The use of technical terms in exemplar EP reports and factors affecting trainee teachers’ and Newly Qualified Teachers’ (NQTs’) access of the language used

The systematic literature review investigates the effect jargon found in psychological reports (including school psychology, clinical psychology and forensic psychology reports) has on accessibility.

The review focusses on the primary intended readers which included parents, teachers, judges and psychologists.

Accessibility measures included understanding of jargon, the usefulness of jargon, and the effect jargon has on readability.

Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. The results suggest that jargon is useful; however psychologists do not necessarily use the most useful terms most frequently in their reports.

Jargon is subject to misunderstanding by non-professionals, professionals from other groups and professionals in the same group. Using a lot of jargon which is not understandable decreases the accessibility of psychological reports.

The review found that terminology used by EPs in the U.K. has not been researched previously and it is timely to do so now as report writing across children's services is changing as a result of new legislation.

Exemplar EP reports which are used for training purposes were analysed for the technical terminology they included through a quantitative content analysis.

An online questionnaire investigated trainee teachers' and NQTs' perceived understanding of 22 high frequency and prevalence technical terms as well as their attitude towards inclusion, self-efficacy for self-directed learning behaviour, experience relating to Special Educational Needs (SEN), hours of SEN training, and self-directed learning behaviour.

Trainee teachers' and NQTs' perceived understanding for the majority of the technical terms was high.

The least understood terms were "standard score" and "percentile" which are both terms relating to formal assessment.

A regression analysis found that self-efficacy for self-directed learning and previous experience relating to SEN were predictors for perceived understanding of technical terminology used in exemplar EP reports.

Strengths and limitations of the study as well as the practical implications and opportunities for future research are discussed.