The teaching of psychology in the context of the Brazilian university

The current article aims to describe the policies and practices related to improving the teaching skills of professionals offering psychology courses in secondary school and higher education in Brazil. We first present an overview of the teacher training process, as it was adopted in this country. We also present quantitative data about professionals' ongoing teaching activities, as well as data on the number of undergraduate and graduate programs available in various administrative categories, and in various geographic regions in Brazil. In addition, we discuss public and private policies that have had an impact on efforts to improve the quality of psychology teaching in Brazil. We conclude with some comments and suggestions, based on national literature, regarding steps that could be taken in Brazil to make further progress in promoting excellence in the teaching of psychology. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Societe francaise de psychologie.