CRITICAL BOOK RIVIEW

Arranged to Fulfill Task

Course : Psicology of Education
Lecturer : Prof.Sri Milfayetty, Ms.Kons,S.Psi

Arranged by :
Name : Lamtiur Paronauli Silaban
Nim : 4203131048
Class : CESP 20

BILINGUAL CHEMICAL EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTEMEN OF CHEMISTRY
UNIVESITAS NEGERI MEDAN
BATU BARA
2020/2021
 PREFACE

Praise the author, pray to God Almighty for his blessings and mercy, so that the author
can complete this Critical Review Book on Psychology of Education. The realization of this
Critical Review Book cannot be separated from the guidance and direction of the lecturers who
teach the course. For that I would like to thank Prof. Sri Milfayetty, Ms. Cons, S.Psi for guiding
me as a writer.

Writing this Critical Review Book is intended so that readers can better understand the
material that the author has presented. The author realizes that in writing this book, Critical
Riview, there are many deficiencies. Therefore, the authors expect criticism and suggestions for
further improvement. Hopefully this Critical Book Review provides benefits to both readers and
writers.

Batu Bara, 21 February 2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE…………………..……………………………………………………………..............1
TABLE OF CONTENTS…..……………………………………………………………………...2
CHAPTER I……………………..………………………………………………………………...3
1.1 Background of Writing…………………………………………………………….….3
1.2 Aim of Writing…………………………………………………………………..…….3
1.3 Benefits of Writing….………………………………………………………...............3
1.4 Identity of Book………………………………………………………………............4
CHAPTER II…………………………………………………………………………………...….5
2.1 Summary of Book…………………………………………………………………..…5
2.1.1 Chapter I……………………………………………………………..………………5
2.1.2 Chapter II……………………………………………………………………..……..8
2.1.3 Chapter III……………………………………………………………………..….....8
2.1.4 Chapter IV……………………………………………………………………..….....9
2.1.5Chapter V…………………………………………………………………………...10
2.1.6 Chapter VI………………………………………………………………….…....…11
CHAPTER III……………………………………………………………………………….…...12
3.1 Advantages………………………………………………………………………..….12
3.2Disadvantages………………………………………………………………………...12
CHAPTER IV……………………………………………………………………………………13
4.1 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………..13
4.2 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………13
REFERENCES……………………………………………………..……………………………14

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 CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY
1.1 Background of Writing
As prospective teachers, it is very important to understand a little about educational
psychology so that you can get to know the psychology of their students. For that, we need
various reference sources to increase our understanding of this matter. Various ways can be used
to obtain information, one of which is by reading books. Not only reading books, we can also
judge whether the books they read are good or not. This activity is called Critical Book Review.
Before making an assessment, we must first understand the contents of the book being criticized.
1.2 Aim of Writing
In this writing, it is hoped that the objectived will be achieved, namely as follows :
1. Train critical thinking in response to information
2. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the book
3. Increase knowledge about psychology Education
4. Finding learning reference sources for a deeper understanding of the material

1.3 Benefits of Writing

The benefits that will be obtained later trough this writing, namely :
1. Fulfill one of the mandatory assignments in the educational psychology course
2. Improve critical thinking skills in receiving information
3. Practice summarizing books
4. Get new insights

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1.4 Identity of Book

Book 2
Tittle : Educational Psychology
Edition : Third Edition
Author : Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton
Publisher : The Global Text Project
Place of Publication : Zurich, Switzerland
Publition year : 2010
Pages : 365
ISBN : ISBN 978-1-312-58845-5

