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TOPIC TWO: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: A TOOL FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING 3 Hours

Welcome to topic two which focuses on the following sections:

Section 1: Definitions of educational psychology

Section 2: Importance of educational psychology
Section 3: Principal Functions Of Educational Psychology
Section 4: Development history of educational psychology
Section 5: Domains of Learning
Section 6: Laws of Learning

DEFINITION OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

This is a branch of Psychology that deals with the understanding of learners and possible attempts to
make them learn better.

An area of applied psychology whose primary concern is to apply psychological knowledge to

problems involving teaching – learning process.

It can also be defined as the systematic study of the development of the individual within the
educational settings

The study of human mind and behavior with relation process. It is the application of psychological
findings to the field of education

Education psychology in understanding teaching and learning in educational settings.

Educational psychology is both a science and art. As a science, educational psychology aims to
provide you with research knowledge that you can effectively apply to teaching situations. As
an art you need some important judgment in classroom based on your personal skills and
experience as well as accumulate wisdom of other teachers.

PRINCIPAL FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

The principal functions of educational Psychology are;

 develop and evaluate theories of human, motivation, development learning and instruction
 to examine and propose modification of educational practices
 to evaluate teaching methodology in the light of psychological theory.
 To provide scientific approaches to research with regard to psychological aspects of education.
 The broad aims of educational psychology are to understand, predict and control behavior in
learning situations.
 Educational psychologists have devoted their professional lives to understanding learners, the
learning process and instructional strategies.

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 The focal areas of educational psychology are the learners, the learning process and the learning
situation.

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Educational psychology helps the teacher to;
 Understand the behavior of different children at different stages of development
 Understand the learners’ problems and find possible solutions to them
 Choose the best teaching methods to teach different subjects as dictated by maturation trends
in children
 Select suitable learning materials and learning Aids for children at different stages of
development
 Understand pupils background and possible causes of their problems or strong points
 Try to make the best she/he can of each child that is under his guidance
 Predict behavior and development and therefore know how to support and enhance
development
 Understand and attempt to explain children’s behavior
 Use knowledge and different theories to motivate children, instill values, good habits and
correct unacceptable behavior
 Understand factors that influence learning and wellbeing of children and therefore try to
provide that enhance learning and development

History and Development of Educational Psychology

Th field of education psychology was founded by several pioneers in psychology just before
the start 20th century.

William James (1842-1910)

Soon after launching a psychology book entitled ‗principles of psychology (1890)‘, he gave a
series of lectures called talk to the teacher in which he discussed the application of
psychology to educating children. He argued for importance of observing teaching and
learning in class room. He recommended that to start a lesson at point just beyond the
understanding of child‘s level of knowledge and understanding in order to stretch the child‘s
mind.

Dewey John (1859-1952)

He established the first educational psychology laboratory in USA at the University of

Chicago. He viewed the child as active learner and student learn better by doing instead of
sitting quietly in their seats and passively learns in rote manner. Children should be reflective
problem solvers. He believed that children should be taught solvers.

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Edward Thorn Dike (1874-1949)

Initiated an emphasis on assessment and measurement and promoted the scientific

underpinning of learning. He argued that one of schooling most important tasks is to horn
children‘s reasoning skills.

Importance of Educational Psychology

i) Helps the teacher in the selection of suitable and relevant teaching resources
ii) Helps the teacher understand the nature of children he/she is deaing wth in terms of growth
and development
iii) Helps the teacher understand individual gifts among pupils i.e mental, social etc…
iv)Helps the teacher in the selection of appropriate teaching methods evaluation procedures
i.e setting exams
creating and monitoring a classroom atmosphere that is suitable to earning
v) Educational psychology is very important in the development of teachers in instruction,
guidance and counselling roles of teachers.
vi)It provides a unique understanding of human understanding of human personality, cognitive
processes, and environment supplements of learning.

Challenges in learning that knowledge in education psychology can address;

i) Teaching is multidimensional-many events occur simultaneously at same time and rapid

succession. It involves many different domains (cognitive, social, effective, moral can be
resolved. For example, the teacher often must balance what is good for the individual and the
group.

ii) Teaching involves uncertainty it is difficult to predict what effect a given action by the
teacher will have on a particular student. In educational psychology we examine general
principal which you can use to instruct and motivate students, assess their learning and
manage the class room. The teacher‘s role is seen as be in more like a guide who help
students construct knowledge and understanding than that of a director who pours knowledge
into the student‘s minds and control their behavior.
iii) Schools are setting in which considerable socialization takes place. When teacher
make decision about the routine matters such which student too call on, how to call on
them, what kind of assignment to make, how to group student for, they can create
advantage and disadvantages for others.

iv) Teaching involves diverse mosaic of students-classroom may be filled with students who
differ in many ways-intellectual ability, personality, interests, varying motivation to learn
family background, religious background, children with disabilities.

LEARNING

Learning involves changing and adapting to new ways of behavior. It is a relatively permanent change
in behavior traceable to experience and practice.

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Once something is learned, an organism can exhibit a behavior that indicates learning has occurred.
This implies that, once a behavior has been "learned", it can be exhibited by "performance" of a
corresponding behavior in a more permanent way.

Learning also can be defined as the process of acquiring attitudes, values, skills and knowledge

After information has been stored in the long –term memory, retrieving it means searching for it from
our store of memory to find the relevant information. This process likely will require more effort.

