Educational and child psychologists met to draw on their experiences and promote key issues for children and young people at the British Psychological Society's Division of Educational and Child Psychology annual conference 12 - 14 January at the Hilton Hotel, Newcastle Gateshead.

Keynote speakers were- Chartered Educational and Child Psychologist Dr Phil Stringer (Principal Educational Psychologist, Hampshire Educational Psychology Service)will take a light hearted look at the parallels between a new radio presenter keeping and increasing listeners and how educational psychologists could do things differently in 'Kirsty Young did it differently and improved the listening figures for Desert Island Discs'

Chartered Educational and Child Psychologist Professor Keith Topping will take a critical look at the role of educational psychologists in 'Educational Psychologists and Research: Consumers and Producers'

Professor Topping explained: 'This presentation will explore the role of educational psychologists in relation to producers of research and in relation to the consumption of research.? Both these topics will be addressed through some concrete examples of projects which pushed the envelope.'

Dr Andrew Curran 'Forget the paradigms. What does the neurobiology tell us?'

Dr Curran said: 'Multiple scientific concepts have flourished within the field of education and have often caused confusion or slavish devotion to one at the expense of all others. But when you get down to brass tacks you find that they all have one thing in common - to emotionally engage children in learning. I will take the current knowledge of the neurobiology of learning and show how all these concepts and religiosity comes down to one neurobiological dictum: get their hearts and their minds will certainly follow.'

View the full conference programme online.

Source:
The British Psychological Society