Introduction to Educational Psychology

BY:MR. Vinodkumar S Patil

Meaning & Historical Background Of Psychology

• The word psychology is derived from Greek word psycho & logos. ‘Psycho’ means “soul” and ‘logos’ means “science”. The science of soul.

• First Stage: Psychology was defined as the “study of the soul”

• Second Stage: It was again defined as the “study of the mind”

Conti…• Third Stage: Again it was defined by William James (1890)

as the “Study of Consciousness”• Fourth Stage: “Study of total Behaviour” (consciousness

and unconsciousness).• It is scientific because it is systematic study of observable

events/behavior and behavior is unlearned process where in include reflexes, physiological process and instincts and it is learned behavior also because all behavior acquire through practice.

• Today Psychology is scientific method of collecting data about individual and groups to analyze and predict their behavior.

Definitions

• “Psychology is the scientific study of the activities of the individual in relation to his environment” by: Woodworth & Marquis

“Psychology today concerns itself with the scientific investigation of behaviour” by: N.L. Munn

Psychology

Pure Psychology Applied Psychology

Industrial

Crime

Military

Clinical

Animal

LegalPlant

Educational

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

Basic branch• General psychology• Abnormal psychology• Developmental Psychology• Experimental Psychology• Social Psychology

Applied branches• Educational Psychology• Clinical psychology• Industrial psychology • Forensic Psychology• Health Psychology• Personality Psychology

• Abnormal Psychology: *study unusual pattern of behavior.

General Psychology: *study human development, emotions, motivation,

learning, perception, thinking, memory, intelligence and processing.

Behavioral Psychology: *study the behaviors of living organisms.

Biological Psychology: Behavioral neuroscience, also known

as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology is the application of the principles of biology (in particular neurobiology), to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in humans and non-human animals.

Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology is the study of mental

processes such as "attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking."

• Comparative Psychology: Comparative psychology refers to the

scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior.

Cross- Cultural Psychology: Cross-cultural psychology is the

scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions.

• Developmental Psychology: Developmental psychology is the scientific study of

changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span.

Educational Psychology: Educational psychology is the branch of psychology

concerned with the scientific study of human learning.

Experimental Psychology: The branch of psychology concerned with the

scientific investigation of the responses of individuals to stimuli in controlled situations.

• Forensic Psychology: Forensic psychology is the intersection

between psychology and the justice system.

Health Psychology: Health psychology is the study

of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare.

Personality Psychology: Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that

studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include: Constructing a coherent picture of a person and his or her major psychological processes. Investigating individual differences, that is, how people can differ from one another.

Social Psychology: The branch of psychology that deals with social

interactions, including their origins and their effects on the individual.

• Introspection Method• Observation Method• Anecdotal Method• Experimental Method• Case Study Method• Questionnaire Method

PSYCHOLOGY - METHODS

• Introspection Method: examination of one's own conscious

thoughts and feelings. In psychology the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's soul.

Observation Method: the observation and description of a

subject's behavior. Researchers utilizing the observational method can exert varying amounts of control over the environment in which the observation takes place.

• Anecdotal Method: Method based on personal recollections of

a case, as opposed to specific, empirically derived investigation. Can provide ideas to fuel further research.

Experimental Method: The experimental method involves

manipulating one variable to determine if changes in one variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled methods, random assignment and the manipulation of variables to test a hypothesis.

• Case study method: In order to prepare a case history

of data are taken from many sources for example his or her family history, educational life, medical history and social life.

This method is very popular in clinical psychology and life span developmental

psychology.

Questionnaire Method:• A questionnaire consists of a set of questions to

which the individual is required to respond. • The items (questions) of the questionnaire can be

either in closed-ended form or in open-ended form. • In the case of closed-ended item the individual is

provided with limited alternative and he or she has to choose only one alternative which reflects his or her view on the item.

• In open-ended items the individual is free to give his or her response the way he or she likes.

