Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Teaching Psychology in Germany 6th International Conference on Psychology Education; Flagstaff 2014 Birgit Spinath Heidelberg University Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam University Education in Germany - vast majority of universities are owned and financed by the 16 federal states - quality differences between universities are rather small - no tuition fees Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam University Education in Germany - major change came with Bologna Process - degrees changed from diploma to bachelor and master - typical bachelor’s degree: 3 years - typical master’s degree: 2 years Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Psychology as a Major - about 50 psychology departments across Germany provide both bachelor and master psychology programs - typical size of a psychology major bachelor cohort: 100 students - master cohorts typically a little smaller; most departments aspire to have as many master students as they have bachelor students - almost all bachelor programs cover the full range of basic and applied sub-disciplines (in accordance with DGPs recommendations) - most master programs have some kind of specialization but are still broad enough to grant the degree “Master of Psychology” - almost all students aspire a master’s degree Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Psychology as a Minor - although psychology is a very popular minor, departments usually accept only few psychology minor students Psychology in Teacher Education - Psychology is an important part in pre-service teacher education - almost all pre-service teacher students take psychology courses - the number of psychology courses they have to take varies across federal states Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Quality of Psychology Teaching - the quality of psychology teaching is considered to be high - almost all professors have both research and teaching obligations - a lot of the teaching is done by professors (as well as by post-docs and doctoral students) Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Quality of Psychology Teaching - strong connection between research and teaching; students often become involved with ongoing research projects early in their bachelor programs - all programs undergo both university internal (evaluation) and external (accreditation) quality assurance processes - university instructors have options to attend courses to improve their teaching but they are not obliged to do so Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Employability of Psychology Students - in Germany, academics have a very low unemployment rate - among academics in Germany, psychology graduates have one of the lowest unemployment rates - the majority of students work in the clinical and health sector - other major fields of work are counselling, training, quality management, personnel management and development Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Who are Our Psychology Students? - Psychology is a very popular major - e.g., at Heidelberg University, we have more than applicants for 90 bachelor places - students are highly selected (main criterion: school GPA) - students have both high cognitive ability and strong motivation to learn about psychology - students graduate with very good grades - about 1/3 of the master graduates continues to do a Ph.D. Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Upcoming Changes in the Teaching of Psychology in Germany - the German ministry of health wants study programs of clinical psychology to end with the license to practice as a clinical psychologist (like for medical doctors) - to this end, special master programs in clinical psychology and psychotherapy have to be designed - these programs will be much more specialized than most master programs today and they will contain a high portion of practical courses Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Anticipated Dangers of Specialized Clinical Master Programs - programs that lead to one special profession provide a less broad and less scientific education (because of the high practical shares they need to include) - unity of psychology as a discipline endangered - many non-clinical psychologists cannot or do not want to teach in purely clinical study programs - it is difficult to estimate how many students will want to study in these specialized clinical programs and how many will be interested in different psychology programs (question of resources for different programs) Psychology Teaching in Germany

Answering open questions to prepare for an exam Psychology Teaching in Germany Time for Questions and Discussion