Selected Topics of Educational Psychology

Syllabus

Important concepts of personality and developmental theories which influenced educational psychology

Theories of learning, motivation, cogitation, creativity and their links to educational psychology

Different methods of teaching, their advantages and limits (e.g. frontal teaching, group teaching, cooperative teaching, project teaching etc.)

Interactions within a school, school climate

Educational styles in families and schools, socio-cultural aspects of education

Professional competences of teachers, their influence on children, teacher's personality, further development of teacher's educational skills (e.g. video-training guidance)

Classroom management, class as a social group, class assessment

Psychological work with individual students, conditions of school success and academic achievement, integration of students with special educational needs (SEN)

School counselling centres, their methods of work, psychological assessment applied to educational problems

Integration training applied to school environment

Excursions to: a) residential treatment centre for children and adolescents with behavioural disorders; b) centre for children with specific learning disabilities and ADHD syndrome

Final exams

Annotation

The course will focus on psychological aspects of educational process. Students will get familiar with the most crucial links between educational psychology and both developmental psychology and psychology of personality (e.g. motivation, learning, cognitive styles, family interactions). However, main part of the subject will concentrate on specific educational problems as they are viewed from psychological point of view. Students will learn about psychological processes within schools, which are influenced by teachers, students, their parents, and also external institutions that cooperate with schools.

Apart from theoretical background lectures will include brief introduction into interaction training and excursions into several educational institutions, which offer psychological services.