Educational psychology

• Educational psychology is nothing but one of the branch of applied psychology.

• It is an attempt to apply the knowledge of psychology to the field of education.

• In other words , educational psychology is the study of the experience and behavior of the learner in relation to educational environment.

DEFINITIONS:

• Crow and Crow put it as: “Educational Psychology describes and explains the learning experience of an individual from birth through old age”.(1973)

• According to Peel: “Educational Psychology is the science of education.(1956)

• It is that branch of psychology which deals with teaching and learning (by: Skinner)

Educational Psychology with regard to Teaching & Learning

• To Know the learner• To select and organize the subject-matter

or learning experiences• To suggest art and techniques of learning

as well as teaching• To arrange learning situation or

environment Cont … …

• To acquaint him with the mechanism of heredity and environment

• Helping in maintaining discipline• Rendering guidance services• Helping in evaluation and assessment• Solving classroom problems• Knowing about himself• Motivation for Teaching and Learning• Knowledge about group study and group

behaviour• All round development personality

EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Education by all means, is an attempt to mould and shape the behavior of students. Its aims to produce desirable changes in them for all-round development of their personalities.

• The essential knowledge and skill to do this job satisfactorily is supplied by educational Psychology as Peels puts it in the following words:

• “Educational Psychology helps the teacher to understand the development of his pupils, the range and limits of their capacities the process by which they learn and their social relationships” (1956)

NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

• Its nature is scientific since it has been accepted that it is a science of education.

• The relationship between education and education psychology also throws light on its nature. We can summaries the nature of educational psychology in following ways.

By applying the principles and techniques of psychology, it tries to study the behaviour and experiences of the pupils.

Education Psychology limits its study to the behaviour of the pupils(learner) in relation to educational environment.

Conti…

It gives the necessary knowledge and skill(technical guidance) for giving education to the pupils in a satisfactory way.

It is applied positive science. Educational Psychology is not a perfect science. It employs scientific methods and adopts

scientific approach to study the behaviour of an individual in educational environment.

Scope of Educational Psychology

Learning experiencesLearner or pupil

Teacher

Learning situation and environment

Learning processes

Learner:

• The total subject matter of educational psychology primarily revolves around this factor-learner.

• This subject of the subject acquaints us with the need of knowing the learner and deals with the learner and deals with the techniques of knowing him well.

Learning experiences:• This is the second area of educational psychology and

though the subject does not directly connect itself with the problem of what to teach or what learning experiences to provide the learner, it has the responsibility of suggesting the techniques on acquiring learning experiences.

• Educational psychology helps in deciding the kinds of learning experiences desirable at different stages of growth and development of the learner so that these experiences can be acquired with a greater ease and satisfaction.

• In this area, education psychology has the subject matter which facilitates the selection of the desirable experiences for the learner.

Learning processes:• After knowing the learner and deciding on the types of

learning experiences that are to be provided , the next problem arises when helping learner properly acquires these experiences with ease and convenience.

• Therefore around this pivot, educational psychology deals with the nature of learning and how it takes place and comprises topics such as laws, principles and theories of learning, remembering and forgetting perceiving , Concept formation, thinking and reasoning process, problem solving, transfer of training, ways and means of effective learning and so on.

Learning situation or environment:

• Under this topic , educational psychology focuses on the environmental factors and learning situations which come between the learner and the teacher.

Teacher:

• Last but not the least is the teacher. It emphasize the need of knowing the self for a teacher to play his role properly in the process of education.

• It discusses he conflicts motivation, anxiety, adjustment level of aspiration etc.

• Moreover it throws light on the essential personality traits, interest, aptitudes, characteristics of effective teaching etc. so as to inspire him to become a successful teacher.

Functions of Educational Psychology

First Function• To afford a thorough knowledge of the nature

of the child

• Second function– To provide an understanding of the nature, aims,

and purposes of education.

