Events
EFPTA holds a major conference every two years in different European cities, normally in the spring, with a full-scale programme of presentations and workshops by teachers, students and researchers. EFPTA Board meetings are held twice yearly in Brussels, normally in spring and autumn. All members of EFPTA member associations, as well as individual members, are eligible and encouraged to attend all meetings and events.
EFPTA 2024 Helsinki 20th Anniversary Conference - keynotes announced!
We are delighted to announce that our keynote speakers at the EFPTA 2024 Conference in Helsinki will be Prof Markus Jokela of the University of Helsinki, and Dr Karen Marangio of Monash University, Australia!
You can register here.
The conference theme is "The Age of Psychology: Teaching Psychology in the Modern World". The main conference programme will take place on 19-20 April 2024, and there will also be optional cultural activities on 18 and 21 April.
This will be our first in-person event since 2018 when the Conference was held in Reykjavik, Iceland. The EFPTA Conference is normally biennial, but the two-yearly pattern was disrupted by the pandemic, and our last Conference - Bratislava 2020 - was postponed till 2021 and was held online. So we're excited to be getting together again in person, especially as it's our 20th Anniversary! In fact Helsinki is the place where EFPTA was founded in 2004, so it's very fitting that we will be there again to celebrate our 20th birthday - and that we will be hosted by the Finnish psychology teachers' association Psykologianopettajat (PSOP).
We will have a full programme of keynotes, workshops, discussion forums and networking sessions for, and led by, psychology teachers and educators from across Europe, and beyond.
Places are limited - register here.
Click on the links below for the Conference Programme, the workshops / symposium list, a publicity poster, and practical information about Helsinki accommodation and local transport.
Documents and Resources
Helsinki Conference poster /flyer
Helsinki information sheet - transport, venue, hotels - updated
Conference programme (provisional)
Presentations now available! From our webinar on 18 March 2023 - Climate change & sustainability in psychology education.
Thank you to everyone who took part in our spring webinar on Saturday 18 March! The theme of climate change and sustainability in psychology education was very popular with about 50 participants from many countries in Europe and beyond. Unfortunately our keynote speaker Dr Dan O'Hare had to cancel, however EFPTA Board members stepped in to provide a summary of Dr O'Hare's recent paper.
Cick on the links below for the workshop presentations.
In the breakout sessions participants said they found the workshops interesting and useful, and also shared their views and info about how they address environmental issues and sustainability in their own schools. Concern about the effects of the climate crisis on the wellbeing of young people, and the need to prepare them for future challenges, will continue. Also a number of important fundamental questions arose about the role of psychology education in addressing the climate crisis, so we plan to follow up this theme in future EFPTA events - watch this space!
Psychology and climate change is a theme currently prioritised by the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), to which EFPTA is affiliated.
Documents and Resources
Workshop: Whole-school approaches to sustainability
EFPTA webinar 19 February 2022: thanks for taking part!
On 19 February we held a webinar with the theme: Mental health at school: what is the role of psychology teachers?
Around 50 people took part - psychology teachers, university academics, mental health professionals - from c.16 European countries, and presenters from five countries talked about their approaches to mental health education for young people. It was very interesting, and inspiring, to learn about these different perspectives, with a clear focus on practical strategies for supporting young people through these very challenging times.
Sadly, the global covid-19 pandemic since early 2020 has led to an increase in mental health problems especially among young people. This webinar forms part of a project by EFPTA and the EFPA Board of Educational Affairs on mental health education in secondary schools in Europe, including the role of psychology teachers in supporting students' mental health.
Mental health in Europe is a theme currently prioritised by the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), to which EFPTA is affiliated.
Presentations are available here.
Saturday 19 February 2022, 10.00-12.00 (CET). This event has now ended.
Click the link below for full programme information.
Documents and Resources
Webinar flyer /poster - full programme
EFPTA 2018 Conference in Reykjavik, 13-14 April! This Conference has now taken place...
