Introduction of the Department of School and Educational Psychology

The Department of School and Educational Psychology focuses on providing professional support to educational institutions, kindergartens, and schools by combining professional training, research, and practical activities.

The aim of school psychology work is to strengthen the psychological well-being of children and students, to prevent and treat learning, behavioral, and integration difficulties, to create optimal conditions for student performance, and to develop mentally supportive and safe school communities.

The department's educational activities are carried out at several levels of training. We teach psychology and school psychology subjects at the undergraduate (BA in Psychology) and master's levels, and we play a key role in the implementation of the school psychology profile of the MA in Counseling and School Psychology program, in both Hungarian and English. The master's program specialization is primarily aimed at training professionals working in the field who have up-to-date diagnostic and counseling methodological competencies for working with clients of different ages. Graduates can find employment primarily in institutions working in the fields of kindergarten and school psychology, educational counseling, career counseling, and life and crisis counseling.

At the postgraduate level, the department offers a specialist training program in educational psychology, which prepares professional psychologists for work in school and kindergarten psychology and child protection. The program has a history of more than three decades and plays a key role in the training of school psychologists at the national level.

The department plays a key role in teacher training: it teaches basic and applied psychology courses to teacher training students, and coordinates the training of special education teachers. Some of our instructors also participate in doctoral training and teach courses in other departments.

We supplement our educational activities with active research, involving PhD students. Our research focuses on the development and functioning of cognitive abilities, the psychological well-being of students, the phenomenon of online bullying, the development of social relationships and emotional and social skills, and the psychological conditions for effective teaching and learning. The Cognitive Abilities Research Group operates within the Department, you can read more about its work here: https://coglab.eu/  In addition to the major research areas, there are also a number of smaller, applied-focused studies.

The department also performs national professional tasks: it coordinates the work of the National School Psychology Methodology Base, which serves the methodological development, professional support, and network cooperation of school psychology services.