skills. Not only does this potentially damage the consultative relationship and the reputation of the consultant, it likely also goes beyond a consultant’s competence. Unless the consultant has received training in evaluating teacher performance, the consultant risks practicing beyond their competence and thus violating an ethical standard (Merrel, Ervin, & Peacock, 2012). Ultimately, the consultant will be more effective both with individual consultees and across the school setting if they are regarded as a nonjudgmental, non-evaluative support to teachers with