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ICP 2024, Prague - EFPTA plays its part in the international community of psychology educators!

The 33rd International Congress of Psychology (ICP) took place in the beautiful city of Prague on 21-26 July, hosted by the
Czech-Moravian Psychological Society and the International Union of
Psychological Science. The theme of ICP 2024 was “Psychology for the
Future: Together in Hope". 

The community of psychology educators promoting and supporting psychology teaching is truly international! Lenka Sokolová, former EFPTA President, gave a presentation on “Mapping Unknown Territories: EFPTA initiatives in the pre-tertiary teaching of psychology in Europe”, as part of an invited symposium “Psychology Learning and Teaching at the Cross Roads”, hosted by the European Society for Psychology Learning and Teaching (ESPLAT, www.esplat.org). In another symposium, this time hosted by the Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) of EFPA (www.efpa.eu), Lenka contributed a presentation on “Mental health literacy and mental health education for young people” (find both presentations at the links below).  

Colleagues who are teaching, researching and collaborating in psychology education came from many European countries, and beyond.

Photo, left to right:Susan Nolan (US), Mirjana Beara Benjak (Serbia), Ioulia Papageorgi (Cyprus), Lenka Sokolová (Slovakia), Kateřina Machovcová (Czechia), Iva Stuchlíková (Czechia). 

More information: ICP 2024 website 

 

Documents and Resources

Mapping Unknown Territories: EFPTA initiatives in the pre-tertiary teaching of psychology in Europe

Mental health literacy and mental health education for young people



EFPTA 2024 Helsinki 20th Anniversary - what a great Conference!

A huge thank you to
everyone who joined us in Helsinki for our 20th Anniversary Conference! 

The conference theme was "The Age of Psychology: Teaching Psychology in the Modern World" -  our keynotes Prof Markus Jokela of the University of Helsinki, and Dr Karen Marangio of Monash University, Australia, delivered fascinating lectures on this theme.

It was our first in-person event since 2018 (when the Conference was held in Reykjavik). In fact Helsinki is the place where EFPTA was founded in 2004, so it was very fitting that we were there again to celebrate our 20th birthday.   

The Finnish psychology teachers' associationPsykologianopettajat (PSOP), and Eira High School for Adults were wonderful hosts. We were delighted to welcome participants of 17 different nationalities - a record for an EFPTA conference! In celebration of the 20th Anniversary, several Past Presidents delivered greetings either in person or on video, and Joe Cocker, EFPTA 'founding father', gave a speech congratulating the Federation on its achievements. A message was delivered from Tuomo Tikkanen, Past President of Psykologiliitto, the Finnish psychologists' association, who had encouraged the founding of EFPTA. We were pleased to welcome current Psykologiliitto President Dr Jari Lipsanen, who gave an address too.

As well as keynotes, we had a full programme of workshops, updates on psychology education in European countries, and networking sessions. And very sociable evenings dining together! The link below will take you to the full Conference Programme.

You will find most of the conference presentations here. 

EFPTA is grateful for the support of PSOP RY, Psykologiliitto and Eira High School for Adults in the organisation of the Helsinki 2024 Conference.

Documents and Resources

Full Conference Programme



What are the challenges for psychology education? Journal article from EFPTA Past President

In this article in the Czech education journal Pedagogika*, Lenka Sokolová responds to questions including “What do you see as the main challenges for psychology education?” and “What changes do you expect to see in psychology education in relation to these challenges?” Lenka is an EFPTA Past President and Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at Comenius University (Bratislava). The journal issue also features a number of interesting contributions from other experts on challenges in education (all available in English).

