Psychological Foundations

(Concepts and Aspects)

Meaning, Nature and Scope of Educational Psychology

What is Psychology?
The word, ‘Psychology’ is derived from two Greek words, ‘Psyche’ and
‘Logos’. Psyche means ‘soul’ and ‘Logos’ means ‘science’. Thus psychology was
first defined as the ‘science of soul”.
According to earlier psychologists, the function of psychology was to study
the nature, origin and destiny of the human soul. But soul is something metaphysical.
It cannot be seen, observed and touched and we cannot make scientific experiments
on soul.
In the 18th century, psychology was understood as the ‘Science of Mind’.
William James (1892) defined psychology as the science of mental processes. But
the word ‘mind ‘is also quite ambiguous as there was confusion regarding the nature
and functions of mind. Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “Science of
Consciousness”.
James Sully (1884) defined psychology as the “Science of the Inner World”.
Wilhelm Wundt (1892) defined psychology as the science which studies the
“internal experiences’.
According to B.F. Skinner, “Psychology is defined as a “science of behavior
and experiences on human beings”. According to Crow and Crow, “Psychology is
the study of human behavior and human relationship’”.

What is Educational Psychology?

Education by all means is an attempt to mould and shape the behavior of the
pupil. It aims to produce desirable changes in him for the all-round development of
his personality.
Educational psychology is that branch of psychology in which the findings of
psychology are applied in the field of education.
It is the scientific study of human behavior in educational setting. So
Educational Psychology is the science of Education”.
Educational psychology deals with the behavior of human beings in
educational situations.
Educational psychology is a behavioral science with two main references;
human behavior and education.
 Educational psychology helps the teacher to understand the development of
his pupils, the range and limits of their capacities, the processes by which they learn
and their social relationships.

Educational psychology is the study of how people learn, including teaching

methods, instructional processes, and individual differences in learning. The goal
that people learn and retain information. This branch of psychology involves the
learning process of early childhood and adolescence, but also the social, emotional,
and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan.
The field of educational psychology incorporates a number of other disciplines,
including developmental psychology, behavioral psychology, and cognitive
psychology.

Perspectives in Educational Psychology

Educational psychology tend to take on different perspectives when
considering a problem. These perspectives focus on specific factors that influence
learning, 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. For example, 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. While such methods can be useful in some cases, the
behavioral approach has been criticized for failing to account for attitudes,
emotions, and intrinsic motivations for learning.
The Developmental Perspective
This perspective focuses on how children acquire new skills and knowledge as
they develop. Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development is one example of an
important developmental theory looking at how children grow intellectually.
Educational psychologists understands that how children are capable of at each
point of their growth and the children think at different stages of development,
This helps educators to create instructional methods and materials aimed at certain
age groups.

The Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive approach focuses on the factors 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 children become
motivated to learn, how they remember the things that they learn, and how they
solve problems, among other topics.

The Constructivist Approach

This perspective focuses on how learner actively constructs knowledge of
the world. Constructivism accounts for the social and cultural influences that affect
how students learn. Constructivist approach believe that learners’ previous
knowledge is the biggest influence on the new information that they learn. This
means that new knowledge can only be added on to and understood in terms of
existing knowledge. This perspective is heavily influenced by the work of
psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who proposed ideas such as the zone of proximal
development and instructional scaffolding.

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.

Psychological Foundations of Education

Psychological foundation is based on the individual differences, every
student has its own unique personality and they have differences in their leering
and skills. They are different in nature so they can’t be treated alike in teaching
learning process, some may be fast learner while other slow. Therefore the content
material and teaching methods should be based on the above facts, and it should be
designed to support the capacity and potentialities of all the students. Psychology
play a vital role in the teaching learning process. It is the foundation for all type of
educational related programs. The methods of teaching, the selection of content of
subjects, the methods and theories of learning, the overall development of the
students and to inculcate the norms of the society in the students.

• Psychological foundation is important for all the learning processes;

curriculum development, Child mental development, teaching methods,
learning theories, administration of education system and planning, character
building of the students, attitude of students and teacher, the society, the use
of different technologies.
• Psychological foundations helps to find new ways of teaching learning
process, how students learn under different conditions. It gives foundation
 for new ways and materials from the analysis of teaching learning problem
and formulating new approaches for teaching and learning process.
• Psychological foundations helps in all fields of education, it not just add to
knowledge, psychology is applied in practical class room situation as well as
in the curriculum development process by defining teaching methods and
selection and origination of the content.

