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Here you will find blog posts by EFPTA members and guest writers on various issues relevant to psychology education in high schools in Europe. You are invited to contribute! Please contact us at info@efpta.org with your draft or idea for a blog post. Help is available with English translation if needed.

Scroll further down to see the archive of EFPTA's Annual Newsletters, which this blog page now replaces, as we will no longer produce an Annual Newsletter - instead, we hope that this new blog page will provide an opportunity for more members to contribute to EFPTA activities! That said, we are keeping the archive here as there is a wealth of information in these old Newsletters, much of it still highly relevant today. 

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Professor Julie Hulme is Professor of Psychology Education at Nottingham Trent University. She writes: Psychology? It’s a Mickey Mouse subject…is it?

Summary of a keynote talk given at the Association for the Teaching of Psychology Annual International Conference, University of Lincoln, July 2024

Within the UK, there has been an increasingly noisy rhetoric about “low quality” university courses, which has focused on the idea that some subjects are so-called “Mickey Mouse” subjects. The term “Mickey Mouse degree” was coined by former Labour Minister for Education Margaret Hodge in 2003, and signified a degree “where the content is not as rigorous as one would expect, and where the degree itself does not have huge relevance in the labour market”. In the past 20 years, graduate earning potential has become the key defining feature. For example, Damian Hinds, Conservative Education Secretary in 2019 suggested that a degree was “economically without value” if a student did not repay their student loan within five years of graduation – and as such, universities should stop teaching them.

So how does this apply to psychology? Within the UK, graduate employment is challenging compared to some other subjects. Around 10-15% of psychology graduates go onto professional psychology careers, with the remainder entering careers in health and social care, education, housing, human resources, the charitable sector, and beyond. New graduates often seek experience to access competitive postgraduate psychology training, and will not necessarily be earning a graduate salary. It takes around 5 years for them to catch up with graduates of other subjects (BPS, 2017). However, students often choose psychology for reasons of “making a difference” in society; their aspirations are not about status or income, but about helping people (Bromnick & Horowitz, 2013). Their aspirations align with Boyer’s (1990) vision: “The aim of education is not only to prepare students for productive careers, but also to enable them to live lives of dignity and purpose; not only to generate new knowledge, but to help shape a citizenry that can promote the public good”. In other words, education derives its value not (only?) from the earning potential of graduates, but from what they can offer to society, and how they can live meaningful lives.

I believe this is where psychology outshines other subjects! I am fascinated by the concept of psychological literacy (Hulme, 2014; Hulme & Cranney, 2022), the “intentional values-driven application of psychology to achieve personal, professional, and community (local to global) goals” (Nolan et al., 2024). In other words, psychology can help students to achieve personal wellbeing and purpose, to contribute in diverse workplaces, and to help to make the world a better place.

Internationally, there is growing interest in where the value of psychology education lies, and in 2022, this led me to join the International Collaboration on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (ICUPO) project. Engaging almost 120 people from at least 41 different countries (including global majority nations), and drawing on at least 27 national framework examples, we sought consensus to develop a framework, the International Competences for Undergraduate Psychology (ICUP), that outlines the foundational competences that students worldwide gain from studying undergraduate psychology. The ICUP framework is now approaching completion, and you can read it in almost final draft version as a preprint (Nolan et al., 2024).

Fundamentally, ICUP encompasses two psychology-specific competence sets: Psychological Knowledge; and Psychological Research Methods and Methodologies. Alongside these sit the psychology-relevant competences, which are to an extent generic, in that they are seen in other subjects, but within psychology curricula are informed by psychological research and applied in psychological contexts. These include: Values & Ethics; Critical Thinking & Problem Solving; Cultural Responsiveness & Diversity; Communication & Interpersonal Skills; and Personal & Professional Development.

These competences are exactly what we need in a changing world, where we need to work with sensitivity with people from different cultures, and where knowledge is expanding faster than we can keep up. Not only university, but also entry-level psychology qualifications at school and/or college have huge amounts to offer in terms of preparing students for meaningful and productive personal, professional, and community lives, even if they then leave education or go on to study something different at university. A student learning psychology at school or college is gaining entry-level competences that contribute to their own development and their understanding of the social world in which they live.

While school and college psychology teachers may have less control over what they teach than do university teachers, it is important that we all reflect on how we teach psychology. If we hope that psychology education will help our students to be ethical, respectful of diversity, and critical thinkers, then we need to model those competences ourselves.

Sometimes, the traditional psychology curriculum does not help. For example, most psychology texts show ‘families’ as heteronormative nuclear families. Our students may be living in social care settings, may have non-binary or same sex parents, or may be adopted (Golombok, 2015). When we teach attachment theory, what messages do we send? Do we ‘other’ students, or can they see themselves in the curriculum? We need to reflect the diversity of our students in the ways that we teach psychology.