*Pedagogika, 2023, 73(4), pp.475-477. https://doi.org/10.14712/23362189.2024.3230

Documents and Resources

New Challenges for Education in Times of Crisis and Major Societal Changes



ESPLAT webinar: Lenka Sokolová on psychology in Europe’s schools – recording available

This webinar, hosted by the European Society for Psychology Learning & Teaching (ESPLAT), gives an informative overview of psychology education at pre-university level in schools across Europe. It is an excellent introduction to the topic for everyone in the psychology community, especially those who are as yet unfamiliar with this important and foundational area of psychology education. And for those who are already well-informed, this webinar offers a very useful update. Lenka Sokolová, Professor of Educational Psychology at Comenius University Bratislava, and EFPTA representative for Slovakia, addresses these key questions:

Why teach psychology at pre-university level? - What are the different forms of psychology teaching in European countries? - Why do students choose to study psychology at school, and what are their perceptions of the subject? - What are the challenges that psychology teachers and students face, in terms of curricula and also training of psychology teachers? - What is EFPTA, and how do they promote and support psychology education in schools across Europe?

Lenka describes some of EFPTA’s main research findings as well as the conferences and professional development events that the Federation organises. She stresses the value EFPTA places on collaboration and networking with ESPLAT and other organisations across Europe, including national psychologists’ associations, who share a commitment to psychology teaching in schools.  

If you have any questions or comments on the webinar, please contact Lenka (either directly or via our contact page).

You can watch the recording here.



BPS (UK) website hosts free learning resources for psychology teachers and students.

Psychology teachers in the UK are pleased that the national psychologists’ association, the BPS, is now hosting on its website a set of learning resources for psychology students and teachers at pre-university level in schools and colleges. It's the result of teamwork by members of the ATP (the Association for the Teaching of
Psychology, UK), in particular Deb Gajic and Helene Ansell, who collated resources from psychology teachers and collaborated with colleagues at the BPS to produce this excellent and popular resource, called the ‘Teacher’s Toolkit’.

 The materials are free to access and are intended to be useful whatever specific psychology course students are following. They include activities and resources on a wide range of topics, such as attaining top grades in psychology, positive psychology in the classroom and teaching mathematics skills through key studies in psychology.

 In fact, this is not the only way in which the BPS supports teachers and students: it also offers a Psychology Teacher of the Year Award, regular professional development webinars - on topics such as Diversity in Psychology, coping with exam stress and transitions from pre-university study - as well as an annual Psychology Careers Festival. These forms of support for psychology education in schools have been facilitated by a dedicated BPS committee bringing together university and pre-university psychology teachers.

 Teacher Lyndsey Hayes, who is an ATP member and a member of the committee, said: “Working on this committee, I feel that I’m helping to break down the barriers between pre-university and university teaching and giving back to the psychology community. The Teachers’ Toolkit and the other forms of support from the BPS are really helpful for me and my students. They have enabled me to critically reflect upon the effectiveness of my classroom practice.” 

 



EFPTA leaves EFPA - statement from the EFPTA Board

EFPTA was established in 2004, and five years later, at a meeting of the General Assembly of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) in Oslo, EFPTA was granted EFPA Affiliation status.   

In October 2023 we were informed by EFPA that the membership category of ‘Affiliation’ (which had incurred no fee) had been terminated and EFPTA would become an Associate member from 2024, on payment of a new annual fee of 200 euros. This gave the EFPTA Board cause for concern.  

By way of providing some context, it is important to note that psychology teachers across Europe are less well paid than practising psychologists and psychology academics. EFPTA’s members – which are mostly psychology teachers’ national associations – therefore generally charge low membership subscriptions, and in turn, EFPTA charges these associations relatively low membership fees of 60-100 euros p.a. Thus we aim to make psychology teachers’ participation as accessible and inclusive as possible. We now have 12 members, representing almost all the countries in Europe where psychology is taught as a subject in schools. Although we occasionally benefit from one-off forms of support, e.g. sponsorship of speakers for events, we have no other source of regular income. Naturally, we have no paid staff, and in contrast to other EFPA member associations, all our activities are run on a voluntary basis by EFPTA Board members, including our own conferences, participation in other organisations’ events, our webinars, collaborative research and teaching projects, Board meetings, website etc. In addition, almost all meetings and events take place in members’ own time on weekend days and evenings, as teachers are not normally allowed to take part in such activities during the school day. All of our activities are aimed at directly supporting / promoting psychology teaching in schools in Europe, however, as can be clearly seen, we run on a shoestring, plus a huge amount of goodwill and unpaid work!      

