In this post we will be looking at the meaning of Educational Psychology, various perspectives, Factors and Benefits of Educational Psychology.
INTRODUCTION.
This branch of psychology involves not just the learning process of early childhood and adolescence but includes the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan. Psychologists working in the field of education study how people learn and retain knowledge. They apply psychological science to improve the learning process and promote educational success for all students. We know not everyone learns and retains information the same way, so what can we do to make sure that everyone benefits from their education? The aim of research in educational psychology is to optimize learning, and educational psychologists’ study and identify new educational methods to benefit teachers, students, and anyone trying to learn a new skill. You can apply educational psychology to any human learning, not just to formal learning in a classroom. Educational psychology examples include: Studying the most effective methods for teaching people with specific learning challenges like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyscalculia, or dyslexia, researching how well people learn in different settings, Evaluating and analyzing teaching methods and addressing barriers to learning, studying how factors like genetics, environment, socio-economic class, and culture affect learning.
WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Is a branch of psychology that involves not just the learning process of early childhood and adolescence but includes the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan. It’s the learning processes of psychological problems associated with the teaching and training of students. As with other areas of psychology, researchers within educational psychology tend to take on different perspectives when considering a problem which allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.
PERSPECTIVES IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY These perspectives focus on specific factors that influence how a person learns, including learned behaviors, cognition, experiences, and more.
- The Behavioral Perspective: This perspective suggests that all behaviors are learned through conditioning. Psychologists who take this perspective rely firmly on the principles of operant conditioning to explain how learning happens. E.g., teachers might reward learning by giving students tokens that can be exchanged for desirable items such as candy or toys. The behavioral perspective operates on the theory that students will learn when rewarded for “good” behavior and punished for “bad” behavior.
- The Cognitive Perspective: The cognitive approach has become much more widespread in recent decades, mainly because it accounts for how things such as memories, beliefs, emotions, and motivations contribute to the learning process. This theory supports the idea that a person learns as a result of their own motivation, not as a result of external rewards. Cognitive psychology aims to understand how people think, learn, remember, and process information. Educational psychologists who take a cognitive perspective are interested in understanding how kids become motivated to learn, how they remember the things that they learn, and how they solve problems, among other things.
- The Constructivist Approach: Constructivism tends to account more for the social and cultural influences that impact how we learn. Those who take the constructivist approach believe that what a person already knows is the biggest influence on how they learn new information. This means that new knowledge can only be added on to and understood in terms of existing knowledge.
- Experiential Perspective: This perspective emphasizes that a person’s own life experiences influence how they understand new information. This method is similar to constructivist and cognitive perspectives in that it takes into consideration the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of the learner. This method allows someone to find personal meaning in what they learn instead of feeling that the information doesn’t apply to them.
FACTORS AND BENEFITS OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. The following are seven Important Factors that May Affect the Learning Process.
- Intellectual factor
- Learning factors
- Physical factors
- Mental factors
- Emotional and social factors
- Teacher’s Personality
- Environmental factor
BENEFITS OR IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. Educational psychology is a vital part of the learning process, especially in this era. It is important for both educators and students. Let’s look at some of the benefits educational psychology has on educators.
- It helps the teacher to get to know his potential to teach and the abilities of the learners.
- It assists the teacher in the identifying the learning process.
- It helps the teacher to asses each student and to know where he stands and how he has grown.
- It helps the teacher to adjust his method of learning to the demand of the learner.
- It helps the teacher to solve the learning problems of each student.
- It helps the teacher to motivate the student to learn and to increase his ability in memorizing.
- It helps to teacher to identify the differences each student has according to his or her own limits.
- It helps the teacher to channel the students’ abilities in the right direction.
The following are many benefits it has on education itself. Let’s take a look at some of these Advantages.
- As a learner, it enables him to get to know about himself and identify his behavior.
- It facilitates the learning process by determining factors of the classroom environment and how discipline should be maintained.
- It helps curriculum generators to identify what needs to be added to the curriculum to support the teachers and students with the learning process to transfer to the next generation.
It helps to identify how to evaluate students in order to test to what extend the information and concepts taught have been transferred.