GOVT POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE

NOWSHERA

Subject:
Psychology
Assignment:
Educational Psychology
Submitted By:
Numan Ahmad
Roll No:
2605
Bs English First Semester
Submitted To:
Mr. Subhan Ullah
Educational Psychology:
What is educational psychology?
It could be said that educational psychology is the study of
the learner (students), of the process of learning and of
teaching. It is the study of what makes a good teacher , the
role research in education, effective programs development,
theories of learning, the diversity of students, motivation and
learning environments.
Profound Definition And Key Concepts:
Psychology concerned with human maturation, school learning,
teaching methods, guidance, and evaluation of aptitude and progress by
standardized tests.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

It seems too simp le to say that educational psychology is

the psychology of learning and teaching, and yet a majority
of educational psychologists spend their time studying
ways to describe and improve learning and teaching. After
reviewing the historical literature in educational psychology
, Glover and Ronning(1987) suggested that educational
psychology includes topics that span human development ,
individual differences, measurement, learning and
motivation and is both as data-driven and theory-driven
discipline. Thus our definition of educational psychology is
the application of psychology and psychological methods to
the study of development, learning, motivation, instruction,
assessment, and related issues that influences the
interaction and learning. This definition is broad because
the potential application of educational psychology are
immense.
Today educational psychology is a vital discipline that is
contributing to the education teachers and learners. For
example Jerome Brunner, an enduring figure in educational
psychology, recently noted the need to rethink our ideas of
teaching and learning and the interaction among them. He
stated that: “No less than the adults, the child is thought of
as holding more or less coherent theories not only about the
world but about his own mind and how it works. These
naïve theories are brought into congruence with of parents
and teachers not through imitation not through didactic
instruction, but by discourse, collaboration and negotiation
….. this model of education is more concerned with
interpretation and understanding than with the
achievement actual knowledge or skilled
performance.(1997)
To understand how educational psychology can help
teachers and learners, we have to discuss some focus
points of psychology, these are;
1. Understanding the meaning of teaching
The first key concept is the need to understand what it
means to teach.
2. Knowledge of the students
 The core concept is the belief that to teach skillfully, you
must have as much knowledge about students as possible:
their needs, characteristics, all differences. The teacher
must have the skill to trace the cognitive and
developmental lives of children, reflecting diversity of
children, examins the culture, class and gender.
3. Understanding The Learning Process
A priority is understanding the learning process, that is;
the procedure and strategies that students use to acquire
information. That focuses on behavioral explaination in
learning and provides numerous examples of how this
theoretical explaination of learning can be translated into
class room practices.

Benefits of studying educational psychology for teachers

and prospective teachers can be divided into two aspects,
namely:
A. For Studying The Situations In The Learning
Processes:
It can help to improve the efficiency of learning processes
at different conditions as below;
1. Understanding The Individual Differences:
A teacher must deal with a group of students in the class
room with caution, because the characteristics of each
student is different. It is therefore very important to
understand the different characteristics of students at
various levels of growth and development to create
learning effective and efficient.
2. Creation Of a Conducive Learning Environment:
Good understanding of the classroom used in the learning
process helps to deliver material to students effectively.
Environment conducive to learning must be created by the
teacher so that learning process can be run effectively. A
teacher must know the correct principles of teaching and
learning, a different approach in teaching to the learning
process better.
3. Selection Of Learning Strategies And Methods:
Teaching methods are based on the characteristics of the
students` progress. Educational psychology can assist
teachers in determining the strategies or methods of
learning the proper and appropriate, and able to relate to
the characteristics and uniqueness of the individuals, the
type of learning, of the learning styles and levels of
development being experienced by learners.
4. Provide Guidance To The Students:
A teacher must play different roles in the school, not only
in the implementation of the learning, but also act as
mentor for students. Guidance is the kind of assistance to
students to solve their problems they encounter.
Knowledge of educational psychology allow teachers to
provide educational vocational guidance necessary for
students at different ages.
5. Evaluation Of Learning Performance:
Teachers have to do two important activities in the
classroom as teaching and evaluating. The evaluation helps
in measuring student learning outcomes. Educational
psychology can help teacher in developing the evaluation of
student learning that is more just, both in the technical
evaluation, compliance with the principles of the evaluation
and determine the results of evaluations.

B. For The Application Of The Principles Of Teaching

And Learning:
1. Establish Learning Objections:
The purpose of learning refers to changes in students`
behavior is experienced after the implementation of
learning process. Educational psychology helps the
teachers in determining the shape of the desired
behavior change as the learning objectives.
2. Use Of Learning Media:
Educational psychology helps teachers to sort out
appropriate media to be used. For example, the use of
audio-visual media, so as to give a real picture to students.
3. Preparation Of Lesson Schedules:
Timetable should be drafted based on the psychology of
the learner. For example, the subjects which are
considered difficult, like mathematics and sciences,
should be placed at the beginning of the class, when the
conditions and spirit of the students are still fresh in
receiving course materials.

Based on the description, it can be concluded that

overall, the role of educational psychology is to help
teachers to plane, organize and evaluate teaching and
learning activities in schools.