So the imposition of the new EFPA membership fee posed a significant dilemma for EFPTA: on the one hand, we had aways valued our Affiliation to EFPA and had contributed substantially to EFPA activities, especially via its Board of Educational Affairs, where EFPTA reps had been committed participants over many years, collaborating on numerous research projects, conference presentations and publications. We had also promoted a range of EFPA activities on our website and via our networks. But on the other hand, the fee of 200 euros would account for nearly a quarter of EFPTA’s income, every year. We examined more closely the stated benefits of EFPA membership, and asked ourselves whether we could justify such expenditure to EFPTA members.   

The EFPTA Board considered the issue at our November 2023 meeting, and the Board asked President Mette Eggertsen to request a meeting with EFPA President Christoph Steinebach. The Board accepted that the EFPA rules had changed, but wanted EFPA to understand our unique situation compared to other EFPA member associations. We hoped a solution could be found: some mitigation of the financial burden would be welcome, perhaps in the form of financial support for specific EFPTA activities such as the Helsinki conference. However, when Mette Eggertson and Morag Williamson (EFPTA Secretary) met with Christoph Steinebach and other senior EFPA figures in December (online), no such support was offered. The EFPTA Board then met again in January 2024 and decided unanimously against becoming an Associate Member of EFPA; Board members agreed that EFPTA should spend its limited funds in ways that will more effectively support and promote psychology education in schools. The EFPTA President then wrote to Christoph Steinebach, ending our membership of EFPA.  

This has been an unfortunate episode for the psychology community in Europe. EFPTA and its member associations still – in some countries more than others - regularly encounter negative attitudes from psychologists and psychology academics towards psychology education in schools. The “journey into psychology starts at school”, in the words of former EFPA BEA rep and former EFPTA President Lenka Sokolová, is something that sadly is still not recognised or respected by some. EFPTA has to constantly strive to counter such attitudes, in our efforts to establish and maintain psychology as a valued subject in the school curriculum. We have been greatly supported in the past by EFPA Presidents Tuomo Tikkanen and Robert Roe, who told the European Parliament in 2011 that “a worthwhile aim is to promote EU citizens’ psychological literacy through teaching psychology in secondary schools” (Roe-Europe-for-Psychology-vpx-805799-01-09-2014.pdf (efpta.org)).      

We are proud of EFPTA’s achievements over the last 20 years, which are extensively documented on our website. We are disappointed and, frankly, puzzled by the fact that EFPA has made our membership unsustainable, and in doing so, has removed a significant contributor to its BEA activities. But EFPTA has always been a strongly collaborative organisation and we will continue to establish and develop relationships with other organisations and individuals who share our aims of promoting and supporting psychology education.

 



EFPTA Board autumn 2023 meeting was held in Edinburgh, 17-18 November

The EFPTA Board had a very productive autumn 2023 meeting in Edinburgh, on 17-18 November, hosted by the Association for the Teaching of Psychology Scotland (ATPS). We gathered first in the late afternoon on Friday at Leith Academy, a modern high school where ATPS member Simon Robinson teaches psychology. The exotic plants which adorn the school’s main corridor were a wonder to behold, resembling botanic gardens! In the staffroom, we held the usual  informal pre-meeting, previewing the main agenda for the next day, and sharing national reports from 10 member countries of EFPTA. 

The following day we met for the full Board meeting at Clifton Hall, the school of Mairi Rice, who is the Scotland representative to EFPTA. Board members were treated to a tour of this historic castle-like school, complete with turrets, crow-step gables and dovecot. The 14 Board members taking part in the meeting included several new and enthusiastic representatives. With three Finnish reps on board, we made excellent progress in preparing for the EFPTA 2024 Conference to be held in Helsinki, 18-21 April, to be hosted by the Finnish psychology teachers’ association.