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 CHAPTER II
SUMMARY
2.1 Chapter I
1. The changing teaching profession and you
Why be a teacher? The short answer is easy:
• to witness the diversity of growth in young people, and their joy in learning
• to encourage lifelong learning—both for yourself and for others
• to experience the challenge of devising and doing interesting, exciting activities for the young
To see what we mean, look briefly at four new trends in education, at how they have
changed what teachers do,
and at how you will therefore need to prepare to teach:
• increased diversity: there are more differences among students than there used to be. Diversity
has made teaching more fulfilling as a career, but also made more challenging in certain respects.
• increased instructional technology: classrooms, schools, and students use computers more
often today than in the past for research, writing, communicating, and keeping records.
Technology has created new ways for students to learn (for example, this textbook would not be
possible without Internet technology!). It has also altered how teachers can teach most
effectively, and even raised issues about what constitutes “true” teaching and learning.
• greater accountability in education: both the public and educators themselves pay more
attention than in the past to how to assess (or provide evidence for) learning and good quality
teaching. The attention has increased the importance of education to the public (a good thing)
and improved education for some students. But it has also created new constraints on what
teachers teach and what students learn.
• increased professionalism of teachers: Now more than ever, teachers are able to assess the
quality of their own work as well as that of colleagues, and to take steps to improve it when
necessary.
Professionalism improves teaching, but by creating higher standards of practice it also
creates greater worries about whether particular teachers and schools are “good enough”.

How educational psychology can help

This book about educational psychology and its relation to teaching and learning can be
one of your supports as you get started. To make it as useful as possible, we have written about
educational psychology while keeping in mind the current state of teaching, as well as your

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needs as a unique future teacher. The text draws heavily on concepts, research and fundamental
theories from educational psychology. But these are selected and framed around the problems,
challenges, and satisfactions faced by teachers daily, and especially as faced by teachers new to
the profession. We have selected and emphasized topics in proportion to two factors: (1) their
importance as reported by teachers and other educational experts, and (2) the ability of
educational psychology to comment on particular problems, challenges, and satisfactions
helpfully.
There is a lot to learn about teaching, and much of it comes from educational psychology.
As a career, teaching has distinctive features now that it did not have a generation ago. The new
features make it more exciting in some ways, as well as more challenging than in the past. The
changes require learning teaching skills that were less important in earlier times. But the new
skills are quite learnable. Educational psychology, and this text, will get you started at that task.
Viewing learning as dependent on curriculum
When teachers speak of learning, they tend to emphasize whatever is taught in schools
deliberately, including both the official curriculum and the various behaviors and routines that
make classrooms run smoothly. In practice, defining learning in this way often means that
teachers equate learning with the major forms of academic achievement—especially
language and mathematics—and to a lesser extent musical skill, physical coordination, or social
sensitivity (Gardner, 1999, 2006). The imbalance occurs not because the goals of public
education make teachers responsible for certain content and activities (like books and reading)
and the skills which these activities require (like answering teachers’ questions and writing
essays). It does happen not (thankfully!) because teachers are biased, insensitive, or unaware that
students often learn a lot outside of school.
Behaviorism: changes in what students do
Behaviorism is a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals’
observable behaviors changes in what people say or do. At some point we all use this
perspective, whether we call it “behaviorism” or something else. The first time that I drove a
car, for example, I was concerned primarily with whether I could actually do the driving, not
with whether I could describe or explain how to drive. For another example: when I reached the
point in life where I began cooking meals for myself, I was more focused on whether I could
actually produce edible food in a kitchen than with whether I could explain my recipes and
cooking procedures to others.
And still another example one often relevant to new teachers: when I began my first year
of teaching, I was more focused on doing the job of teaching—on day-to-day survival than on
pausing to reflect on what I was doing. Note that in all of these examples, focusing attention on
behavior instead of on “thoughts” may have been.
Constructivism: changes in how students think
Behaviorist models of learning may be helpful in understanding and influencing what
students do, but teachers usually also want to know what students are thinking, and how to enrich

