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What Makes an Effective Psychoeducational Report? Perceptions of Teachers and Psychologists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

Janet Fletcher ,
Tara Hawkins  and
Jenna Thornton
Janet Fletcher*
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Tara Hawkins
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Jenna Thornton
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Janet Fletcher, Child Study Centre (School of Psychology), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia. Email: janet.fletcher@uwa.edu.au
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Abstract

The psychoeducational report has many purposes and many readers. Given this, it is imperative that psychoeducational reports are well written, as well as acceptable to and understood by the readers. This study aimed to determine from the perspective of both teacher (report reader) and psychologist (report writer) the factors that make an effective psychoeducational report. The current study examined the effects of report style and language on satisfaction with and understanding and perceived utility of psychoeducational reports as rated by teachers and psychologists with varying degrees of experience. We expected that reports which contained a theme-based organisation and a lower grade reading level would receive significantly higher ratings of satisfaction and utility, and be understood by teachers and psychologists at significantly higher levels than reports with neither or only one of these two characteristics. Results indicated that while teachers in the present study were not more satisfied with the theme-based non-technical report and did not rate it as more useful, they did consider non-technical language easier to understand. Psychologists, in contrast, were not impacted by either variation in report style. The impact of differences between writer and reader on perceived understandability of reports is discussed.

Keywords

psychoeducational reportsteachers perceptionsunderstandingsatisfactionutility
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 25 , Special Issue 1: Psycho-Educational Assessment , June 2015 , pp. 38 - 54
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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