We are very grateful to both Leith Academy and Clifton Hall School for making it possible to hold the EFPTA meetings at their schools.   

Some useful links:

Association for the Teaching of Psychology (UK)

Leith Academy, Edinburgh 

Clifton Hall School, Edinburgh

PSOP RY – Psychology Teachers Association, Finland



EFPTA Board spring 2023 meeting took place in Stockholm

For the first time, EFPTA Board met in Sweden - the meeting took place in Stockholm on 12-13 May 2023. Swedish representative, Ebba Blåvarg hosted us in Sweden's capital city. The Board's agenda focused on preparation for the November 2023 meeting in Edinburgh, and the EFPTA Conference to be held on18-21 April 2024 in Helsinki, Finland.

If you would like more information about EFPTA and our meetings and events, contact your country representative via your country's page under 'Associations'. Any member of an EFPTA member association can attend a Board meeting by prior arrangement. If you are teaching psychology at high school level, and your country does not have a psychology teachers' association, we would like to hear from you - contact us!

 



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

Webinar Programme

Workshop: Whole-school approaches to sustainability

Workshop: Climate change - learning activities in the psychology classroom

Some key sources on climate change and psychology, and links from webinar chat



EFPTA Board meets in England

EFPTA Board's bi-annual full meeting took place on 18-19 November in England, hosted by Jock McGinty, EFPTA Vice President and England & Wales rep, at his school, Watford Boys Grammar School. It was so good to be able to meet in person again! Representatives from Denmark, England, Germany, Finland, Scotland and Sweden took part, with several other country reps able to join remotely. Mairi Rice was welcomed as new Scotland rep. A busy Agenda included planning for the spring 2023 webinar, the next Board meeting in April to be hosted by our Sweden rep in Stockholm, and preliminary planning for EFPTA 2024 conference in Helsinki. Watch this space for more news of these events!  



EFPTA Newsletter 2020 is published!

You'll find a great mixture of articles, news and reports of events of interest to psychology teachers. Thanks to all contributors - who are psychology teachers and researchers from across Europe - and thanks to new Editor, Jock McGinty (England / Wales representative), taking over from Jackie Moody (Luxembourg). Enjoy!

Documents and Resources

EFPTA Newsletter 2020



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 - Samtöksálfræðioguppeldisfræðikennara. 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!

Conference presentations 


Documents and Resources

Conference Programme

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 poster

Download the full programme including abstracts and biographies

EFPTA 10th Anniversary slide show

Presentation: Study Skills Day at Eira High School, Finland - Teija Jokinen-Luopa

Workshop:Teachers & students working together - Teija Jokinen-Luopa

Presentation: Developing students' psychological thinking - Lenka Sokolová & Miroslava Lemešová, Slovakia

Climate Change in the Classroom: how can psychology teaching contribute to environmental education and learning for sustainability?

Presenters' contact details



Psychology in high schools - national reports, UK and USA

Two major national psychologists’ associations – the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the American Psychological Association (APA) recently published reports on pre-tertiary psychology – use the links to find them:

BPS The Future of A-Level Psychology (2013)

 

APA National Standards for Psychology High School Curricula (2011) 

 

APA Guidelines for Preparing High School Psychology Teachers (2012)

Documents and Resources

BPS The Future of A-Level Psychology (2013)



Psychology - a contribution for EU policy making. EFPA conference at European Parliament, 9 Nov 2011

The European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), to whom EFPTA is affiliated, invited Members of the European Parliament (from all EU countries), and representatives of psychologists' organisations and institutions, to an awareness-raising event held on 9 November 2011 in Brussels. The theme of the event was "What can psychology do for Europe?", and input was wide-ranging, focusing on the contributions psychology can make to policy and action in areas such as health, education, employment, justice, and so on. EFPTA President Renate Schrempf presented information on pre-tertiary psychology education (PTPE), emphasising its benefits, both for individual students, and for society in general through raising the level of psychological literacy. Udo Kittler (EFPTA Secretary) and Dorothy Coombs (EFPTA Vice-President) also attended the event. In his keynote talk, EFPA President Prof. Robert Roe emphasised the importance of teaching psychology in schools - click on the link below for his presentation.