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what students are thinking. For this goal of teaching, some of the best help comes from
constructivism, which is a perspective on learning focused on how students actively create (or
“construct”) knowledge out of experiences.
Psychological constructivism: the independent investigator
The main idea of psychological constructivism is that a person learns by mentally
organizing and reorganizing new information or experiences. The organization happens partly by
relating new experiences to prior knowledge that is already meaningful and well understood.
Stated in this general form, individual constructivism is sometimes associated with a well-
known educational philosopher of the early twentieth century, John Dewey (1938-1998).
Although Dewey himself did not use the term constructivism in most of his writing, his
point of view amounted to a type of constructivism, and he discussed in detail its implications
for educators. He argued, for example, that if students indeed learn primarily by building their
own knowledge, then teachers should adjust the curriculum to fit students’ prior knowledge and
interests as fully as possible.
Social Constructivism: assisted performance
Unlike Piaget’s orientation to individuals' thinking in his version of constructivism, some
psychologists and educators have explicitly focused on the relationships and interactions
between a learner and other individuals who are more knowledgeable or experienced. This
framework often is called social constructivism or sociocultural theory.
An early expression of this viewpoint came from the American psychologist Jerome
Bruner (1960, 1966, 1996), who became convinced that students could usually learn more
than had been traditionally expected as long as they were given appropriate guidance and
resources. He called such support instructional scaffolding—literally meaning a temporary
framework like the ones used to construct buildings and that allow a much stronger structure to
be built within it. In a comment that has been quoted widely (and sometimes disputed), Bruner
wrote: “We [constructivist educators] begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught
effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.” (1960,
p. 33).
The teacher's role in Psychological and Social Constructivism
As some of the comments above indicate, psychological and social constructivism have
differences that suggest different ways for teachers to teach most effectively. The theoretical
differences are related to three ideas in particular: the relationship of learning and long-term
development, the role or meaning of generalizations and abstractions during development, and
the mechanism by which development occurs.

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2.2 Chapter II
Understanding development, or the long-term changes in growth, behavior, and
knowledge, helps teachers to hold appropriate expectations for students as well as to keep
students’ individual diversity in perspective. From kindergarten through the end of high school,
students double their height, triple their weight, experience the social and hormonal effects of
puberty, and improve basic motor skills. Their health is generally good, though illnesses are
affected significantly by students’ economic and social circumstances. Cognitively, students
develop major new abilities to think logically and abstractly, based on a foundation of sensory
and motor experiences with the objects and people around them. Jean Piaget has one well-known
theory detailing how these changes unfold. Socially, students face and resolve a number of
issues—especially the issue of industry (dedicated, sustained work) during childhood and the
issue of identity during adolescence. Erik Erikson has described these crises in detail, as well as
social crises that precede and follow the school years. Students are motivated both by basic
human needs (food, safety, belonging, esteem) and by needs to enhance themselves
psychologically (self-actualization). Abraham Maslow has described these motivations and how
they relate to each other.

2.3 Chapter III

There are several commonly used categories of disabilities. Although all of them
risk stereotyping or oversimplifying children, they can also be helpful in gaining a preliminary
understanding of their strengths and needs. For the purposes of education, the most frequent
category is learning disabilities, which is difficulty with specific aspects of academic work.
The high prevalence of learning disabilities makes this category especially ambiguous as a
description of particular students. Assistance for students with learning disabilities can be framed
in terms of behaviorist reinforcement, metacognitive strategies, or constructivist mentoring.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a problem in sustaining attention and
controlling impulses. It can often be controlled with medications, but usually it is also important
for teachers to provide a structured environment for the student as well. Intellectual disabilities
(or mental retardation) are general limitations in cognitive functioning as well as in the tasks of
daily living. Contemporary experts tend to classify individuals with these disabilities according
to the amount and frequency of support they need from others. Teachers can assist these students
by giving more time and practice than usual, by including adaptive and functional skills in
among the student's learning goals, and by finding ways to include the student in the daily life of
the classroom. Behavioral disorders are conditions in which students chronically perform
highly inappropriate behaviors. Students with these problems present challenges for
classroom management, which teachers can meet by identifying circumstances that trigger
inappropriate behaviors, by teaching interpersonal skills explicitly, and by making sure that
punishments or disciplinary actions are fair and have been previously agreed upon.
Physical and sensory disabilities are significant limitations in health, hearing, or vision.
The signs both of hearing loss and of vision loss can be subtle, but can sometimes be observed

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over a period of time. Teaching students with either a hearing loss or a vision loss primarily
involves making use of the students’ residual sensory abilities and insuring that the student is
included in and supported by the class as well as possible.