DOMAINS AND LAWS OF LEARNING

Domains refer to categories of learning behaviours that can be thought as goals of learning
processes Bloom and Blooms (1956) identified three domains of educational activities :
 Cognitive mental skills knowledge
 Affective growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude )
 Psychomotor :manual or physical skills (skills )
That is after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge and /or
attitudes. The three spheres of learning –cognitive, affective, and psychomotor –that must be
addressed by a teacher in order to influence behavioural change on the part of the learner. The
domains are subdivided starting from the simplest behaviour to the most complex, for example,
cognitive domain is divided into knowledge , comprehension ,application, analysis ,synthesis
and evaluation . Psychomotor requires coordination of muscles and brain. Involves writing,
observation, imitation, practicing and adapting .Affective learning is about changing an
individuals’ feelings, values and attitudes. Involves receiving, responding,valuing,
organisation, and characterisation. Let’s explain the domains a little further;

Cognitive learning which involves thinking, reasoning and other mental processes. It takes
place at different levels
a) Information or knowledge of specific terminologies and acts, trends and sequences,
classification and categories, criteria, methods of doing things, principles and generalisations.
b) Comprehension involves the ability to understand, translate, interpret, explain and elaborate.
c) Analysis is the ability to examine elements in parts of something, to see their relationships
and to generate principles of organising ideas
d) Application the ability to use knowledge to solve problems
e) Synthesis the ability to put ideas together to, produce a unique communication
f) Evaluation is making judgement using the data collected
g) Problem solving means getting an answer to a question
h) Creativity is the ability to develop unique ideas, plans.

Psychomotor learning involves the control and coordination of the muscles and body parts. It
occurs at various levels;
a) Basic reflex actions which are unconscious
b) Basic fundamental locomotor (movement),non-locomotor ad manipulative movements
c) Perceptual abilities include visual, auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic, discrimination, and
coordination of all perceptual abilities.
d) Physical abilities of endurance, strength, flexibility, and agility

Affective learning which is a form of learning involving emotions, feelings, attitudes and
values at the following levels;
a) Receiving and attending, which involves sensitivity to a given condition, problem, or event
happening.

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b) Responding or reacting to a condition or event.

c) Valuing is attaching worth.

LAWS OF LEARNING (Edward Thorn Dike (1874-1949)

There are basically six principles of teaching that affect learning. These include readiness,
exercise, effect, primacy, recency and intensity

Law of Readiness implies a degree of single mindedness and eagerness. Individuals learn best
when they are physically ,mentally and emotionally ready to learn and do not learn well if they
see no reason of learning .Getting students ready to learn, creating interests by showing the
value of the subject matter , and providing continuous mental or physical challenge ,is usually
the teachers responsibility .If students have a strong purpose , aclear objective and a definite
reason for learning something ,they make more progress than if they lack motivation .Students
may not be ready to learn for various reasons namely;

 Basic needs of students must be satisfied before they are ready or capable of learning
 Students who are exhausted or in ill health obviously cannot learn much
 If outside responsibilities, interests ,or worries weigh too heavily on their mind
 If their schedules are overcrowded
 If their personal problems seem insoluble students may have little interests in learning

The law of exercise states that those things often repeated are best remembered .it is the basis
of drill and practice .It has been proven that students learn best and retain information longer
when they have meaningful practice and repetition .The key concept here is that the practice
must be meaningful

It is clear that practice leads to improvement only when it is followed by positive

feedback .The mind can rarely retain evaluate and apply new concepts or practices after a
single exposure .Students do not learn complex tasks in a single session .They learn by
applying what they have been told and shown, every time practice occurs ,learning continues.
These include student recall, review and summary and manual drill and physical
applications .All of these serve to create learning habits .The instructor must repeat important
items of subject matter at reasonable intervals and provide opportunities for students to practice
while making sure that this process is directed towards a goal.

The law of effect is based on the emotional reaction of the student .It has a direct relationship
to motivation .The principle of effect is that learning is strengthened when accompanied by a
pleasant or satisfying feelings and that learning is weakened when associated with unpleasant
feeling .Positive reinforcement is more apt to lead to success and to motivate the learner ,so the
instructor should recognize and comment improvement .Whatever the learning situation ,it
should contain elements that affect the student positively and give them a feeling of
satisfaction .therefore instructors should be cautious about using punishment in the
classroom .One of the most important obligations of the instructor is to set up the learning
situation in such a manner that each trainee will be able to see evidence of progress and
achieve some degree of success . A student‘s chance of success is definitely increased if the
learning experience is a pleasant one.

Implications of these laws to learning

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1) According to this laws the task can be started from the easier aspect towards its difficult side.
This approach will benefit the weaker and backward children.

2) A small child learns some skills through trial and error method only such as sitting, standing,
walking, running etc. In teaching also the child rectifies the writing after committing mistakes.

3) In this theory more emphasis has been laid on motivation. Thus, before starting teaching in the
classroom the students should be properly motivated.

4) Practice leads a man towards maturity. Practice is the main feature of trial and error method.
Practice helps in reducing the errors committed by the child in learning any concept.

5) Habits are formed as a result of repetition. With the help of this theory the wrong habits of the
children can be modified and the good habits strengthened.

6) The effects of rewards and punishment also affect the learning of the child. Thus, the theory lays
emphasis on the use of reward and punishment in the class by the teacher.

7) The theory may be found quite helpful in changing the behavior of the delinquent children. The
teacher should cure such children making use of this theory.
8) With the help of this theory the teacher can control the negative emotions of the children such as
anger, jealousy etc.

9) The teacher can improve his teaching methods making use of this theory. He must observe the
effects of his teaching methods on the students and should not hesitate to make necessary
changes in them, if required.

10) The theory pays more emphasis on oral drill work. Thus, a teacher should conduct oral drill of the
taught contents. This helps in strengthening the learning more

Congratulations! We can now move to topic three

Dr. J. NABISWA KIBU 2023/2024 PSY 211 UNIT 2 GUIDE NOTES