How do primary education trainee teachers perceive educational psychology?

Educational Psychology makes a significant contribution to the development of skills to research the effectivity of teacher practices in class. However, there is little agreement on what educational psychology concepts are most relevant for teacher training. This paper reports on trainee teachers’ self-perceived mastery of, and attributed importance to, the syllabus content of the Learning & Development module taken as part of the BA Primary Education programme at a university in Barcelona (Spain). Data were collected through a questionnaire answered by all the participants (N = 561) and a focused interview conducted with a representative sample (n = 24). Results showed that students attributed greater importance to syllabus topics related to socio-emotional development and teaching roles in the classroom. Theoretical topics, such as conceptual frameworks for development and learning, were less rated. Students reported deficient mastery of the syllabus topics and significant gaps between attributed importance and self-perceived mastery of contents were confirmed. Implications of our study results for teaching psychology to primary school pre-service teachers are discussed.