EDUCATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY:
A TOOL FOR EFFECTIVE
TEACHING
Topic 1
Learning Goals

Learning Goal 1 Describe some basic ideas about the field of educational
psychology.

Learning Goal 2 Identify the attitudes and skills of an effective teacher.

Learning Goal 3 Discuss why research is important to effective teaching

and how educational psychologists and teachers can conduct and evaluate
research.
 • Educational psychology is the branch of psychology
that specialises in understanding teaching and learning
in educational settings.

EXPLORING • It explores the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and

EDUCATIONAL social influences on the learning process.
PSYCHOLOGY
• Including teaching methods, instructional processes,
and individual differences in learning.
Historical Background of Ed Psych

1850 1875 1900 1925 1950

William James

John Dewey

E. L. Thorndike
William James
• William James (1842–1910) gave a series of lectures called “Talks
to Teachers” (James, 1899/1993) in which he discussed the
applications of psychology to educating children.

• James argued that laboratory psychology experiments often can’t

tell us how to teach children effectively.

• He emphasized the importance of observing teaching and learning

in classrooms for improving education.

• One of his recommendations was to start lessons at a point just

beyond the child’s level of knowledge and understanding to
stretch the child’s mind.
 John Dewey
• A second major figure in shaping the field of educational
psychology was John Dewey (1859–1952), who became a
driving force in the practical application of psychology.
• Before Dewey, it was believed that children should sit quietly in
their seats and passively learn in a rote manner. In
• John Dewey (1859–1952) argued that children learn best by
doing.
• Education should focus on the whole child and emphasize the
child’s adaptation to the environment. Dewey reasoned that
children should not be just narrowly educated in academic topics
but should learn how to think and adapt to a world outside
school. He especially thought that children should learn how to
be reflective problem solvers.
• All children deserve to have a competent education.
E. L. Thorndike
• A third pioneer was E. L. Thorndike (1874–
1949), who focused on assessment and
measurement and promoted the scientific
underpinnings of learning.
• Thorndike argued that one of schooling’s most
important tasks is to hone children’s reasoning
skills, and he excelled at conducting detailed
scientific studies of teaching and learning.
• Thorndike especially promoted the idea that
educational psychology must have a scientific
base and should focus strongly on
measurement.
The role of an Educational Psychologist
The Behavioral Approach
• B. F. Skinner’s (1938) view, built on Thorndike’s ideas, strongly influenced
educational psychology in the middle of the century.

• Skinner’s behavioral approach involved attempts to determine the best conditions

for learning precisely.

• Skinner argued that the mental processes proposed by psychologists such as James
and Dewey were not observable and therefore could not be appropriate subject
matter for a scientific study of psychology, which he defined as the science of
observable behavior and its controlling conditions.

• In the 1950s, Skinner (1954) developed the concept of programmed learning,

which involved reinforcing the student after each of a series of steps until the
student reached a learning goal.

• In an early technological effort, he created a teaching machine to serve as a tutor

and reinforce students for correct answers (Skinner, 1958).
 The Cognitive Revolution
• The objectives spelled out in the behavioral approach to learning did not address many of classroom educators'
actual goals and needs (Hilgard, 1996).

• In reaction, as early as the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy of cognitive skills that included
remembering, comprehending, synthesizing, and evaluating, which he suggested teachers should help students
develop and use.

• The cognitive revolution in psychology began to take hold by the 1980s and ushered in an era of enthusiasm for
applying the concepts of cognitive psychology—memory, thinking, reasoning, and so on—to help students learn.

• Thus, toward the latter part of the twentieth century, many educational psychologists returned to an emphasis on
the cognitive aspects of learning advocated by James and Dewey at the beginning of the century.

