It is important to understand what the Scholar-practitioner approach or model is before going to analyze the Practitioner-scholar model. Needless to say, the scholar-practitioner model approach to teaching and learning is sometimes used for empowerment and self-esteem campaigns. It is an approach to learning where learners are trained in a classroom situation and the skills learned are practiced outside the classroom. Simply, students and teachers are involved in a cycle of activities that should implement and evaluate research findings in a professional educational environment (Stoltenberg, 2000)
According to an American Publication ‘Getting In’ a Practitioner-scholar model is also referred to as the Vail model. The model focuses mainly on graduate programs that are concerned with clinical practices that educate clinical psychologists. According to this Vail model, the clinical psychologist or any specialist is a researcher. The psychologist uses the research gathered from the scholarly found information to give answers to clients with sufferings. This is done professionally. A clinical psychologist then applies the acquired know-how and techniques to bring relevant answers to customers using a problem-solving approach. The model challenges clinical psychologists to modernize and make easy the psychological distress of clients using research findings (Wasserman, 2009)
A scholar is a highly educated specialist in a given field of study whose entire life is delimited with constant intensive research. The scholar uses scholarly methods to carry research that is purely academic. He or she explores the field of study and is able to amass enough and relevant knowledge about the field of study. There is the usage of a constant cognitive domain in approaching research and gathering information. A scholar entrenches himself to the studio’s field and commits his or her time and resources to advance the quality of knowledge theoretically.
A practitioner is a person who has acquired enough knowledge in a certain field and can fit into a place to have a career, make a livelihood, and becomes a way of life. That is, the professional ideally practices and dedicates his life to being a guru in the field learned. There is an affective domain in approaching his practice of theories gathered as a scholar. A practitioner dedicates himself to practicing each theory learned. He or she must be able to put into practice, scrutinize, and be in a position to assess critically the effectiveness of the theory and make necessary changes (Wasserman, 2009)
On the other hand, a scholar-practitioner is able to acquire knowledge in the class, relevant sources, and the exterior environment using quality scholarly methods. A scholar-practitioner is a round professional, neither academic nor professional.
Therefore one should be able to acquire the theory models as an academic scholar and later be able to practice the amassed knowledge to meet societal needs professionally.
The Scholar-practitioner model allows psychologists to use foremost components to well-versed problem-solving approach and make relevant decisions that give answers to the field in question. Scholar-practitioner is a guide for students who study in a scholarship environment where a professional education curriculum has been implemented. Using this approach, mentors and completely equips students with a relevant practical approach to propagate research findings, thus allowing students to have a reflection about their individual work. Similarly, the Vail Model, earlier discussed, employs the same approach where clinical psychologists have the responsibility to reconnect back to scholarship and the career. The vice versa manner enables the psychologist to update his or her theory-based findings and apply respectively to meet the new aspects and emerging issues in the immediate field of specialty.
References
Wasserman., & Kram, K.E. (2009). The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (Vol. 45, pp. 12-38).
Stoltenberg, D.C., Pace, J.M., Kashubeck-West, S., Biever, J.L., Patterson, T., & Welch, D. (2000). The Counseling Psychologist (Vol. 28, pp. 622-640).