The First Week of Classes

This week I started my classes at ELTE. I have two classes I am teaching, and they are both for doctoral students, although I have some masters students in them as well. My Single Case Design Research Methods course is on Wednesdays from 9:30-11:00. I only have three students in this class, which makes for good discussions. On Thursdays I have my Academic and Behavioral Interventions course from 8:30-10:00. I have six students in this course, so it is still pretty small.

The students in my classes are mostly Erasmus students, meaning they are from all over the world and taking courses at ELTE in English. I have students from Poland, Iran, Germany, Hungary, Bosnia, and other countries. All of the students speak English, but it is much different speaking conversational English and understanding advanced technical English, particularly in a lecture setting.

 I have to remember that the students do not have a background in single case design or intervention research, so we are starting at the very beginning. I want to make sure that I am structuring the courses for their needs, so when the students asked if they could have some practical experience actually doing the interventions or actually conducting a single case design study I have to get creative since I don’t have the connections, access, or time to get them into an applied setting. For the research class, I am going to have them design an intervention for themselves and collect data on it, similar to the Personal Change Project I have done in the past with students in a consultation course. This will give them experience going through the intervention process, collecting data, and evaluating their results. For the intervention class, I may try to bring my kids in to class for the students to practice doing interventions. When they learn a particular intervention, they can practice it on an actual child. This may work or it may fail spectacularly, we will see!

I am teaching in the Department of School Psychology in the Institute of Psychology. There are courses in the department just for Hungarian students that are taught in Hungarian, and there are the same courses that are taught in English for the Erasmus students or other international students. I have already met several of my colleagues to discuss potential guest lectures in classes, speaking engagements, and potential collaborations. I am also working on setting up some visits to area schools, although this may be more difficult with Covid restrictions of guests in the school. I am interested in the role of the school psychologist in Hungary, and from what I am gathering it is as varied as the role is in the states. There is a conference for Hungarian school psychologists next month, and I hope to get to attend so I can talk with some of them about their positions and what their role is.

So far I think I have been getting settled in pretty well. I hope to continue working with the other faculty and learning from them and their expertise, and I want to be able to discuss my research and ideas with them to hopefully create some long-lasting collaborations for both research and training.