Psychology Teacher: Job Profile and Role

Have you always been fascinated by the human mind? Has, therefore, psychology always been one of your interests? In this case, you may be thinking about teaching others your knowledge about psychology and in which ways it may be use- and helpful. Therefore, the job as a psychology teacher might be the perfect fit for you.

In this blog, you will find out all there is to know about the job of a psychology teacher. You will get your first information about the expected annual salaries and your future employers. You will also find out which skills and qualifications are typically required. To give you an idea of a day in the life of a psychology teacher, we continue with three tasks a psychology teacher performs daily. Last, but not least, you receive important tips for your continuous learning and for thriving as a psychology teacher.

Short Summary

• As a psychology teacher, you are responsible for teaching your students about psychology, its history, and the way psychology is applied to help people today.
• As a psychology teacher, you are responsible for encouraging critical thinking and raising your students’ curiosity to learn about psychology, both in and outside of school hours.
• As a psychology teacher, you are responsible for providing support and mentorship for your students. This can be done in personal office hours or meetings with other staff and the parents.

Job description

It is your job as a psychology teacher to impart your psychology knowledge in a way that is both compliant with national teaching regulations and encourages your students’ curiosity in the subject. It is also your job as a psychology teacher to provide support and mentorship to your students, regardless of their education levels or needs. As a psychology teacher, you are in charge of planning curricula and lessons, setting homework and exams, and assessing and grading. It is also your job as a psychology teacher to spend time on your personal and professional development which ensures that you continue to be a brilliant psychology teacher.

Responsibilities

• Providing Mentorship
• Mediating and Liaising
• Research and Scholarship
• Nurturing Healthy Curiosity
• Outreach and Engagement
• Planning/Delivering Lessons
• Moral Codes and Behaviours
• Effective Formative Feedback
• Creative Learning Environment
• Monitoring/Assessing Progress

Different types of Psychology Teachers

• Chartered Psychologist
• A Level Psychology Teacher
• Clinical Psychology Educator
• Educational Psychology Practitioner
• Higher Education Psychology Lecturer

Salary

As a full-time psychology teacher in the UK, your annual salary can start at ￡31,000. Note that the more work experience you have, the higher your annual salary will be. Here, you can expect to be paid considerably more. Your annual wages can come in at around ￡43,000. If you start as a teaching assistant, you should be aware that you will only get paid around ￡17,400 per year. Your salary as a psychology teacher is furthermore affected by the employing institution and its location.

Working hours

As a psychology teacher, you can work 20 and 37 hours a week. Your working hours highly depend on your future job. Say you work in a school. In this case, you will work 37 hours a week which you do during the normal school operating times from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. As a university lecturer, you tend to work fewer hours. Here, you typically teach between 12 and 20 hours.

Note that both examples come with additional working time which tends not to be paid overtime. As a psychology teacher – whether you work at a school, a university, or another institution – you should always factor in time for the preparation of lessons, assessing, grading, and research. This can easily add another 10 hours or more to your weekly working hours.

Employers

As a psychology teacher, you can find employment in various educational institutions, including primary and secondary schools, specialist colleges, LEAs (local education authorities), and universities. Other employment options can be training and development organisations, research institutions, tutoring/private education businesses, and online learning institutions.

Qualifications

The first qualification you need to become a psychology teacher is your General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Generally, you need to have between four and five GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including Maths and English, to enter further education. Alternatively, you can start at university, for example, with the equivalent A-Levels which should include psychology, biology, and chemistry. 

Further qualifications include your QTS (qualified teacher status) and possibly your PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education). As a psychology teacher, you will also be asked to undergo a DBS (disclosure and barring service) check.

Skills

As a psychology teacher, you should have a wide range of soft skills, including excellent communication and interpersonal skills. As a psychology teacher, you should also be an analytical thinker with strong attention to detail. These skills are valuable skills to have since they will help you perform a good job as a psychology teacher. However, we recommend that you check the required competencies when reading job posts. Even though the mentioned skills are important, your future employer may require a different skill set. 

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence should be a skill you have when you want to become a psychology teacher. It helps you to read your students, so to speak. It also helps you to step into their shoes and see things from their perspective. With this, you can understand them better, including their needs and expectations. 

Active Listening

Your emotional intelligence should go hand in hand with active listening. This enables you to hear even the most minuscule thing, even if it is said between the lines and, therefore, not verbalised. This skill is important to understand and help your students when it comes to potential struggles, their needs, and expectations.

Empathy

Lastly, you should be empathetic if you want to work as a psychology teacher. Not all of your students will grasp the things you are trying to teach them equally well. Some might even struggle to follow your lessons or are unhappy with their term performance. With lots of empathy, you will be able to help them address their issues and overcome them with you.

