Teaching Consultation Skills Using Interdepartmental Collaboration and Supervision with a Mixed-Reality Simulator

Individualized consultation is defined as one person (consultant) working with another person (consultee) to benefit a third (client). Learning how to be a consultant is a process with developmental stages ranging from novice to expert. The current study focuses on an integrated skills-based training experience for those in the novice stage. This training experience consisted of three parts: (a) interdepartmental collaboration, (b) use of a mixed-reality simulator, and (c) direct supervision from faculty. Specifically, consultants (graduate school psychology students) worked with consultees (undergraduate, preservice special education students) to benefit virtual clients (avatar students in a virtual classroom). The respective faculty provided supervision to both the consultants and consultees. Quantitative results found that both preservice school psychologists and preservice special education teachers rated the experience positively. Qualitative data found that improvements could be made to provide both more time with the simulator and a broader range of collaborative experiences.