From Research to Practice: The Process of Training School Psychologists as Knowledge Transfer Professionals

School psychologists, as scientist-practitioners, work to bring empirically-based approaches to educational settings. Knowledge Transfer (KT), the meaningful translation of research into practical settings, is vital to the profession and encompasses a central role in all areas of clinical competency. Although an integral part of practitioner education, few have explored the process of KT training in detail. This paper reviews the application of KT to the training of and learning process for a class of 8 graduate students in School Psychology at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Students met with classroom teachers to identify training and/or knowledge gaps for handling classroom challenges. Collaboratively, graduate students narrowed down areas of focus and developed a quick reference manual to address these gaps by promoting knowledge about mental health, providing effective and practical classroom strategies, and equipping educators with additional resources for working with children of special populations. The training process involved a needs assessment with teachers, a synthesis of results to identify the most prevalent challenges encountered by new educators, an iterative process of editing and revising multiple drafts to create a refined product, the delivery of a preliminary product to teachers, gathering feedback about the usefulness and value of the product, and the creation of a final product designed to meet identified knowledge needs. KT is integral to the profession of School Psychology and warrants further exploration for both training and practical applications.