overview of educational psychology what is educational psychology? –educational psychology is the...

Chapter 1 Chapter 1

The Study of The Study of Educational PsychologyEducational Psychology

Overview of Educational Psychology

• What is Educational Psychology?

– Educational psychology is the study of human behavior applied to the teaching and learning process

• Human behavior is an individual’s action in a given situation

– Educational psychology relies heavily on findings generated through the scientific method of research

– Knowledge about educational settings and behaviors informs teaching practices

©2011 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.

Reasons to Study Human Behavior

• Behavior is dynamic, complex, and occurs at a rapid and continuous pace.

• Behavior follows patterns and can be predictable.• Some regularities are known to most people.

• (ex. Crying child consoled by caregiver)

• Some regularities are:– Subtle– Difficult to analyze– Not attended to

• The science of psychology helps to systematically notice and explain behavior.


Three Applications of Psychology to Education

1. Provides model of teaching a learning process

2. Integrates principles of classroom management

3. Provides perspectives on the causes of behavior


Six Characteristics of classroom

environment (according to Doyle, 1996)

• Multidimensional

• Simultaneous

• Immediate

• Unpredictable

• Public

• History


Factors that impact learning?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws5tZ59JDDk

Transactional Model of Teaching

Many Factors combine to influence student achievement.

• Family• Student/Teacher characteristics• Student/Teacher behavior• Community• School/State policies


Classroom management

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WXhtyVs9Gk

Good Classroom Management

Four basic assumptions:

• Rules need to be understood and accepted

• Engage students in meaningful activities

• Establish a productive learning environment vs. one that focuses on behavior control.

• Develop inner self-control in students


Tenants of Science

Science is the identification, description, and exploration of naturally occurring phenomena

• Observation is the process of recording something

• Questions are phrased in a way that they are testable

• Hypothesis is a proposed answer to research question

• Replication increases confidence by yielding same results

• Parsimony in which the simpler of two theories is preferred


Facts, Principles, and Theories

• Facts– Disconnected pieces of information

• Principles– Expand upon and connect several facts

• Theories– Comprehensive collections of principles

• Subsume many facts• Broad-based• Explanations have wide application


Theories should have

• Internal validity

• External validty

Types of Research


Experimental

• Independent variable

• Dependent variable

• Random assignment

• Control group

• Often preferable but not always possible – why?

Single subject

• Why would this be used?

• Baseline phase

• Treatment phase

Correlational

• Correlational coefficient - > 40 is generally explorable

• -1 0 +1

Observational/ Qualitative

• Participant observer

Teacher-Initiated research

• How can you use your own ongoing research to aid you in being an effective teacher?

overview of educational psychology what is educational psychology? –educational psychology is the...

Documents