Psychopedagogy is a combination of two main branches of study, Pedagogy and Psychology.
Some of the most influential authors in this field are Jean Piaget, Ausubel, Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky. Important contributions have also been made by Mary Warnock in the field of special education and authors such as John D. Krumboltz (DECIDES program) in the academic and professional orientation. In Spain we can highlight the works of Rafael Bisquerra, Manuel Álvarez y Jesús Alonso Tapia amongst various others.
The Psychopedagogy Degree provides students with the tools needed to take part in the different stages and all the areas of the teaching/learning process. These professionals can act on the people who take part in this teaching/learning process (children, teenagers, elderly people, families…) directly, or indirectly by designing the support material needed to make this process easier. This degree’s main objective is to enable students to elaborate and develop counselling activities and programmes to help the education community to both improve and renew educational processes and create the right conditions to carry them out. To achieve this, the Psychopedagogy Degree aims at developing academic, personal and labour skills to make educational psychologists’ tasks easier. These skills enable professionals to know, inform and take part in the educational process and to solve conflicts which may arise during its development.
The reorientation of the official discourses about education has been prominent recently. This reorientation practically affects all dimensions of the teaching system: from the debate on State responsibility for educational provision to the definition of teacher’s work. In addition, what is considered an adequate curriculum or the attention to diversity in the classroom should also be taken into account (Bonal 1998: 188). The greater emphasis on the quality of educational systems has entailed a redefinition of the equality principle. Moreover, flexibility has also become an updated topic. The theory of human capital reflected the public (social) and private (individual) confidence in the educational system in the Sixties as a factor of development and progress. This theory insisted mainly on the “quantity” of education: the better prepared the workers were, the higher work productivity and economic growth would be. However, the over-education and the unemployment of graduates implied the partial invalidation of the theory and a smaller increase of the public expenditure on education (Bonal 1998: 172). Nevertheless, the recent resurgence of education as a fundamental factor for economic growth and international competitiveness has appeared. The recovery of the economic importance of education can be observed in all educational reforms in all countries and in the reports of international agencies (Bonal 1998: 172). The main factor of change marked as responsible for this orientation is the technological, economic, social and cultural change that is taking place and that has originated the so called “society of information”. The technological revolution in information, due to its capacity for penetration into all fields of human activity, is a starting point in the analysis of the complexity of the new training economy, society and culture. However, this does not imply a new technological determinism (Castells 1999 vol. 1: 31). On the one hand, the technological revolution in information has allowed a fundamental process in the reorganization of capitalism starting in the Eighties. This has caused, among other things, new forms of work reorganization. On the other hand, the transformations of the Information Society do not only affect the economic and labour fields but also social and cultural relations and likewise power relations among social groups. Probably one of the most debated phenomena of the GRADUATES, LABOUR MARKET AND TEACHING QUALITY 17 new society is Globalization. Globalization affects all spheres and also all groups and individuals, but not equally because it generates new forms of social exclusion. What has really produced the new technological change is the rebirth of a political discourse of human capital revalorisation, the debate over the impact of new technologies on the quantity and quality of the employment generated or destroyed by them. What is doubtless, though, is the impact that the new post-Ford regulatory forms have now and will have in the future on educational systems. These are modifications that affect the four message systems of educational knowledge: curriculum, pedagogy, evaluation, and management and organization (Bonal 1998: 174–176). Educational reforms in contemporary societies can be placed in this context and likewise their discourse focused on quality and flexibility (Bonal 1998: 177).
The areas in which a Psychopedagogy graduate can work are the following:
their families.
- Training expert. - Human resources or personnel manager. - Marketing expert.
self-learning material,Counseling,Teaching, etc.).
As regards labour insertion, there are three things to consider: a) At present, the educational, psychopedagogical and professional guidance specialised services (SEOEPP) IN THE Valencian Community are the secondary school guidance departments, the school psychopedagogical services (SPE) and teams of experts. b) They can also work in non-formal educational contexts. c) Universities offer students and teachers assessment, counselling and continuous education services.