Topics in School Psychology

Course Code (in greek): ΨΧ9010

ECTS Units: 5

Semester: 6

Professor: Dermitzaki Irini

Course material

Course description

The course deals with essential topics and the main principles and methods of School Psychology and their applications in the classroom. Discussion of applied topics, elaboration of case studies, and short individual and group exercises in the classroom are included. Among the topics studied are behavior management in the classroom and prevention of behavioral problems, identification behavioral and learning difficulties, psychological and psychoeducational assessment of students, school counselling and the role of teacher as facilitator of children’s development and learning, prevention programs in the school setting, etc. The course aims at facilitating student teachers to improve their knowledge and skills so that they can work on establishing the appropriate classroom conditions for students’ personal development, learning and adaptation in the school setting.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student teachers will be able to:

• explain the foundational psychological concepts and factors related with behavior management in the classroom and students’ cognitive and psychosocial adaptation in the school setting
• integrate and apply common principles of School Psychology into classroom examples anduse their knowledge and skills in order to plan and implement activities at an initial level for facilitating and supporting students facing difficulties in learning and classroom adaptation and argue on their approach
• to spot, interpret, and synthesize findings from applied research evidence in order to respond to psychoeducational problems regarding behavior and learning in the classroom

Evaluation

Written essay in groups (up to 30% or 40% of the total scoring) and final written exams (up to 60% or 70% of the total scoring)

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussion of applied topics, case studies, short individual and group exercises in the classroom, essay writing under guidance