2.4 Chapter IV
Motivation the energy or drive that gives behavior direction and focus—can be
understood in a variety of ways, each of which has implications for teaching. One perspective on
motivation comes from behaviorism, and equates underlying drives or motives with their
outward, visible expression in behavior. Most others, however, come from cognitive theories of
learning and development. Motives are affected by the kind of goals set by students whether
they are oriented to mastery, performance, failure-avoidance, or social contact. They are also
affected by students’ interests, both personal and situational. And they are affected by students’
attributions about the causes of success and failure—whether they perceive the causes are due to
ability, effort, task difficulty, or luck. A major current perspective about motivation is based on
self-efficacy theory, which focuses on a person’s belief that he or she is capable of carrying out
or mastering a task. High self-efficacy affects students’ choice of tasks, their persistence at
tasks, and their resilience in the face of failure. It helps to prevent learned helplessness, a
perception of complete lack of control over mastery or success. Teachers can encourage high
self-efficacy beliefs by providing students with experiences of mastery and opportunities to see
others’ experiences of mastery, by offering welltimed messages persuading them of their
capacity for success, and by Interpreting students’ emotional reactions to success, failure and
stress.
An extension of self-efficacy theory is self-determination theory, which is based on the
idea that everyone has basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to others.
According to the theory, students will be motivated more intrinsically if these three needs are
met as much as possible. A variety of strategies can assist teachers in doing so. One program for
doing so is called TARGET; it draws on ideas from several theories of motivation to make
practical recommendations about motivating students.
Classroom management is the coordination of lessons and activities to make learning as
productive as possible. It is important because classrooms are complex and somewhat
unpredictable, because students respond to teachers’ actions in diverse ways, and because
society requires that students attend school. There are two major features of management:
preventing problems before they occur and responding to them after they occur. Many
management problems can be prevented by attending to how classroom space is used, by
establishing daily procedures, routines, and rules, by pacing and structuring activities
appropriately, and by communicating the importance of learning and of positive behavior to
students and parents. There are several ways of dealing with a management problem after it
occurs, and the choice depends on the nature of the problem. A teacher can simply ignore a
misbehavior, gesture or cue students nonverbally, rely on natural and logical consequences, or

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engage conflict resolution strategies. Whatever tactics the teacher uses, it is important to keep
in mind their ultimate purpose: to make learning possible and effective.

2.5 Chapter V
Because communication in classrooms is more complex and unpredictable than in many
other situations, it is important for teachers to understand its unique features and functions.
It is helpful to think of classroom communication as serving a mixture of three purposes at
once: content talk, procedural talk, and behavior control talk. It is also helpful to recognize that
classroom communication has elements that are not only verbal, but also nonverbal and
unintended.
To be effective in using verbal communication, teachers need to use appropriate
instructional strategies related to content, such as using advance organizers, relating new
information to prior knowledge, and organizing new information on behalf of students. It
includes strategies that assist students to communicate, such as inquiry learning and
cooperative learning. To communicate well about procedures and about the behaviors expected
of students, teachers need a variety of management techniques, such as those discussed in
Chapter 7 and summarized again in Table 18. To be effective in using nonverbal communication,
teachers need to use appropriate eye contact, allow ample wait time between speaking turns, and
be aware of the effects of social distance on students. Structures of participation influence
communication by facilitating particular patterns of speaking and listening, while at the same
time making other patterns less convenient or disapproved. Four common participation
structures are lectures, questions-and-answers, classroom discussions, and group work.
Teaching involves numerous instructional strategies, which are decisions and actions
designed to facilitate learning. The choice of strategies depends partly on the forms of thinking
intended for students whether the goal is for students to think critically, for example, or to think
creatively, or to solve problems. A fundamental decision in choosing instructional strategies is
how much to emphasize teacher-directed instruction, as compared to studentcentered models of
learning. Teacher-directed strategies of instruction include lectures and readings (expository
teaching), mastery learning, scripted or direct instruction, and complex teacher-directed
approaches such as
Madeline Hunter’s effective teaching model. Student-centered models of learning
include independent study, student self-reflection, inquiry learning, and various forms of
cooperative or collaborative learning. Although for some students, curriculum content and
learning goals may lend themselves toward one particular type of instruction, teaching is
often a matter of combining different strategies appropriately and creatively.
Transforming the goals into specific learning objectives, however, remains a
responsibility of the teacher. The formulation can focus on curriculum topics that can analyzed
into specific activities, or it can focus on specific behaviors expected of students and