Career Path

You step onto your career path as a psychology teacher by completing your education. After that, you should finish your SCITT (school-centred initial teacher training) to gain your QTS (qualified teacher status) and/or PGCE (postgraduate certificate in education). After that, you start your first job as a psychology teacher. After a few years, you have gained sufficient work experience to look into more responsible teaching positions, such as the head of the psychology department or the head of the school. Alternatively, you can look into different sectors, for example, companies that are looking for psychological support for their employees or lecturing at a university.

Educational Background

Like most future psychology teachers, you may decide to approach your career through a university course and degree. Typically, you finish your studies with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in psychology. Also, you can earn a Bachelor in Education (BEd). This is one of the undergraduate degrees that sets you up for doing your qualified teacher status (QTS) which is mandatory if you want to teach psychology at a British state school. 

Aside from doing a university degree, you can also complete the necessary (preliminary) education by completing a college course or, for example, a Teacher Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship. The advantage of an apprenticeship is that in the 12 months it takes to complete it, you also do your first practical teaching.

Teacher Training

The next step that brings you closer to becoming a psychology teacher in the UK is doing your SCITT (school-centred initial teacher training). Typically, the SCITT takes about a year to complete and precedes the earning of your QTS and/or your PGCE. 

Continuous Learning

Continuous learning is par for the course for any teaching job. It is therefore something you, as a future psychology teacher, should keep in mind. One way to continuously learn is to join professional associations, for example, the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). These associations can grant you access to conferences, research, and the latest publications in the psychology field.

Costs and Funding of PGCE and further Qualifications

Becoming a psychology teacher in the UK can be a bit of a conundrum for you. You need the relevant qualifications but unfortunately, they come at a price. Earning your PGCE, for example, typically costs ￡9,000. However, you can look into several funding options, for example, bursaries and scholarships. If you are eligible, you are granted tax-free funds that help you finance your further psychology teacher education and qualifications.

A Day in the Life of a Psychology Teacher

After a fairly early start, you begin your day as a psychology teacher. Needless to say, you should enjoy a strong cup of coffee or tea and a nourishing breakfast before you head towards your teaching institution. Here, you are typically asked to perform various daily tasks, three of which we will take a closer look at now. 

(Note that your daily tasks may vary depending on your employment and your employer’s regulations and expectations).

Office Hours

Granted, office hours tend to be a task of university lecturers and not necessarily of school teachers. However, you may well decide to work at a university. Therefore, office hours will be part of your weekly workload. Generally, you offer personal meetings with and support for your students once or twice a week. Even though you tend to have fixed office hours, they can extend beyond the given end times. Also, your office hours usually take place before, between, or after classes.

Research and Professional Development

Research and professional development will be two things you should always spend time on – whether you work in a school or academia. Research helps you to stay on top of the latest findings in psychology, new teaching methods, and digital tools that you can use advantageously in the classroom. Your professional development can further your career chances and also help with becoming and being a better psychology teacher.

Teaching Sessions

We conclude this section with the most obvious daily task in a day in the life of a psychology teacher: teaching sessions. If you work at a school, you typically teach several classes in the morning, with a short break in between classes. More classes follow after lunch; they tend to fill the time till school ends at 3:30 p.m. If you work at a university, your teaching sessions might take place at different times, starting in the morning and finishing in the early evening.

Tips for Thriving as a Psychology Teacher

Every professional should strive to thrive – this also applies to you as a future psychology teacher. Be it a personal development plan that outlines which qualifications you want to achieve within a set timeframe or joining professional networks that can support you with tips and valuable knowledge. These things will ensure that you thrive in your chosen psychology profession.

Which other things will help you thrive is what the following section is about. We can pretty much guarantee that you will thrive with these three tips:

• Set clear objectives
• Supportive classroom environment
• Support independent learning

Set Clear Objectives

If both you and your students are to thrive, you should set clear teaching and learning objectives right from the start. Outlining what you expect of your students in the coming term – or even in each lesson – ensures that your students know what is expected of them. It also enables you to find out quickly where adjustments might be needed to meet all your students’ needs and education levels.

Supportive Classroom Environment

Teaching is not all about imparting your specialist knowledge about a subject. It is also about encouraging critical thinking -, thinking, period – in your students. However, if you see yourself as the teaching entity/fountain of all knowledge, you will never create a supportive classroom environment. Your students will listen to what you are saying but they will hardly ever ask questions or question your knowledge. If you want to thrive as a psychology teacher, the opposite needs to be true. Your classroom environment and your teaching skills need to invite questions, critical thoughts, and voicing opinions.

Support Independent Learning

Maybe you were one of the students who just could not get enough of learning, even after school. A natural curiosity and willingness to learn new things is something not every student is equally passionate about. If you want to thrive as a psychology teacher, you should encourage independent learning. Granted, not every one of your students will be enthusiastic about it. But done right, your students will respect your attempts, if nothing else.

Frequently Asked Questions