EDUCATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction
Definitions
Importance
Stages of teacher development
Important questions to ask yourself
What stages of development can I expect to pass
through during my first year of teaching?
• How can the study of educational psychology help
me develop into an expert teacher?
• How can I evaluate the knowledge acquired
through the study of educational psychology and
decide whether to apply it in my teaching?
• How can I use the knowledge base of educational
psychology to solve specific classroom problems?
Define & differentiate the following terms:

 Education:
 1) developing the capacities and potential of the individual so as to
prepare that individual to be successful in a specific society or
culture. From this perspective, education is serving primarily an
individual development function.
 2) the process by which society transmits to new members the
values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbolic expressions to make
communication possible within society. In this sense, education is
serving a social and cultural function.
 Psychology:
 the scientific study of mind and behavior
Define & differentiate the following terms:

 Educational Psychology:
 Combination of psychology and education
 A distinct scientific discipline within psychology that
includes both methods of study and a knowledge base
 Concerned primarily with understanding the processes
of teaching and learning that take place within formal
environments and developing ways of improving those
methods
 Important topics include learning theories; teaching
methods; motivation; cognitive, emotional, and moral
development; and parent-child relationships
Define & differentiate the following terms:

 Learning:
 can be compared with the other primary process producing
relatively permanent change--maturation--that results from
biological growth and development
 Teaching:
 the purposeful direction and management of the
learning process
Importance of Educational Psychology 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 enables teacher
to
 know that how learning takes place
 recognize how learning process should be initiated, how to
motivate, how to memorize or learn
 guide the students’ abilities in the right direction
 understand the nature of the learners and his potentialities
 develop a student personality because the whole educational
process is for student’s personality development
 adjust his methodologies of learning to the nature / demand
of the learner
 know the problems of individual differences and treat every
student on his / her merit
 solve the learning problems of a student
 evaluate students’ achievements and success
Educational Psychology
 is the scientific discipline that addresses the
questions
 “Why do some students learn more than
others?”
 “What can be done to improve that
learning?”
Stages of Teacher Development
The Survival Stage
 The distinguishing feature of the survival stage of
teaching is that your concerns will focus on your
own well-being more than on the teaching task or
your learners. During this stage, you will typically
have the following concerns:
 Will my learners like me? Will they listen to what I
say? What will parents and teachers think of me?
Will I do well when the principal observes me? Will I
ever have time to myself?
The Task Stage
 At this stage you begin to feel confident that you can manage the
day-to-day routines of the classroom and deal with a variety of
behavior problems. You are at the point where you can plan your
lessons without an exclusive focus on managing the classroom. Your
focus turns toward improving your teaching skills and achieving
greater mastery over the content you are teaching.

Your concerns:
 How good are my instructional materials?

 Will I have enough time to cover all the content?

 How can I add variety to my presentations?

 Where can I get some ideas for a learning center?

 What’s the best way to teach writing skills?

The Impact Stage
 The final stage of teacher growth and development is
characterized by concerns that have to do less with
management and lesson delivery and more with the impact of
your teaching on learners.
Principal concerns:
 How can I increase my learners’ feelings of accomplishment?

 How do I meet my learners’ social and emotional needs?

 What is the best way to challenge my unmotivated learners?

 What skills do they need to best prepare them for the next

grade?
Home assignment
( read : Educational Psychology. A Contemporary Approach .
Gary D. Borich and Martin L. Tombari .
Ch.1 Introduction to Educational Psychology)

Terms to be studied:
1. case study
2. concerns theory
3. control group
4. correlational study
5. dependent variable
6. descriptive research
7. educational psychology
8. ethnography
9. experimental group
10. experimental study
11. generalizability
12. hypothesis
13. impact stage
14. independent variable
15. qualitative research
16. quantitative research
17. randomization
18. survival stage
19. task stage
20. variables