About Doctorate of Applied Educational Psychology (Professional Training), Other Doctorate - at University of Nottingham
The School of Psychology at Nottingham offers exciting prospects for the future of educational, organisational and child psychology. In a time of rapid social change, the problem-solving approach of the course equips our educational psychologists in training (EPiTs) to respond enthusiastically and creatively to the future; even more important, we are confident that through their training they will be in a position to contribute to future developments of Educational Psychology Service, Integrated Childrens Services and Local Authority (LA) policies at the strategic school, teacher and pupil level.
The new Doctorate in Applied Educational Psychology (Professional Training) is offered from September 2006. It is in the process of gaining final confirmation by the University of Nottingham and accreditation from the British Psychological Society.
The Nottingham course possesses a number of unique characteristics that combine to provide a distinctive, forward-looking and high quality of professional preparation. These derive from the location of the course within a School ofPsychology with a well-merited international reputation for research and innovation. The department was awarded a maximum score of 24 points in its most recent Teaching Quality Assessment, and a rating of 5A in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. Also, in May 2003, the Times newspaper produced a league table of Psychology Departments in British universities, based on a number of criteria, and ranked Nottingham first out of 83 Psychology Departments nationwide, followed by Cambridge and then Oxford. This is cemented by strong working relationships with surrounding LEAs that have made national contributions to discussions of special educational needs policy and the organisation and function of Educational Psychology Services.
Not surprisingly, we believe that a course of applied training is part of a broader perspective of professional development, which we do not see as culminating when EPiTs graduate. Therefore we take the opportunity within the training course to model some of the techniques and approaches that appropriately reflect adult learning and to provide trainees with direct experience of methods to use in their subsequent professional practice. Thus the course is delivered by means of seminars, lectures and private study as well as incorporating jointly developed and delivered workshops for pupils and teachers, simulation activities and experiential learning. The range of individual learning styles among EPiTs is acknowledged and individual tutorials attempt to mesh these into the overall pattern of the course. Finally, our deliberate aim is to keep the course numbers relatively small in order to maintain quality, facilitate learning, and ensure team ownership of the learning.
