Profile

Biography

My first degree was in psychology. I then completed a PGCE, and taught mathematics in a London comprehensive school. I then completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge on the topic of teacher stress. My teaching focuses on psychological aspects of teaching and learning in schools. I am a Professor in Educational Psychology and am currently the PhD Programme Leader.

Research

Overview

I am particularly interested in researching aspects of effective teaching, the experience of being a teacher, pupil learning and pupil motivation.

Research group(s)

• Psychology in Education Research Centre (PERC)

Supervision

Recent PhD studies I have supervised include research on the following topics:

• teachers' job satisfaction and motivation
• teachers' professional development
• teachers' instructional quality
• pupil motivation
• beginning teachers’ expectations
• pupils coping with a bereavement
• child protection
• gifted pupils
• school exclusions
• bullying

Publications

Selected publications

See also Publications 2011

I have published four books: Effective Teaching in Schools, Essential Teaching Skills, Helping Troubled Pupils, and Stress-busting for Teachers. My recent journal papers have paid particular attention to aspects of effective teaching, pupil motivation and the experience of being a teacher. These include the following:

Kyriacou, C., & Uhlemann, A. (2011). Swiss student-teachers' views of social pedagogy. Pastoral Care in Education, 29(1), 25-33.

Kyriacou, C. (2010). Japanese high school teachers’ views on pupil misbehaviour. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 18(3), 245-259.

Kyriacou, C., & Ortega Martin, J. L. (2010). Beginning secondary school teachers’ perceptions of pupil misbehaviour in Spain. Teacher Development, 14(4), 415.426.

Kyriacou. C. (2009). The five dimension of social pedagogy within schools. Pastoral Care in Education, 27(2), 101-108

Kyriacou, C., Ellingsen, I.T., Stephens, P., & Sundaram, V. (2009). Social pedagogy and the teacher: England and Norway compared. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 17(1), 75-87.

Kyriacou, C. (2008). Shanghai pupils’ motivation towards learning English and the perceived influence of important others. Educational Studies, 34(2), 97-104.

Kyriacou, C., Avramidis, E., Hoie, H., Hultgren, A., & Stephens, P. (2007). The development of student teachers’ views on pupil misbehaviour during an initial teacher training programme in England and Norway. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33(3), 293-307.

Kyriacou, C., & Goulding, M. (2007). Researching classroom activities to raise secondary school pupils’ motivational effort in mathematics. Psychology of Education Review, 31(1), 34-40.

Kyriacou, C., & Kunc, R. (2007). Beginning teachers’ expectations of teaching, Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(8), 1246-1257.

External activities

Memberships

I am a member of the American Educational Research Association, the British Educational Research Association, the British Psychological Society, and the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.

Consultancy

I have recently conducted four systematic reviews of the literature on aspects of mathematics teaching and learning in schools for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

International Links

I am involved in conducting comparative studies of teaching and teacher education in England and Norway, in collaboration with the University of Stavanger (Norway).

Invited talks and conferences

I presented a paper on my on-going research project looking at student teachers’ attitudes towards social pedagogy in England, Norway and Switzerland, at a meeting in May 2010 of the European Network for the Understanding of Social Pedagogy hosted by the University of London Thomas Coram Research Unit. The network currently comprises researchers in ten European countries.  Emerging findings indicate that student teachers seem to view their ‘social pedagogic role’ in terms of intervening with ‘traditional’ problematic behaviour  (e.g. poor progress in literacy and numeracy and involvement in bullying either as a bully or as a victim) and appear to give less attention to their wider role in terms of care and welfare.