. Developmental Psychology Teaching

Analysis of Undergraduate Courses Syllabi

Abstract

Developmental psychology is a core area in psychologists’ training. Distinct ways of organizing the content of mandatory courses in the undergraduate curriculum may reflect characteristics, needs, and trends in the teaching of human development. This study aimed to analyze Developmental Psychology (DP) syllabi of Psychology undergraduate courses at Brazilian federal universities. We located 147 syllabi in 58 curricula from 45 universities and conducted two thematic analyzes (TA) over the contents of the syllabi: codebook TA and reflective TA. Results showed that the courses mostly present core concepts of human development, mention theories without highlighting authors, organize contents in stages and domains of development, deal with them theoretically, rarely add practical activities to didactics or evaluation, emphasize learning processes, and timidly include aging studies. On the other hand, they tend not to address an interdisciplinary view of the area, nor the relationships with the professional practice of the future psychologist, the school context in the study of human development, the approximation of scientific findings in research, the study of atypical development, cultural aspects, and contemporary topic to social organization. The discussion contextualizes the teaching of DP in Brazil and suggests ways to update syllabi and curricula.