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assembled into general types of outcomes. Taxonomies of educational objectives, such as
the ones originated by Benjamin Bloom, are a useful tool with either approach to instructional
planning. Since students normally are diverse, teaching requires differentiated instruction, or
adjustments to students' learning needs, backgrounds, and capacities. A widely used framework
for doing is called response to intervention, and involves continual short-term assessment of
students' response to teaching, coupled with a system of more intense instruction for the
relatively small number of students who need it. In addition to planning instruction on students’
behalf, many teachers organize instruction so that students themselves can influence the choice
of goals. One way to do so is through emergent curriculum; another way is through
multicultural and anti-bias curriculum.
Whatever planning strategies are used, learning is enhanced by using a wide variety of
resources, including the Internet, local experts, field trips, and service learning, among others. It
is also enhanced if the teacher can build bridges between curriculum goals and students’
experiences through judicious use of modeling, activation of prior knowledge, anticipation of
students’ preconceptions, and an appropriate blend of guided and independent practice.

2.6 Chapter VI
Standardized tests are assessments developed by a team of experts and administered in
consistent ways. They are used primarily to insure accountability about students' education—
to provide evidence that students are learning desired skills and knowledge. Most elementary
and middle school teachers are likely to be responsible for helping students attain state content
standards and achieve proficiency on criterion-referenced achievement tests. In order to interpret
test scores and communicate that information to students and parents, teachers have to
understand basic information about measures of central tendency and variability, the normal
distribution, and several kinds of test scores. Current evidence suggests that standardized tests
can be biased against certain groups and that many teachers tailor their curriculum and
classroom tests to match the standardized tests. A few educators have even been caught cheating
—falsifying or “fudging” test results.
The complexities of teaching require teachers to continue learning throughout their
teaching careers. To become a lifelong reflective practitioner, teachers can rely on colleagues as
a resource, on professional associations and their activities, and on professional publications
related to educational issues and needs. Understanding the latter, in turn, requires understanding
the purposes of the published material whether it is offering a general framework,
recommending desirable teaching practices, or advocating for a particular educational policy or
need. Interpreting published material also requires understanding the assumptions that authors
make about readers’ prior knowledge and beliefs.
An important additional strategy for becoming a reflective practitioner is action research
studies of teaching and learning designed and carried out by teachers in order to improve their
own practice. By nature, action research studies are highly relevant to classroom practice, but
there are also cautions about it to keep in mind, both ethically and practically.

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 CHAPTER III
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

3.1 Advantages

This book also has several advantages such as:

1. The theory presented is quite clear.
2. Inclusion of expert opinion on each discussion topic.
3. Ideas are arranged systematically.
4. There is a conclusion at the end of each chapter.
5. The author always includes relevant references at the end of the chapter.

3.2 Disadvantages
This book has flaws such as:
1. Relevant research should be shown including significant data.
2. There are some terms or words that are difficult to understand.

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 CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 Conlusions
There is much to learn about teaching, and most of it comes from educational
psychology. Such as the need to know student behaviorism, the development of their mindset,
Social Constructivism. And provide motivation as positive energy in a good stage of
psychological development. As a career, teaching has a characteristic today that was not owned a
generation ago. The new features make it more interesting in some ways, as well as more
challenging than ever. These changes require learning less important teaching skills in the past.
But enough new skills can be learned. Educational psychology, and this text, will get you started
on that task.

4.2 Recommendations
Through this CBR, the writer hopes that both readers and writers can better understand
children's psychology and find out more about how these children have good psychological
development. The author also hopes that psychology books also contain data and research results
that can influence readers to take part in exploring the psychology of students.

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 REFERENCES
1. Seifert, Kelvin and Rosemary Sutton. An educational psychology updated. Contemporary
Psychology vol. 1 (2010).

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