Aims and Objectives of Educational Psychology:

Let us start this section with Gordon Allport’s caution: “One aim of education is to make available the
wisdom of the past and present so that youth will be equipped to solve the problems of future”.

The general aims of educational psychology, as stated before, are understanding, predicting and
controlling behaviour in learning situations. As the learning situation includes, teacher, learner,
classroom environment and evaluation of their interactions, therefore, each objective can be separately
treated.

The aims are closely related with the functional aspects of educational psychology. Hence the functional
objectives are:

(1) To evaluate educational theories and put to application the workable part of it;

(2) To examine contemporary educational practices and suggest the modifications required;

(3) To critically examine and evaluate contemporary teaching methodology in the light of established
principles of learning and motivation in varying conditions of different cultures, different environments
and different facilities provided.

(4) To provide methods for researchers who are scientifically studying educational problems.

(5) To assess and modify the principles and practical operations according to the set values/beliefs and
attitude of a culture and also to maintain the scope for the changes with time.

In order to point out the aims of educational psychology it is better to remember William James, who—
as early as 1898— put an important question in psychology; “What we are about”? Educational
psychology should provide such answer to this question as it is through learning, through experiences a
behavioural change occurs and makes a man what he is.
Educators not only look to educational psychology to learn “what we are” about, but also to learn “what
we should be about” in education tomorrow—it is not only to ‘be’ but to ‘become’.

But to achieve it, is a hard task. The world is changing so fast that parents and teachers now see that
tomorrow is not a photocopy of yesterday, present is not the replica of the past; learning of their time is
totally different from that of nowadays.

We need an image of tomorrow’s society while teaching today and in framing the aims our image must
include the likelihood of radical changes—changes that we are today unable to comprehend.

Because the changes that are likely to occur in possible future is not one-sided, not singular, but plural,
many-sided and global. Subject to the choices we would make innumerable arrayed options where some
lines of development are more likely than others.

An eye to this will help the educators to frame future sensible goals at present time. The sensible goals
signify that the development of personality or constant individual growth must take into consideration
the meaning and purpose of human life.

The educationists who set the goals should remember and realize that the homo-sepiens, though
primarily animals, are most advanced forms of life. Neither are they to regard people as machines, just a
little higher or lower than the computer. “A major task of psychology of the future is to help humans
learn how to learn and discover, perhaps to help expand the human potential”.

The identification and proper statement of the educational objectives of a lesson is the most important
step in instructional planning. When a teacher knows where he is reaching, what is his specific objective,
he will be able to decide how he will be designing a lesson. Therefore, getting a clear statement of
educational objectives is the first step in the systematic application of psychology to education.

The setting of goals in terms of objectives i.e. to understand, to predict and to control behaviour is the
behavioural objectives for the teacher. The first behavioural objective for the teacher is understanding
the terms “understanding” and “knowing” and these are the key ones of the various educational
objectives.

While setting instructional materials the teacher should analyse the objectives in behavioural terms, like
knowing, understanding and recognizing the importance of the materials presented

SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

The scope of educational psychology is ever-growing due to constantly researches in this field. The
following factors will indicate the scope of educational psychology:

1. The Learner. The subject-matter of educational psychology is knitted around the learner. Therefore,
the need of knowing the learner and the techniques of knowing him well. The topics include – the innate
abilities and capacities of the individuals, individual differences and their measurements, the overt,
covert, conscious as well as unconscious behaviour of the learner, the characteristics of his growth and
development and each stage beginning from childhood to adulthood.

2. The Learning Experiences. Educational Psychology helps in deciding what learning experiences are
desirable, at what stage of the growth and development of the learner, so that these experiences can be
acquired with a greater ease and satisfaction.

3. Learning process: After knowing the learner and deciding what learning experiences are to be
provided, Educational Psychology moves on to the laws, principles and theories of learning. Other items
in the learning process are remembering and forgetting, perceiving, concept formation, thinking and
reasoning, problem solving, transfer of learning, ways and means of effective learning etc.

