The course aims to acquaint students with the recent research work in psychology and its potential applications in the context of young children’s education. More specifically, recent topics from international literature will be presented regarding: (a) the evolving ability of young children to self-regularize their behavior and to engage actively in the learning process, (b) the relation between self-regulation and motives in this early development period, (c) the importance of motives and metacognitive processes in learning and educational success in early childhood, (d) the conditions that promote self-regulated learning in the context of the school and the family, (e) the ways of evaluating motives, metacognitive skills and self-regulation skills of young children during the learning process. In the context of the course, students will be asked to participate actively with the study of relevant bibliography, small-scale research studies and presentations in classroom.