• More recently, educational psychologists have increasingly focused on the socioemotional aspects of students’
lives. For example, they are analyzing the school as a social context and examining the role of culture in
education (Gauvain, 2016; Koppelman, 2017; Rowe, Ramani, & Pomerantz, 2016; Wentzel & Ramani,2016).
Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy of cognitive skills known as Bloom's Taxonomy, which is a hierarchical
classification of the different levels of thinking, and it serves as a framework for educators to create learning
objectives and assessments.
The Constructivism Learning Theory
• The constructivist learning theory explains that we learn by
‘constructing’ knowledge in our minds.

• Constructivism argues that learners have an active role in thinking

things through, mulling them over, and coming to conclusions based on
logic and critical thinking. We also build on our prior knowledge, like a
builder constructing (and sometimes deconstructing) his skyscraper.

• Eg. Piaget’s Theory

EFFECTIVE
TEACHING • Because of the complexity of teaching and
individual variation among students, effective
teaching is not achievable through a “one size
fits all” prescription.
• Teachers must master a variety of perspectives
and strategies and be flexible in their
application.
• This requires the following key ingredients:
(1) professional knowledge and skills
(2) commitment, motivation, and caring
 • Subject-Matter Competence
• Instructional Strategies
• Thinking Skills
• Goal Setting and Instructional Planning
• Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices
PROFESSION • Classroom Management Skills
AL • Motivational Skills
KNOWLEDGE • Communication Skills
AND SKILLS • Paying More Than Lip Service to Individual
Variations
• Working Effectively with Students from Culturally
Diverse Backgrounds
• Assessment Knowledge and Skills
• Technological Skills
Subject-Matter Competence
• Having a thoughtful, flexible, conceptual understanding of
subject matter is indispensable for being an effective teacher
(Hamilton & Duschi, 2017).

• Knowledge of subject matter includes more than just facts,

terms, and general concepts. It also includes knowledge
about organizing ideas, connections among ideas, ways of
thinking and arguing, patterns of change within a discipline,
beliefs about a discipline, and the ability to carry ideas from
one discipline to another.
Instructional Strategies
• The constructivist approach is a learner-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of individuals
actively constructing their knowledge and understanding with guidance from the teacher.

• In the constructivist view, teachers should not attempt to simply pour information into children’s minds. Rather,
children should be encouraged to explore their world, discover knowledge, reflect, and think critically with
careful monitoring and meaningful guidance from the teacher (Robinson-Zanartu, Doerr, & Portman, 2015; Van
de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2016).

• Constructivists argue that for too long children have been required to sit still, be passive learners, and rotely
memorize irrelevant and relevant information (Parkay, 2016).

• The direct instruction approach is a structured, teacher-centered approach characterized by teacher direction
and control, high teacher expectations for students’ progress, maximum time spent on academic tasks, and efforts
by the teacher to keep negative effects to a minimum.

• An important goal in the direct instruction approach is maximizing student learning time (Borich, 2017; Joyce,
Weil, & Calhoun, 2015).
 Thinking Skills- Think Critically
• Effective teachers model and communicate good thinking skills.
Among the most important thinking skills for teachers to engage
in and guide their students in developing are critical thinking
skills, which involve thinking reflectively and productively and
evaluating evidence.

• Getting students to think critically is not easy; many students

develop a habit of passively learning material and rotely
memorizing concepts rather than thinking deeply and reflectively
(Sternberg & Sternberg, 2017).

• Thinking critically also means being open-minded and curious on

the one hand, yet being careful to avoid making mistakes in
interpreting something.
Goal Setting and Instructional Planning
• They set high goals for their teaching and organize plans for reaching those goals (Senko,
2016). They also develop specific criteria for success.

• As they plan, effective teachers reflect and think about how they can make learning both
challenging and interesting.

• Good planning requires considerations of the kinds of information, demonstrations, models,

inquiry opportunities, discussion, and practice students need over time to understand
particular concepts and develop particular skills.

• Although research has found that all of these features can support learning, the process of
instructional design requires that teachers figure out which things students should do when,
in what order, and how (Darling-Hammond & others, 2005).
Example of Instructional Planning: K-W-L
Developmentally Appropriate Teaching
Practices
• Competent teachers understand children’s development well and know how to
create instructional materials appropriate for their developmental levels
(Bredekamp, 2017; Morrison, 2017).

