TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY:
VIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

One of the earliest quests for international standards of education and professional training in psychology occurred less than two decades ago (Nixon, 1990). It was pointed out that education and professional practice in psychology occur in an international context, yet international standards of education and professional training were not established.

In this presentation I will give the retrospective of research in the area of psychology teaching from international perspective, summarize the current tendencies, and predict the international perspectives in the field.

1. International endeavors continue in various areas of psychology. Interest for internationalization in academic psychology is a long-standing one, while psychology as a profession as well as the teaching of psychology tended to internationalize only in recent years. We can see the evidence of this trend in the number of publications on the topic, international comparative projects and conferences. As a result, much more information than ever before is available about teaching psychology around the globe. Even though this picture is still incomplete, we may infer some perspectives and draw some conclusions about internationalization in this field, as listed below:

2. It appears that, at present, teaching of psychology in various countries is mostly national in terms of structure and methods of teaching, but more international in terms of curriculum and content.

3. Multilevel teaching of psychology is becoming a more prevalent trend in many countries.

4. Diversity of psychology courses and popularity of applied psychology course are growing internationally.

5. Psychology curriculum development internationally has a lot in common.

(a) fundamental (basic or core) psychology,
(b) research methods and statistics,
(c) applied psychology, and
(d) placement and service learning, constitute four basic components of psychology education.

6. Psychology education throughout the globe traditionally strives for the highest scientific standards of teaching in an academic sense. This training strategy has been challenged by growing demands for psychological practitioners prepared to enter professional work in schools and clinics, in private practice and in industry, so specialized science-practitioner curricula have also been set up at many universities all over the world.

In conclusion, it is not always easy to understand the ways in which psychology is taught in countries other than one’s own

Some features of one’s own system which originated historically and which have become habitual, accepted and respected, appear not to be so acceptable when there are opportunities for evaluation and reform. Moreover, when teachers and researchers feel greater esteem and self-confidence, they tend to question the status quo. They have an opportunity to take a fresh look at familiar practices. At first glance, the system of teaching psychology in another country may seem a little bit strange simply because it is less familiar and not so habitual. But in any case, I believe that new ideas in education are very often born out of the merging of paths and views across systems. These are the benefits and promises of continuing our international endeavours in the teaching of psychology.

Back to index of presentations