Educational

Psychology
 Definition
• Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that
deals with understanding how people learn and the
various factors that influence learning in educational
settings.
• It applies psychological principles and theories to
understand students' behavior, motivation, cognitive
processes, and emotional development in a learning
environment.
• Educational psychology also aims to optimize teaching
strategies and educational practices to promote effective
learning.
 Nature of Educational
Psychology
The nature of educational psychology can be understood through the following
characteristics:
• Scientific: Educational psychology is rooted in scientific methods, using research and empirical
data to draw conclusions and shape educational practices.
• Interdisciplinary: It integrates concepts from various areas of psychology (e.g., cognitive,
developmental, social psychology) and other disciplines such as sociology, education, and
neuroscience.
• Practical: It is focused on practical application to improve teaching, learning, and student
outcomes in real-world educational settings.
• Dynamic: Educational psychology adapts as new theories, research findings, and societal
changes emerge, ensuring that it remains relevant to contemporary educational needs.
• Student-Centered: It focuses on understanding individual differences in learning and behavior,
catering to diverse student needs.
Scope of Educational Psychology
Educational psychology covers a broad range of areas that influence learning processes,
teaching, and the overall educational experience. Key areas include:
• Learning Theories: Exploring how individuals acquire, process, and retain knowledge,
including theories like behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitive psychology.
• Cognitive Development: Studying how cognitive abilities (e.g., attention, memory,
problem-solving) develop across different stages of a child’s life.
• Motivation: Understanding what drives students to engage in learning activities and
how to enhance motivation in different learning environments.
• Classroom Management: Examining techniques and strategies to create a productive
and positive classroom environment, including managing behaviors and promoting
effective learning.
Cont…
• Assessment and Evaluation: Studying how to assess students' progress, including
designing tests, measuring academic achievement, and using assessments to inform
teaching practices.
• Individual Differences: Understanding how factors such as intelligence, learning
styles, socio-cultural background, and emotional well-being affect learning.
• Developmental Psychology: Focusing on the stages of development (cognitive,
emotional, social) and how they influence learning abilities and educational
experiences.
• Exceptional Children: Addressing the needs of students with disabilities, giftedness,
and other special educational requirements.
• Teacher Training: Preparing educators with the knowledge and skills needed to apply
psychological principles in their teaching practices.
 Key Concepts of Educational
Psychology
Several core concepts are central to educational psychology, guiding both theory and practice:
• Learning: A central concept in educational psychology, learning refers to the process through which
individuals acquire new knowledge, skills, and behaviors. This involves cognitive, emotional, and social
factors.
• Cognition: Cognitive processes include attention, perception, memory, problem-solving, and decision-
making, all of which impact how students learn and how information is processed in the brain.
• Motivation: Motivation refers to the factors that drive students to engage in and persist with learning
activities. Theories such as intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation and self-determination theory explore
different aspects of motivation.
• Intelligence: The study of intelligence involves examining different theories (e.g., Gardner’s multiple
intelligences, Sternberg’s triarchic theory) and understanding how various types of intelligence influence
learning.
• Development: Developmental stages (e.g., Piaget’s stages of cognitive development) are crucial in
understanding how children learn and behave at different ages and how their abilities change over time.
Cont…
• Memory: Memory involves the processes of encoding, storing, and retrieving information. Understanding memory is
crucial in helping students retain and recall learned material.
• Behaviorism: A learning theory that focuses on observable behaviors and the ways in which they are shaped by
environmental stimuli. It has implications for teaching and classroom management.
• Constructivism: A learning theory that emphasizes the role of the learner in constructing their own understanding of
the world through experiences and social interaction (e.g., Vygotsky, Piaget).
• Self-Regulation: This concept involves students’ ability to manage their own learning, including setting goals,
monitoring progress, and adapting strategies to improve outcomes.
• Classroom Climate: The social and emotional environment of the classroom, which plays a significant role in
motivating students and fostering positive learning outcomes.
• Individual Differences: Recognizing that each student has unique learning needs, strengths, and challenges is key
to understanding how to tailor educational practices to individual learners.
• Learning Styles: Theories about different learning preferences (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic) suggest that
students may learn better through particular modes of instruction.
• Social Learning: The role of social interactions and peer influences in shaping learning experiences, as discussed in
Albert Bandura’s social learning theory.
 What is Good Teaching?
• Educators, psychologists, philosophers, novelists,
journalists, filmmakers, mathematicians, scientists,
historians, policy makers, and parents, to name only a few
groups, have examined this question; there are hundreds
of answers.
• And good teaching is not confined to classrooms. It
occurs in homes and hospitals, museums and sales
meetings, therapists’ offices, and summer camps.
Cont…
• Teachers must be both knowledgeable and inventive. They must
be able to use a range of strategies, and they must also be
capable of inventing new strategies.
• They must have some basic research-based routines for
managing classes, but they must also be willing and able to
break from the routine when the situation calls for change.
