Knowing about teacher perceptions contributes to the understanding of teachers’ attitudes toward the behavior of their students. We evaluated the perceptions of 501 teachers about the genetic and environmental influences on behaviors considered relevant to the educational environment using an original questionnaire from the United Kingdom, adapted to the Portuguese language of Brazil. We found that the teachers attributed genetic and environmental influences evenly regarding personality and learning difficulties; greater genetic influence on intelligence and mental illness; and greater environmental influence on behavioral problems. Most teachers stated that having a student with genetically influenced learning difficulties would affect their method of instructing them.

Stressful events can cause a significant impact on education; however, it is not yet clear how the interplay between anxiety, work, and social dysfunction relates to learning impairments. In this study, we investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning and mental health. This study was conducted during four modules of a remote Psychopharmacology course between 5 October and 20 December 2020. We collected data from 28 Psychology undergraduate students at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. We used pre- and post-test multiple-choice questions to obtain a quantitative measure of learning. Students completed an online survey to report demographic information, functional impairment (Work and Social Adjustment scale; WSAS), generalized anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale; GAD-7), coronavirus anxiety (Brazilian adapted version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale; CAS-BR), and self-perception with the remote lectures’ methodology. In our sample, 42.9% of respondents experienced symptoms of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD-7 ≥ 15), and 53.6% had moderate to severe functional impairment (WSAS > 20). We also observed an overlapping profile of highly anxious and dysfunctional students. A chi-square test of independence revealed a relation between pairs of multiple-choice questions answers and GAD-7 scores, indicating that less anxious students were more likely to perform better in pairs of pre- and post-tests. Intriguingly, the correlational analysis suggested that students with moderate to severe functional impairment (WSAS scores > 20) were less likely to change from an incorrect to a correct answer to pairs of pre- and post-tests. This data suggests that psychological distress and anxiety states might influence students’ ability to coordinate social and work activities and performance during remote learning. Although this study evaluated a small sample of students, our data highlights the importance of investigating anxiety and functional impairment measures as part of the remote-learning curriculum.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the student's perception about the skills acquired with the Problem Based Learning (PBL) methodology in two subjects, which belong to the undergraduate course in Psychology of a public university in the interior of the state of São Paulo. This study has a quantitative nature with an exploratory and cross-sectional design. Thirty-one undergraduates from 19 to 27 years of age participated in an online self-report questionnaire that asked them about the retention of knowledge, the development of study skills and critical reflection, the formulation and comparison of diagnostic possibilities, the application of knowledge in professional practice and the possibility of applying the PBL in any discipline. The study is justified due to the current challenge for higher education in Psychology to improve effective teaching practices that result in the development of skills to apply knowledge critically and dynamically, stimulating an active attitude towards their own learning process. The exploratory descriptive analyzes indicated a positive perception of the students in several aspects related to the application of the PBL method and the inferential analyzes showed that the course taken can influence this perception. It is concluded that the initiative given with the subjects of the Psychology course expresses the potential of the method for the development of significant learning in students.

A educação a distância, associada ao uso das tecnologias da informação e da comunicação, é uma forma viável de promover a extensão universitária. Tal ação colabora para desenvolver novas formas de ensinar, de aplicar estratégias de ensino e gera dados para compreensão de tais questões, contemplando, assim, os três grandes objetivos da universidade: docência, pesquisa e extensão. O presente trabalho, de natureza descritiva, visa apresentar a produção de um projeto de extensão universitária como possibilidade de aproximação entre universidade e sociedade a partir do processo de criação de cursos de difusão científica de temas de um Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicobiologia. O processo envolveu a escolha das áreas e conteúdos dos cursos, do público-alvo, ambiente virtual de aprendizagem e das formas de divulgação. Foram estruturados quatro cursos, sendo que um deles foi realizado e contou com a participação de 81 alunos. Concluímos que o processo de criação da proposta fomentou habilidades docentes da equipe e que os cursos se configuram como potenciais formas de extensão universitária e divulgação científica. A obtenção de dados dos participantes dos cursos poderá embasar estudos futuros.