This is a collaborative course offered by the University of Maryland (UMD), the University of Thessaly in Greece, and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to explore psychological and educational research methods in a global context. Participants in this graduate and undergraduate Global Classroom will engage in hybrid (in-person and virtual) cross-cultural, project-based learning to deepen their understanding of research design, develop proposals or manuscripts, and strengthen critical thinking in the study of education and psychology. Guest lecturers from the Jacobs Foundation Research Fellows community will share their international perspectives and research in learning and child development, further enriching the global dialogue.
Terms Offered
Fall 2025
Course Details
The increasing complexity of psychological and educational challenges worldwide calls for research approaches that extend beyond national and disciplinary boundaries. Addressing issues such as educational inequities, cultural diversity, and the evaluation of interventions requires innovative and collaborative models of inquiry.
This graduate and upper-undergraduate Global Classroom course, jointly offered by the University of Maryland, the University of Thessaly (Greece), and the University of Hong Kong, is designed to provide students with an advanced exploration of psychological and educational research methods in a global context. Through hybrid (in-person and virtual) cross-cultural, project-based learning and in-person interactions with visiting professors and students from the University of Thessaly (Greece), and the University of Hong Kong, students will deepen their understanding of research content, methodologies, and contemporary issues, develop a research proposal or manuscript (such as a master’s thesis or capstone project), and strengthen scientific and critical thinking skills in research design and analysis.
Students from all participating institutions will engage in joint coursework, combining in-person sessions at their home campuses with virtual collaboration such as shared seminars and mixed-team projects. Together, they will design, evaluate, and disseminate research addressing pressing local and global inequities in education, psychology, and related fields. To enrich this global dialogue, selected researchers from the Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship Program will join the course as guest speakers, offering international perspectives and sharing cutting-edge research on learning, child development, and education across diverse contexts, such as Global South, Europe, Australia, and Asia. These sessions will provide students with the opportunity to engage directly with leading scholars whose work spans multiple countries and cultures.
The course will also examine how to conceptualize research problems and identify data sources, assess intervention integrity and measurement, evaluate the strengths and limitations of research designs, and address ethical and legal standards, cultural diversity, and professional communication. Emphasis is placed on selecting appropriate research designs and statistical procedures rather than focusing solely on specific statistical techniques. Through discussions, assignments such as diversity presentations and tip sheets, and a final paper, students will critically engage with these topics and develop the tools to contribute meaningfully to international research dialogues.
Cultural Connection
Greece and Hong Kong (China), as well as Global South, Europe, Australia, and Asia
General Education Credits
None
School/College
College of Education
Prerequisites & Restrictions
None
Faculty Highlight
Chunyan Yang
Dr. Yang’s research interests focus on understanding how school members interact with their ecological contexts to find their resilience individually and collectively when facing risks and adversities, such as bullying, teacher-targeted violence, and mental health challenges. Three central questions focused on her research agenda are: (1) how to assess and counterbalance the risks and adversities experienced by vulnerable school members as individuals, and as groups; (2) how to leverage promotive and protective factors in school and community-based interventions to alleviate the negative impacts of risks and adversities among individuals and groups in schools; and (3) how do diverse socio-cultural and demographic backgrounds of individuals and groups generate or shape risks and resilience in different ways? Grounded in the socio-ecological framework, Dr. Yang has been conducting research examining the interactive and multilevel influences of risk and resilience processes (i.e., school climate, social-emotional learning, school-wide practice, and culture norms) on human development and school organizational outcomes across individual and school levels and different school stakeholders’ perspectives. She has also used cross-cultural and multi-cultural comparison approaches to explore both culturally specific and universal patterns of risk and resilience processes among diverse school populations.
Dr. Yang received her Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in School Psychology from the University of Delaware, an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology from the University of Bristol in England, and a B.S. in Chemistry with a teaching credential from the Central China Normal University in China. Before joining UMD, Dr. Yang served as an assistant and then associate professor of school psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara (2016-2019) and the University of California Berkeley (2019-2023), respectively. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of California, she worked as a school psychologist in the district-wide Multicultural Assessment and Consultation Team in northern Colorado.
Dr. Yang's scholarship has contributed to the fields of school psychology (e.g., School Psychology Review, School Psychology, and Journal of School Psychology), developmental psychology (e.g., Child Development, Journal of Youth and Adolescence), educational psychology (e.g., British Journal of Educational Psychology), teacher education (e.g., Teaching and Teacher Education), international psychology (e.g., International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, School Psychology International), and the interdisciplinary field of school violence (e.g., Aggressive Behavior, Psychology of Violence, and Journal of Interpersonal Violence). Across the above fields, she has published over 80 scholarly works and given more than 90 presentations at national and international conferences.
Dr. Yang's research has been recognized and/or supported by the Society of Hellman Fellows (Hellman Fellowship in 2021), the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation (Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020), the Society of the Study of School Psychology (Early Career Research Award in 2019 and Early Career Scholar in 2017). She was the recipient of the 2022 Lightner Witmer Early Career Award and 2016 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Psychological Association Division 16: School Psychology, the 2021 Outstanding Early Career Psychologist Award from the American Psychological Association Division 52: International Psychology, the 2019 Early Career Award for Distinguished Scholarly Contributions to Bullying Abuse Prevention from the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention.
Dr. Yang is currently serving on the editorial boards of the School Psychology Review, School Psychology (Quarterly), and Journal of School Psychology.
Tuition & Scholarship
Course costs should be calculated based on the university’s standard tuition and fees for undergraduate students and graduate students.
Students enrolled in winter and summer Global Classrooms courses may be eligible for the International Education Scholarship.
Questions & Contact Info
Questions & Contact Info
For more course information contact Dr. Chunyan Yang at yangcy@umd.edu.
For general questions, please contact the Global Classrooms team at globalclassrooms@umd.edu.