Dr Aris Terzopoulis

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Psychology, mostly teaching developmental and educational psychology content. I am one of the Course leaders of the MSc Psychology and I also lead the Lifespan Development Year 3 module and the Educational Psychology in Practice module for the MSc Applied Child Psychology course. I enjoy teaching our students and ensuring they have the best student experience and I enjoy researching and knowledge exchange with non-academics and communities.  

Academic expertise

My expertise is on how children learn to read and write, what are the challenges they face and how we can support them effectively. I am very interested in understanding the challenges bilingual children face, particularly those that learn English as a second language, how they feel, what are the cognitive processes they use and how the two languages are represented in their mind.

I have developed word databases for monolingual and bilingual children that help them with learning the spellings of the words and the pronunciations. Equally, I am very passionate about researching how children with learning challenges, like children with Dyslexia, learn to read and write, and how we can support them effectively not only with their academic achievement but also with their emotional wellbeing. My research expands to young bilinguals adults and adults with dyslexia, in an effort to build new inclusive models of assessment and support for them.

Industry Connections

I work closely with schools, teachers and special needs coordinators in the West Midlands and the Southwest of England and local dyslexia associations. We co-design materials to support children, we create intervention strategies, we discuss how we can apply psychological theory in practice. We inform teachers of the newest research evidence and we provide the school with resources to support children that are practical but also evidence-based.  

Student Achievements

Our students become graduate members of the British Psychological Society. This allowed many of them to pursue a career as a Chartered member, for example they have gone on to study a Doctorate in Clinical, Counselling or Educational Psychology, or a further Masters degree in a chartered area like Forensic, Occupational or Health Psychology. Many of our students have chosen to change career, for example they have gone on to study a PhD and become a researcher, or work for the civil service, for human resources or in schools, as teachers. Others have used their degree with us to apply for promotions, for example, to become a headteacher, or to apply for a different job role in their provision or company where they can apply the psychological knowledge they have gained.