Assessment of an Educational Guidance Laboratory as a practical setting within a curriculum model based on competencies

Introduction. The main objective of this study is to describe the perception of participants in respect to the use of the Laboratorio de Orientacion Educativa as scenario practice of students of third semester of psychology from the Universidad de Sonora (Mexico) who must demonstrate the skills of application of psychometric instruments in the field of education. Method. The sample consists of three groups: 189 students of third semester of the Licence in Psychology at the University of Sonora, 5 teachers who taught the subject Supervised Practice I and 15 supervisors Laboratorio de Orientacion Educativa Results. The results show that students, teachers and supervisors of the scenario, considered to be fulfilled in order to implement the instrument s2000 plus. Regarding the training manual, all involved believe that was a useful tool for learning. The most contrasting results are the ratings about the fisical space of the LOE. Supervisors are the most dissatisfied and 60% selected the lower grades, 1 and 2. About the students, the 70.2% of them qualify with 4 or 5 LOE space Conclusions. We conclude that the Laboratorio de Orientacion Educativa is fulfilling its responsibilities to develop the competence of implementation of psychometric instruments and a useful educational experience for students as their first practice with users of psychological services. Likewise, the training manual designed for those purposes has been rated as useful and facilitates the transition from classroom to practice in the application with users.