At my own university, Nottingham Trent University in England, we are ensuring that students develop their psychological literacy, and that they can practice applying psychology in their everyday lives through their curriculum and assessment. Our students initially find this way of thinking challenging, but ultimately, they learn the confidence to go out into the world after graduation with a strong understanding of their skill set, not only a theoretical understanding of their subject.

So – is psychology a Mickey Mouse subject? In answering this question, I did a little research. It’s hard to calculate the value of Mickey Mouse, but since his ‘birth’ in 1928, he has generated at least $52 billion dollars. More than that, he has brought happiness to countless children and adults, including many who were very ill and/or traumatised. He seems to have the kind of value that I aspire to for psychology – who’s with me in helping to make sure that we can say yes?!

With special thanks to all my colleagues at ICUPO for inspiration.

Julie.hulme@ntu.ac.uk
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/social-sciences/julie-hulme
September 2024
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May 2024 - Lyndsey Hayes, psychology teacher in England, writes: How the psychology teachers’ association and the psychologists’ association support me and my students in the UK

I joined the Association for the Teaching of Psychology (ATP), UK in December 2014 and was honoured to become a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society (the UK’s national psychologists’ association) in September 2020. My students and I have benefitted from my membership of these communities in many ways:

Firstly, I have formed close friendships and received unconditional support from many psychology teachers across the UK and Europe (including EFPTA members-you know who you are!) since attending my first ATP conference at the University of Lancaster in 2015. This support has been invaluable to me as I have often been working as a psychology department of one! Not only were the ATP conference workshops useful for refreshing my subject knowledge but it is great to mix with like-minded people who are never too busy to answer technical questions on topics, such as ‘how do I help students who are less confident in maths to understand inferential statistics?’

I have also had the rewarding experience of being a member of the ATP committee since July 2023, as well as editing the “ATP Today” magazine in February 2024 - it has been so inspiring to read articles and ideas from other students and teachers about the world of psychology, which I have then explored with my students! This experience has also given my students the unique opportunity to improve their subject skills and university application statement by writing for the ATP magazine!

Secondly, I was honoured to be nominated as ATP Representative on the BPS’ dedicated teaching committee in December 2023. During this time, we have worked together to break down barriers between the university and pre-university teaching communities. For example, the committee launched the Pre-tertiary Education Psychology Teacher of the Year award in October 2023 to celebrate the work of pre-university teachers in schools. Moreover, my colleagues, Deb Gajic and Helene Ansell, who are both former ATP committee members, collated resources from psychology teachers and collaborated with colleagues at the BPS to produce the excellent and popular online resource, called the ‘Teacher’s Toolkit’. (https://shorturl.at/bfsT7 )

The materials are free to access and are intended to be useful whatever specific psychology course students are following. These resources have significantly contributed to my excellent track record of student outcomes and have greatly supported my students in writing effective applications to their chosen universities. They particularly praised the sections on careers and writing personal statements. We have also found the BPS online events such as the "Psychology Careers Festival" and “Meet the psychologist” useful for making their university choices and tailoring their university applications to their chosen courses (in many cases, psychology).

Finally, my students and I have greatly enjoyed discussing ways of using the weekly BPS Research Digest and monthly articles in the BPS magazine, “The Psychologist” to boost their critical thinking skills and marks for longer essays in their final examinations!

Lyndsey Hayes, CPsychol, is a Psychology Teacher at LSI Independent College, London, and Westminster Tutors, Independent Sixth Form College, London
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Inaugural EFPTA Blog!

Harriet Ennis, Blog Editor
April, 2024

Feeling empowered by EFPTA

In November 2023 I had the opportunity to join the European Federation of Psychology Teachers’ Associations (EFPTA) as a Board member, representing the ATP (England & Wales) and attending the Board meeting in Edinburgh. What a fascinating experience! I can’t wait to go to the EFPTA Conference in Helsinki in April 2024 and find out much more about psychology teaching all over Europe.

What stands out from my experience meeting colleagues from across Europe?
Well, I already believe the following: All young people would benefit from psychology teaching throughout their education, from specialist educators, and I think it a shame that many leave school without gaining the valuable knowledge, insights and skills, which studying psychology would bring to their lives. Not to mention the effect this would have on society and humanity as a whole! If you are still reading - I am aware that I will most likely be ‘preaching to the choir’ at this point…

Anyway, like you, I am so busy day-to-day (in my case teaching Psychology A-level and Biology and Personal Health and Social Education) and I can’t tackle this problem by myself. However, meeting educators from EFPTA from many different countries and comparing their teaching systems has left me feeling empowered. What might we do about adding to psychology teaching throughout our curricula, as a collective?