4. Learning Situation or Environment. Here we deal with the environmental factors and learning
situations which come midway between the learner and the teacher. Topics like classroom climate and
group dynamics, techniques and aids that facilitate learning and evaluation, techniques and practices,
guidance and counselling etc. For the smooth functioning of the teaching-learning process.

5. The Teacher: The teacher is a potent force is any scheme of teaching and learning process. It discusses
the role of the teacher. It emphasizes the need of ‘knowing thyself’ for a teacher to play his role properly
in the process of education. His conflicts, motivation. Anxiety, adjustment, level of aspiration etc. It
throws light on the essential personality traits, interests, aptitudes, the characteristics of effective
teaching etc so as to inspire him for becoming a successful teacher.

Though the entire scope of Educational Psychology is included in the above mentioned five key-factors, it
may be further expanded by adding the following:

6. It studies Human Behaviour in educational situations. Psychology is the study of behaviour, and
education deals with the modification of behaviour; hence, educational psychology pervades the whole
field of education.

7. It studies the Growth and Development of the child. How a child passes through the various stages of
growth and what are the characteristics of each stage are included in the study of educational
psychology.

8. To what extent Heredity and Environment contribute towards the growth of the individual, and how
this knowledge can be made use of for bringing about the optimum development of the child; form a
salient feature of the scope of educational psychology.

9. Educational psychology deals with the Nature and Development of the Personality of an individual. In
fact, education has been defined as the all-round development of the personality of an individual;
personality development also implies a well-adjusted personality.

10. It studies Individual Difference: Every individual differs from every other individual. It is one of the
fundamental facts of human nature which have been brought to light by educational psychology. This
one fact has revolutionalised the concept and process of education.

11. It studies the nature Intelligence and its Measurement. This is of utmost importance for a teacher.

12. It Provides Guidance and Counselling: Education is nothing but providing guidance to the growing
child.
We can conclude by saying that Educational Psychology is narrower in scope than general psychology.
While general psychology deals with the behaviour of the individual in a general way, educational
psychology in concerned with the behaviour of the learner in an educational setting.

Methods Used in Educational Psychology:

Educational psychology—being a behavioural science— uses scientific methods of behavioural research.

The commonest of all the methods is observation. Educational psychology uses observation not as
common-sense view sees it.

It uses systematic observation which equates methods with research in the educational field and is also
scientific in character. As such, the subject matter of educational psychology is human behaviour and
every one can observe behaviour.

But educational psychology avoids subjective observation and employs the method objectively to
evaluate behaviour and its modification which is a product of learning. An educational psychologist
adopts systematic, objective and investigative measures in assessing the effects of learning in the pupils.

Such in-depth scientific probes are necessary if we are to explain, predict and control behaviour with any
acceptable degree of accuracy. This is in short, scientific observation.

Educational research depends on the use of scientific method which need to follow five steps for its
investigation. These steps are:

(1) Formulating the problem,

(2) Stating the hypotheses,

(3) Collection of data from respective fields,

(4) Testing the hypotheses,

(5) Interpreting and reporting the findings, and

(6) Applying the findings. Researches in educational psychology can be conducted in the classroom, in
the laboratory or in the outer field as is necessary.

Laboratory research has sometimes been referred to as pure research, while that conducted in the
classroom is known as applied research.

The use of scientific methods in educational psychology has produced profound changes in organization
and management of school, curriculum, syllabus making, learning materials, audio-visual aids, effective
lesson planning and instruction methods.

A number of scientific teaching methods have been tried out in the classroom researches to get
effectiveness in teaching e.g. discovery method, the learner- centered method, the Socratic method, the
project method, the laboratory method or the tutorial method—based upon various conditions with
various subject matters and with various kinds of students.

However, the detailed descriptions will be available in books on research methodology—which deal with
the introduction, improvement and either rejection or retention of a particular method or combination
of them as required by the teacher while imparting instruction. The researchers also use the methods in
order to reach to any conclusion following a hypothesis or an assumption they adopt.