More information on EFPA: www.efpa.eu

Documents and Resources

Presentation by EFPA President Prof. Robert Roe



EFPTA presentation at EuroPlat Conference, Vilnius, 30 June 2012

At the 2012 EuroPlat Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, EFPTA research was presented in poster format, by Hans Reijnierse, former President of EFPTA. The poster reported qualitative research into availability of teacher education and professional development for psychology teachers at pre-tertiary level in eight European countries, and teachers' satisfaction with such provision. See the poster here.



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.

 



EFPTA meets EFPA, August 2011

Our federation is affiliated to the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), whose members are the professional psychologists' associations in 35 EU countries. On 25 August 2011, our links with EFPA were strengthened when EFPTA President, Renate Schrempf, and Vice-President, Dorothy Coombs, were warmly welcomed at a meeting with EFPA representatives at their headquarters in Brussels. As a result, the EFPA President was invited to participate in an awareness-raising event for Members of the European Parliament, to be held on 9 November 2011 in Brussels. The theme of the event is "What can psychology do for Europe?", and it is anticipated that input will be wide-ranging, and focused on the contributions psychology can make to policy and action in areas such as health, education, employment, justice, and so on. EFPTA's contribution to the event will highlight the fact that psychology teaching in schools can make a difference in virtually all aspects of society, through promoting psychological literacy in our young people. 



EFPTA research poster presented at British Psychological Society 2011 Annual Conference, Glasgow

Findings of research into teacher training for psychology was presented at the British Psychological Society conference in Glasgow on 5th May 2011. 


The EFPTA research team comprises Renate Schrempf (Germany), Dorothy Coombs (England), Morag Williamson (Scotland) and Lenka Sokolová (Slovakia). Since 2009 they have conducted research into various aspects of psychology education (PTPE) in Europe, including curriculum and assessment of psychology courses in eight countries where psychology is taught at secondary school level. The latest stage of EFPTA research - a qualitative study of training and professional development for psychology teachers - was showcased at the BPS 2011 Annual Conference, which is the biggest UK event for psychologists. Morag Williamson (pictured) presented the research poster to a range of delegates from different psychology professions and various countries. Find details of the research and download the poster here .


The conference also, for the first time, featured a number of sessions of relevance to PTPE teachers, and provided these at modest fees for teachers, as well as scheduling the sessions to fit in with teaching commitments. "This support for PTPE from a national psychologists' association - BPS - is very welcome", commented Morag.

Documents and Resources

Research poster: PTPE in Europe - a survey of approaches to ITE and CPD



EFPTA poster launched at London meeting, October 2010

At the EFPTA event in London on 29 – 30 October 2010, Dorothy Coombs (UK) and Morag Williamson (Scotland) presented a poster telling you everything you ever wanted to know about EFPTA.


It is printed on A1 size paper, and is intended for display at conferences, training events, in schools and colleges etc. All EFPTA members are encouraged to download the poster and display it as much as possible, to increase awareness of the Federation amongst colleagues, across Europe.


You can either get it printed yourself (cost about 20-40 euros), or you can simply display it using a beamer /data projector – it is a single Powerpoint slide, saved in PDF format. Or, here is another way of using the poster: ATP, the UK psychology teachers’ association, printed it as a centre-page spread, A3 size, in their members’ magazine, ‘ATP Today’.


The poster is in English, but you can edit the slide, for example  you can translate it into another language, add your own association’s contact details etc; use the "Contact Us" link to contact Morag if you want the Powerpoint version, or would like help to edit it.

Documents and Resources

EFPTA poster

EFPTA poster - Guidance for users