Educational Psychology, Gifted and Creative Education (PhD)

What is A Educational Psychology, Gifted and Creative Education (PhD) Degree?

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processing–the mind.  It’s a field that people really enjoy studying because what’s not to like about basically learning about you?!  The field has a very broad application, even though many people think it’s mainly about counseling people and helping them with their problems.  The field of Educational Psychology looks specifically at how people learn and use information.  Using psychological principles, Educational Psychologists figure out ways to improve the learning process for people of all ages and abilities and develop strategies that help people be more successful in their lives.

Most PhDs in the field work at universities and colleges, teaching education and psychology courses and conducting research.  In this type of a program, you will devote more than half of the time studying various elements of psychology that relate to learning and gain extensive knowledge of research design including statistical analysis of research.  The program ends with the completion of an original research study which is reported in a dissertation.

With a specialization in Gifted and Creative Education, the degree program will cover both the core elements of the assessment of gifted characteristics in children and the best practices of counseling and teaching gifted and creative students.  Candidates will then move into research and seminar work into the student’s primary area of interest—usually subjects like theories of giftedness, special populations, psychosocial skills in creative individuals, or individual differences among the gifted population. Advanced statistics and research design will also be studied in preparation for the completion and defense of the dissertation.

The videos below discuss “typical” programs, so they should help regardless of which school you are considering.