Third Function

• To acquire familiarity with the technical vocabulary and to further an understanding and an appreciation of the scientific procedures by which the data of educational psychology are obtained.

Fourth Function

• To provide a significant knowledge of developmental process with particular emphasis upon the promotion, guidance and control of mental and moral aspects.

Fifth Function

• To provide an understanding of the principles governing learning, together with a knowledge of the techniques for guiding improvement in learning and their application to the practical problems in the classroom.

Sixth Function

• To present the theories underlying the measurement and evaluation of mental abilities, aptitudes, achievements, interest and personality organization.

Seventh Function

• To present the principles and conclusions regarding the prevention of all types of maladjustments together with the approved practices for achieving satisfactory adjustments.

Eight Functions

• “Culminating Function”• To inculcate prospective teacher

the realization that the most essential purpose.

SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Sigmund Freud’s school of

Psychoanalysis

SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Structuralism

Functionalism

Behaviorism

Gestalt School

Humanistic School

Existential School

• 1. STRUCTURALISM: This school of psychology was started by wundt. The goal of structuralism was to find the elements which make up the mind. The main method used by them to discover the elementary units of mind as introspection.

• 2.FUNCTIONALISM: The functioning of mental process and how the mind works was seen as the subject matter of psychology observations of actual behaviour was used to supplement data gathered from introspection.

3.BEHAVIORISM:

• This school is proposed by J.B Watson. It is rooted in Thorndike’s theory of trial and error learning which stress that behaviours formed through association between stimulus and response that are stamped into the behaviours of the organism through the 3 basic laws of frequency, recurancy, and law of effect.

• Later Pavlov postulated that through associate a previous neural stimulus could be condition to elicit a response. Classical conditioning stands as one of the most important paradigm of learning.

Conti…

• Skinner’s theory of instrumental or operant conditioning stresses that the rate of an organism responses(increase or decreases) is directly influenced by the subsequence delivery of a re-enforcer or a punisher.

• The behaviour according to behaviourists whether adaptive or in adaptive is learned and psychology should concern itself only that which objectively observable and measurable.

4.SIGMUND FREUD’S SCHOOL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS:

• Sigmund Freud would has been great Hollywood screenwriter. His stories of personalities in one of desire, power, control and freedom. Our personality represent a drama of sort, acted out in our mind. The ancient Greek thought that all peoples were actor in the drama of the god above. For Freud, we are simply actors in the drama of our mind, pushes by desire, pulled by conscience.

• According to Freud, there is conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious levels in person and there are three dimension of a personality which call id, ego and super-ego .

5.GESTALT SCHOOOL:• Wertheimer, Kohler and Kafka were the proponents of this

school. This group made their greatest contribution and perception and learning theory from which cognitive theory was eventually evolved.

• The formation of Gestalt as configuration is arrested by innate tendencies of organism, its perceptual experience on the basis of similarity continuity and closure.

• The Gestalts state that the mind should be thought of as a result from the whole bottom at sensory activities and the relationship within this pattern,. They maintained or mentioned that of mind is not made up of a combination of simple elements..

6.HUMNISTIC SCHOOL:

• Karl Roger is the proponent of this school. They believe that man is essentially good and rational with I-me-myself as the centre of experience. The most important striving is self – actualization . People react to way, consistent to their perceptions of world.

• Perceived that threats is followed by defense, rigidity, narrowing at perception and defense mechanisms.

• The therapist must view the client as an individual with the capacity of self-direction and be able to express a sense of positive unconditional regards.

7.EXISTENTIAL SCHOOL:

• The ultimate challenge to human existence is the sense at personal identity and to build meaningful links with the world.

• Modern man suffers from confusion and the strain of blind conformity and striving for increased self determination.

• Man is viewing as a choosing, free, and responsible agent anxiety in many ways is unavoidable however, the individual can be neurotic or can comfort and challenged.

The goals of psychology

• Describe• Understand• Predict• Control & modify behavior and mental

process.