• They must know the research on student development, and they
also need to know their own particular students who are unique
combinations of culture, gender, and geography.
 Models of Good Teaching
• In the last few years, educators, policy makers,
government agencies, and philanthropists have spent
millions of dollars identifying what works in teaching and
specifically how to identify good teaching.
• These efforts have led to a number of models for teaching
and teacher evaluation systems.
 Danielson’s Frameworks for
Teaching
• The Framework for Teaching was first published in 1996 and has
been revised three times since then, the latest in
• According to Charlotte Danielson (2013): The Framework for
Teaching identifies those aspects of a teacher’s responsibilities
that have been documented through empirical studies and
theoretical research as promoting improved student learning.
While the Framework is not the only possible description of
practice, these responsibilities seek to define what teachers
should know and be able to do in the exercise of their profession.
Cont…
• Danielson’s Framework has four domains or areas of responsibility:
1. Planning and Preparation
2. Classroom Environment
3. Instruction
4. Professional Responsibilities.
• Each domain is further divided into 22 components, when the Framework is
used for teacher evaluation, each of these 22 components is further divided into
elements (76 in all), and several indicators are specified for each component
• The evaluation system further defines four levels of proficiency for each of the
22 components: unsatisfactory, basic, proficient, and distinguished
 Characteristics of Good Teacher
There are few characteristics of good teacher depending upon the principles of educational psychology
1. Knowledge of subject matter
2. Adaptability
3. Empathy
4. Patience
5. Engagement
6. Active listening
7. Life long learning
8. Free of bias
9. Respectful attitude
10. Creativity
11. Collaborative
12. Promote growth mindset
13. Student centered approach
 Research in Educational
Psychology
• Educational psychologists design and conduct many different kinds of
research studies. Some of these are descriptive studies, their purpose
is simply to describe events in a particular class or several classes.
• Correlational Studies: A correlation is a number that indicates both the
strength and the direction of a relationship between two events or
measurements. Correlations range from 1.00 to –1.00. The closer the
correlation is to either 1.00 or –1.00, the stronger the relationship
• Experimental studies: A second type of research, experimentation, it allows
educational psychologists to go beyond predictions and actually study cause
and effect. Instead of just observing and describing an existing situation, the
investigators introduce changes and note the results
Cont…
• Quasi-experimental studies: This type of study meet most of the criteria
for true experiments, with the important exception that the participants are
not assigned to groups at random. Instead, existing groups such as classes
or schools participate in the experiments
• Single-Subject Experimental design: The goal of single-subject
experimental studies is to determine the effects of a therapy, teaching
method, or other intervention. One common approach is to observe the
individual for a baseline period (A) and assess the behavior of interest; try
an intervention (B) and note the results; then remove the intervention and
go back to baseline conditions (A); and finally reinstate the intervention (B).
This form of single-subject design is called an ABAB experiment.
Cont…
• Clinical interviews and case studies: Jean Piaget pioneered an approach called
the clinical interview to understand children’s thinking. The clinical interview uses
open-ended questioning to probe responses and to follow up on answers. Questions
go wherever the child’s responses lead.
• Researchers also may employ case studies. A case study investigates one person or
situation in depth.
• Ethnography: Ethnographic methods, borrowed from anthropology, involve
studying the naturally occurring events in the life of a group to understand the
meaning of these events to the people involved
• In some studies the researcher uses participant observation, actually participating in
the group, to understand the actions from the perspectives of the people in the
situation.
 Quantitative vs Qualitative
Research
Qualitative Research
• Case studies and ethnographies are examples of qualitative research.
• This type of research uses words, dialogue, events, themes, and images as data.
• Interviews and observations are key procedures.
• The goal is not to discover general principles, but rather to explore specific situations
or people in depth and to understand the meaning of the events to the people
involved in order to tell their story.
• Qualitative researchers assume that no process of understanding meaning can be
completely objective.
• They are more interested in interpreting subjective, personal, or socially constructed
meanings.
Cont…
Quantitative Research.
• Both correlational and experimental types of research generally are
quantitative because measurements are taken and computations are made.
• Quantitative research uses numbers, measurement, and statistics to assess
levels or sizes of relationships among variables or differences between
groups.
• Quantitative researchers try to be as objective as possible and remove their
own biases from their results.
• One advantage of good quantitative research is that results from one study
can be generalized or applied to other similar situations or people
 Research and Practice of
teaching
• Research also can be a way to improve teaching in one classroom or one school.
• The same kind of careful observation, intervention, data gathering, and analysis
that occurs in large research projects can be applied in any classroom to answer
questions such as “Which writing prompts seem to encourage the most creative
writing in my class?” “When does Kenyon seem to have the greatest difficulty
concentrating on academic tasks?” “Would assigning task roles in science
groups lead to more equitable participation of girls and boys in the work?”
• This kind of problem-solving investigation is called action research. By focusing
on a specific problem and making careful observations, teachers can learn a
great deal about both their teaching and their students.