Thank you to everyone who participated - keynote speakers, workshop presenters, and all delegates! Psychology teachers and others interested in psychology education at pre-university / high school level, from 14 countries, gathered to discuss and share information, expertise and ideas on teaching psychology to young people.
The theme was 'Psychology for everyone - the value of psychology education for young people' and the event was hosted by the Icelandic psychology teachers’ association - Samtöksálfræði- oguppeldisfræðikennara. One of the highlights of the Conference was an excellent presentation by Icelandic high school students.
If you missed this EFPTA Conference, make sure you don't miss the next one - watch this space for news of EFPTA 2020!
Documents and Resources
Conference poster /flyer to download / print
10th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE REPORT: Sowing the seeds of psychological literacy - a conference for psychology teachers in Europe. Berlin, 11-13 April 2014.
The 10th Anniversary Conference has now taken place! Conference presentations will soon be available here, but meanwhile here are some of the highlights of this action-packed event at the beautiful WannseeForum: Keynote speaker Franziska Moser of Berlin’s Freie Universität explained her research findings on the impact of gendered language; Chair of the German Psychology Teachers’ Association, Michael Bürger used delegates as participants in a live experimental demonstration of the ‘shared information effect’ in group decision-making; teams of delegates worked ‘hands on’ in a series of problem-solving and creativity tasks in a ‘carousel’ workshop of learning activities. Over an intensive two days, psychology teachers, teacher educators and students from nine European countries presented or took part in a variety of interactive workshops focussing on teaching and learning in psychology, ranging from ‘Twinning psychology classes’ to ‘Ecopsychology in the classroom’. Many delegates and presenters were students: a team of high school psychology students from Hamburg delighted delegates with a talk about their innovative collaboration with undergraduate students at their local university. A second group of students, this time from Dessau, gave a charming video presentation of their social-psychological research. Student teachers from Slovakia took part in the event too; in fact, students made a major contribution to this EFPTA event overall. Aside from the formal programme, delegates browsed the display of posters and textbooks; the newest qualified psychology teacher, from Dortmund, was congratulated by the EFPTA President; and on Friday 11th April EFPTA’s 10th anniversary was celebrated in style with a magnificent birthday cake and glasses of bubbly. Click on the link below to see the anniversary slideshow of photos of EFPTA events 2004-2014. The EFPTA Board is very grateful to the helpful staff at WannseeForum, and all those who supported the event, especially Uniview Worldwide and Classroom Video.
Conference presentations can be found by clicking the links below. Also, most conference contributors are willing to share their presentations / materials if you contact them directly, even if these are not posted here on the website (see link to presenters' contact details).
Documents and Resources
Download the full programme including abstracts and biographies
EFPTA 10th Anniversary slide show
EFPTA Conference - Copenhagen, 20-21 April 2012 - this event has now taken place. Reports can be found in the 2012 edition of the EFPTA Newsletter.
Conference theme: The Psychology of Evil – its place in the classroom
The conference has now taken place, and feedback from participants has been very positive. 48 delegates attended, from 10 countries, and the conference venue was an adult education college in a beautiful historic building in Copenhagen. Full reports and presentations will be available soon - so watch this space!
Programme highlights:
- Keynote speakers Dr Robin May Schott (Denmark) and Dr Kristján Guðmundsson (Iceland) spoke on the latest ideas and research on the theme of ‘the Psychology of Evil’.
- Workshops further explored the theme, in a forum where delegates discussed issues relevant to the teaching of ‘evil’-related topics in the psychology classroom.
- Workshops on Learning and Teaching in Psychology gave delegates opportunities to share good practice with colleagues from across Europe.
- There were workshops on collaborative projects for teachers and students across national boundaries – even if you were not there you can still get involved!
- A round-table session addressed issues affecting the school psychology curriculum in Europe – what its aims should be, what should it contain, how should it be designed and by whom....
- A live psychology demonstration class was given by a Danish teacher and her students, followed by an informal question and answer session amongst students and delegates.