• Schools are organized by grade and to some degree by age, but these are not
always good predictors of children’s development.

• At any grade level, there is usually a two- or three-year span of ages with an even
wider span of skills, abilities, and developmental stages.
• Understanding developmental pathways and progressions is extremely important
for teaching in optimal ways for each child (Feeney, Moravcik, & Nolte, 2016).
Classroom Management Skills
• An important aspect of being an effective teacher is keeping the class
as a whole working together and oriented toward classroom tasks
(Emmer & Evertson, 2017).

• To create this optimal learning environment, teachers need strategies

for establishing rules and procedures, organizing groups, monitoring
and pacing classroom activities, and handling misbehavior (Evertson
& Emmer, 2017; Jones & Jones, 2016).
Motivational Skills
• Educational psychologists increasingly stress that this is best accomplished by providing
real-world learning opportunities of optimal difficulty and novelty for each student.

• Students are motivated when they can make choices in line with their interests. Effective
teachers allow them to think creatively and deeply about projects.

• In addition to guiding students to become self-motivated learners, it is essential to

establish high expectations for students’ achievement (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2016).

• High expectations for children’s achievement need to come from teachers and parents.

• When high expectations are created, a key aspect of education is to provide children—
especially low-achieving children— effective instruction and support to meet these
expectations.
Communication Skills
• Also indispensable to teaching are skills in speaking, listening, overcoming barriers
to verbal communication, tuning in to students’ nonverbal communication, and
constructively resolving conflicts (Beebe, Beebe, & Redmond, 2017; Zarefsky,
2017).

• Communication skills are critical not only in teaching but also in interacting with
parents.

• Effective teachers use good communication skills when they talk “with” rather than
“to” students, parents, administrators, and others; keep criticism at a minimum; and
have an assertive rather than aggressive, manipulative, or passive communication
style. Effective teachers work to improve students’ communication skills as well.
Paying More Than Lip Service to
Individual Variations (Diversity)
• Students will have varying levels of intelligence, use different thinking and
learning styles, and have different temperaments and personality traits (Hill
& Roberts, 2016; Sternberg, 2016).

• Likely to have some gifted students and others with disabilities of various
types (Van Tassell-Baska, 2015).

• Differentiated instruction involves recognizing individual variations in

students’ knowledge, readiness, interests, and other characteristics, and
taking these differences into account in planning curriculum and engaging
in instruction (Taylor, 2015).
Working Effectively with Students from
Culturally Diverse Backgrounds
• Effective teachers encourage students to have positive personal contact with
diverse students and think of ways to create such settings.

• They guide students in thinking critically about cultural and ethnic issues, forestall
or reduce bias, cultivate acceptance, and serve as cultural mediators (Gollnick &
Chinn, 2017).

• An effective teacher also needs to be a broker, or middle person, between the

culture of the school and the culture of certain students, especially those who are
unsuccessful academically (Sarraj & others, 2015).
Assessment Knowledge and Skills

• Need to use assessment effectively before and during instruction

(Chappuis & others, 2017).

• During instruction, you might want to use ongoing observation and

monitoring to determine whether your instruction is at a level that
challenges students and to detect students who need your attention
(Veenman, 2017).

• You will need to grade students to provide feedback about their

achievements.
Technological Skills
• Conditions that support the effective use of technology in education
include vision and support from educational leaders; teachers skilled
in using technology for learning; content standards and curriculum
resources; assessment of the effectiveness of technology for learning;
and an emphasis on the child as an active, constructive learner (ISTE,
2007).
Tutorial
In a group of 3-4, prepare a short presentation and present it to the class.
• How is educational psychology defined?
• Choose ONE (1) figure that you think he/she can be a great teacher/ educator/ guru.
Describe his/ her characteristics.
• What can you learn from him/her?

45 minutes preparation time