PREFACE

This book is intended to be an overview of teaching and learning psychology internationally, including papers that demonstrate the current state of international psychological research and practice. It updates and supplements Teaching Psychology around the World, Volume 1, which was released by CSP in 2007. Additional countries from several continents are included, and several chapters on the changing status of the internationalization of psychology teaching are included. In this volume, each of the continents is represented by a well-known psychologist from that area of the world, who took responsibility for updates and served as editor for the papers presented at our conference in St. Petersburg from that part of the world. The authors have all served or will serve on scientific and/or organizing committees in one or more of the series of International Conferences on Psychology Education (ICOPE) which began in Russia during June, 2002. Teaching Psychology around the World, Volume 1 included papers from the 2nd International Conference on Psychology Education held in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil in July, 2005. This book, like that one, disseminates information about good practice and covers many aspects of teaching, including curriculum, planning, activities and assessment practices from countries throughout the world. Useful papers from many areas of applied psychology that may be of interest to both teachers and students of psychology, as well as practicing psychologists, that were presented at the St. Petersburg, Russia conference during July, 2008 are included. The aim of the book is to provide up-to-date coverage of key areas of psychological research which have relevance to psychology education in a manner that is both technically accurate and readily understandable. The book incorporates research and perspectives from psychologists and professors from many countries throughout the world. It also includes information about the growing internationalization of psychology teaching, and future plans. We will be meeting again during 2010, in Melbourne, Australia and in South Africa during 2012. That will have connected our group both virtually and physically to 4 continents since our beginning only a few years ago. This is an exciting time for those of us involved in teaching psychology and training psychologists.

A key feature of this book, as with the last, is its international perspective on psychology teaching and learning.  The authors have extensive experience teaching using many mediums, including interactive television, web-courses, distance seminars and traditional lecture courses in many countries, including Russia, Brazil, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Romania, Malaysia, Mexico, the U.S., the UK and throughout Europe. We draw on these extensive experiences in synthesizing the material gathered here. The papers were contributed by noted psychologists and professors of psychology from throughout the world, selected from those presented at the conference. Although all of the authors collaboratively shared knowledge in refining the chapters throughout, we each took specific responsibility for designated chapters most related to our own expertise. Charles Brewer, who has been a part of the evolution of our teaching group since the inception, wrote the North American chapter in this volume, focusing on the changes in undergraduate education related to internationalization within the U.S. Michael Stevens, former President of APA Division 52, International Psychology, wrote about how professional organizations contribute to the growing internationalization of the discipline. Michael is also among the first professors in the U.S. to teach a course in International Psychology, and he also wrote a chapter providing his insights on that. Annie Trapp, a leader in the EUROPLAT project and a long-time leader in psychology education within the UK updated our chapter on Europe. William Gomes, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil co-wrote  the section on university-level psychology teaching along with long-time psychology teacher-of-teachers par excellence, Wilbert McKeachie. Dr. Gomes has extensive teaching and research experience in this area and recently served on a federal government committee for curricular reform for training Brazilian psychologists. He spent his last sabbatical at the University of Michigan in the U.S., broadening his familiarity of teaching practices with Bill McKeachie Victor Karandashev, the organizer of the first International Conference on Psychology Education in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2002 and a driving force behind the continuing success of the international conferences on psychology teaching and learning contributed his vision for the future of international psychology, wrote the introductory chapter for this volume. Dr.  Jas Jaafar, Past President of the Asian Psychological Association and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology (where psychology is housed) at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur updated the section on Asia. Dr. Jaafar was educated in psychology in the UK. Dr. Kate Moore of Darwin University in Australia, active in many national and international psychology associations and with a wealth of international experiences, updated the chapter on Australia. Dr. Andrew Thatcher added current information about more African countries and updated the information in our previous volume on Africa and the Mid-East and did an excellent job editing and presenting the work of his South African colleagues. I wrote the section on teaching on-line, and also edited the text throughout, along with Amanda Millar, our helpful editor and typesetter at Cambridge Scholars Press, for the sake of accuracy, clarity and consistency. I would like to thank all of the many contributors for sharing their expertise. We hope this series will continue to be a valuable source of information to all psychologists, and to all teachers of psychology, regardless of level and subject, in countries around the globe. We also hope it will continue to bring all of us closer together in making psychology a discipline which transcends national boundaries and better serves all of mankind as we share this fragile planet.