Role of psychological Foundations in Selecting

Content/Subject Matter
Psychological foundations play important role in selection of content/subject
matter for students. Following are the basic criteria for selection of content
material;

1. Significance

The subject matter or content is significant if it is selected and organized for

the development of learning activities, skills, processes, and attitude. It also
develops the three domains of learning; cognitive, affective and psychomotor
skills, and considers the cultural aspects of the learners. Particularly, if your
students come from different cultural backgrounds and races, the subject matter
must be culture-sensitive.

2. Validity

Psychological foundations helps that the subject matter/material is valid,

authentic, true and accurate. Validity refers to the authenticity of the subject matter
or content selected. Make sure that the topics are not irrelevant. For example, do
not include typewriting as a skill to be learned by college students. It should be
about the computer or Information Technology (IT). Thus, there is a need to check
regularly the subject matter or contents of the curriculum, and replace it if
necessary. Do not wait for another 5 years in order to change it.

3. Interest

This criterion is true to learner-centered subject matter/ content of

curriculum. Students learn best if the subject matter is meaningful to them. It
becomes meaningful if it is interested for students. But if the subject-centered is
lengthy and do not based on the psychological principles then teachers have no
choice but to finish it and teach only what is in the book. This become cause for
students’ failure in the subject.

4. Utility

Psychological foundations helps in the usefulness of the content or subject

matter. Students think that a subject matter or some subjects are not important to
them. They view it useless. As a result, they don’t study. The content selected
based on psychological foundation helps students prepare them for social and
professional life. Students only value the subject matter or content if it is useful to
them.

5. Learnability

The subject matter or content must be within the schema of the learners. It
should be within their experiences. Teachers should apply theories on psychology
of learning in order to know how subjects are presented, sequenced, and organized
to maximize the learning capacity of the students. Teachers face problems of
individual differences which can be minimized by focusing psychological
principles.
6. Feasibility
It means that the subject matter can be fully implemented. It should consider
the real situation of the school, the government, and the society, in general.
Students must learn within the allowable time and the use of resources available.
Do not give them a topic that is impossible to finish. Further, feasibility means that
there should be teachers who are experts in that area. For example, do not offer
English for Business Communication if there is no teacher to handle it.
There is a need to consider the nature of the learners. The organization and
design of the subject matter or content must be appropriate to the nature of
students. Teachers select wide range of content some content for high achievers
and other for low achievers otherwise, many will fail in that subject.
7. Self-sufficiency

To help learners attain maximum self-sufficiency at the most economical

manner is the main guiding principle for subject matter or content selection.
Economy of learning refers to less teaching effort and less use of educational
resources; but students gain more results. They are able to cope up with the
learning outcomes effectively. This means that students should be given chance to
experiment, observe, and do field study. This allows them to learn independently.

Importance of Psychological Foundations for Teachers

Teacher is like a philosopher who guides his student. He is responsible to be aware
about growth and development of the students. It is educational psychology which
enables the teacher to use various techniques. The importance of educational
psychology and teachers has the following points:

▪ Educational Psychology helps teacher to know that how learning takes place.
▪ It enables a teacher that how learning process should be initiated, how to
motivate, how to memorize or learn.
▪ It helps teachers to guide the students in right direction in order to canalized
student’s abilities in right direction.
▪ It informs a teacher, about the nature of the learners and his potentialities.
 ▪ It helps a teacher to develop a student personality because the whole
educational process is for student’s personality development.
▪ It helps a teacher to adjust his methodologies of learning to the nature /
demand of the learner.
▪ It enables a teacher to know the problems of individual differences and treat
every student on his / her merit.
▪ It helps a teacher that how to solve the learning problems of a student.
▪ It helps a teacher that how to evaluate a students that whether the purpose of
teaching & learning has been achieved.
Importance of Psychological Foundations in Education
Following are the points which show the importance of education psychology in
education. It also show how educational psychology and education have
importance for another another.

1. Learner
Educational Psychology studies various factors which have impacts upon students,
which may include home environment, social groupings, peer groups, his / her
emotional sentiments, and mental hygiene etc. Various methods are used in order
to get the desired data about the learner in order to know about him / her mentality
and behavior and its manifestations.

2. The Learning Process

Here educational psychology investigates that how information and knowledge be
transferred and what kinds of methodologies should be used for that purpose.

3. Learning Situation
Educational Psychology studies the factors which are situational in nature that how
environment like of classroom be managed and how discipline be maintained.
Besides it, it studies various Audio Video Aids & its role in facilitating the
teaching learning process.

4. Curriculum Development
Educational psychology helps curriculum developers that what kind of curriculum
should be made and what kinds of content be given to teachers to transfer to the
next generation.

5. Evaluation Techniques
Educational psychology helps educators that what kinds of evaluation techniques
should be used to test the learner that to what extend information and concept have
been transferred.