It's important to gather and share up-to-date information about what goes on in different countries in relation to how psychology is taught, discover similarities and differences, share models of best practice and personal experiences of teaching psychology, and learn from each other. EFPTA does this in various ways: each member country has a page on the EFPTA website, and at the Helsinki conference Board members will display posters about psychology teaching in their countries.

Now, this new blog page – of which I am the Editor - offers great opportunities for such sharing: I call on you to write a short blog about your own observations, your country’s ‘story’ regarding psychology teaching and your own teachers’ associations.

Harriet Ennis
Head of Psychology, Bootham School, York, UK

 

EFPTA Newsletter 2021-22

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Find a wealth of news and reports in the 2021-22 Newsletter! Read about the keynotes and workshops at the EFPTA 2021 conference - which was very successful in spite of being fully online - and the EFPTA webinars in 2021 and 2022. There are also reports from the ATP 2021 international conference - which went ahead in person! You will find updates from national associations of psychology teachers, and other items of interest to everyone involved in psychology education.

 

EFPTA Newsletter 2018

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Take a look at our 2018 Newsletter! Read reports from our Reykjavík conference which took place in April 2018; as well as two great keynotes there were workshops on many aspects of psychology teaching - students' experiences, ethics, teachers' CPD, role of psychology in career choices, to name just a few. You will also find interesting articles by contributors from Norway and Sweden, shedding new light on psychology teaching in those countries.

 

October 2016

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EFPTA Newsletter 2016 is published! Enjoy the photos and reports from the Prague 2016 conference, which was attended by delegates from a record 14 countries. Thanks to everyone who wrote reports on the many workshops as well as the Keynotes. Read the update from the President too, to get a good overview of recent EFPTA activities.

 

September 2014

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What an exciting year 2013-14 has been for EFPTA! Read all about the 10th Anniversary conference in April in Berlin, attended by around 100 psychology teachers and students from 10 European countries. You’ll also find a report of EFPTA’s contribution to the prestigious ICAP conference in Paris, in July, and news of new links with the APA’s group for high school psychology teachers in the USA.

 

September 2013

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What's been happening in psychology education across Europe in 2013? Read reports from Member countries, including new Members .....Bratislava November 2013..... planning for Berlin Conference 2014...... Member countries' events ....EFPA and Paris 2014...

 

September 2012

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EFPTA Copenhagen Conference, April 2012 - full reports....EFPTA is represented on the new Board of Educational Affairs at EFPA....EFPTA research with psychology students and teachers is presented in several countries....psychology teachers from many countries attend the ATP Conference in England, July 2012... find out about all of EFPTA's exciting activities during 2011-12!

 

November 2011

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EFPTA at the European Parliament.... A Europe-wide collaborative student project.... EFPTA members at the European Congress of Psychology in Istanbul, June 2011..... Dortmund Spring School, March 2011, for European psychology students.... As you can see, EFPTA has been very busy in 2011 - read all about these activities, and more besides, in the Newsletter.

 

September 2010

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In Bratislava, Slovakia in April 2010 the European Federation of Psychology Teachers' Association (EFPTA) held a conference under the name Teaching Psychology in Europe Beyond University: Sharing good practice, learn from experts!
Around 60 participants were registered from countries all over Europe, from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, England, Scotland, Spain, Holland, Austria, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

 

September 2009

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This issue of the EFPTA's Newsletter focuses on the ATPS/EFPTA conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland, 17-18th of April 2009. There we had many interesting lectures and presentations and you can read brief summaries of them in the following pages. Here is also an article about the influence of psychosocial well-being on school drop-out, written by the new president of EFPTA, Hans Reijnierse.

 

January 2009

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This issue of the EFPTA's Newsletter focuses on the conference held in Helsinki, Finland, 7-8th of November 2008. Here you can read summaries of the various lectures, results from our workshop and an account of our visit to the International school of Tikkurila.

 

September 2008

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This issue of the Newsletter focuses on the seminar held in Cardiff, Wales, in April 2008, bringing summaries of the various lectures, but first Jari, the president of EFPTA outlines the history of EFPTA and brings his vision of its future.

 

January 2008

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This issue of the Newsletter focuses on the conference held in Bologna, Italy, in November 9-11 2007, bringing summaries of the various lectures. First Jari, President of EFPTA, writes about the new constitution of EFPTA, secondly Dorothy Coombs, Vice President of EFPTA, also gives information about the new constitution and the
Bologna conference, and thirdly there is a notice by Joe Cocker about the Cardiff seminar in April 2008.

 

September 2007

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This issue of the Newsletter focuses on the conference held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in April 2007, bringing summaries and excerpts of the various lectures. One special theme was Adolescence.

 

January 2007

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This issue of EFPTA's Newsletter has two different focuses: the seminar held in Dortmund in November 2006 and interviews with psychology teachers across Europe about their work situation.