It provides knowledge on theories and psychology principles to guide teachers’ practice in the classroom. It is responsible for having an insight into student’s behavior so that discipline problems can be avoided. Additionally, educational psychology creates awareness on students’ attitudes to help teachers create their healthy personalities and positive self-concept. Along with these skills, it also develops a teacher’s aptitude to choose the most appropriate teaching strategies. On the other hand, it supports teachers to analyze the styles and attitudes and use them to design effective learning for children.
In a nutshell, one can safely say educational psychology advances a teacher’s capacity to choose and construct an appropriate measure of students learning according to the knowledge level, metal ability and learning environment.
My first basic understanding of Educational Psychology was to enable me to appreciate children and their learning abilities. I assumed that it was also significant in catering to each child’s learning needs. Social factors, culture and different styles of learning must be considered when preparing lessons.
The weeks pursuing this course, it has made me look even deeper for comprehension and with further research, I came to a changing point and understood that “Educational Psychology is that branch of psychology which deals with education and learning”.
(Skinner) “Educational psychology describes and explains the learning experiences of an individual from birth through old age”. (Crow & Crow). Educational psychology studies children’s understanding of the world by making comprehensive observations. It studies classroom events and school life.
Educational psychology examines individual differences, assessment, and learning behavior. Additionally, it explores how students learn concepts and remember. Furthermore, it goes in-depth into how culture and social factors affect learning and development.
During this course, there were also different scopes in which I learned apart from its importance. However, in the end, I was able to entirely appreciate the need to avail myself with the knowledge and benefits of educational psychology. These contents have been divided into different parts wherein each topic, I was asked to do some research before class and critique it at the end of each session. This was able to guide my perception and widen my familiarity based on these topics. There were three major areas which includes the learner, learning and classroom processes.
My thoughts and beliefs changed after grasping the numerous benefits that educational psychology poses as a prospective teacher. I have learned that the children that I will be interacting with within my classroom will be different in several important ways. These differences will influence their learning. It is most vital to me that I can respond to these differences. One of these differences is intelligence. According to Gardner’s Theory, he believed that intelligence is composed of eight independent dimensions. With this awareness, I ought to be prepared. My teaching content must capitalize on as many different bits of intelligence as possible. Even though instructions need to vary, it may not be preferred by all but I should help students understand how they learn most effectively. Once I am conscious of the students learning styles, it can increase my sensitivity to differences in my students and will respond to them as individuals.
I also realized that student constructs their knowledge. This has shown me how constructivism makes an enormous contribution to my understanding of learning and classroom practice. It is essential to provide students with a variety of examples and representations of the content. The examples and representation become the experiences learners use to construct their knowledge (Eggen, 2001; J. Freeman, Mc Phail & Berndt 2002). To begin with, I will connect content with real-world experiences. Authentic tasks provide tangible links to the real world facilitating initial learning as well as transfer (Van Merrienboer et al., 2003). Also, I will promote high levels of quality interactions.
Social interactions are essential to the success of all learning activities. This can have tremendous benefits to students such as sharing ideas, appropriating understanding, and articulating thinking. Assessment should be an integral part of the teaching-learning process. Once done effectively it will allow me to look into students’ heads and provide them with feedback and practice with additional problems. This has helped me to understand that students will use their existing knowledge to construct new knowledge that makes sense to them.
The most important factor for me as a prospective teacher is for all my students to be able to learn. However, after looking in-depth in the chapter on motivation, I discovered that motivation plays a major role in influencing how much they learn. Motivation is the force that energizes, sustains, and directs behavior toward a goal (Brophy, 2004; Pintrinch & Schunk, 2002) and researchers have found a positive and robust correlation between motivation and achievement. Using rewards in the classroom can be a great way to increase motivation to learn.
I ought to be careful that I use my rewards for tasks that are not initially, interesting. It must also be based on the quality of work and recognize improvement. It is significant to maintain a strong relationship with students and generate a positive classroom atmosphere to develop motivation. It is substantial that I treat students as individuals and create a safe and orderly classroom where all their needs are met and where they are expected to learn.
With this comprehensive approach to all the aspects of Educational Psychology, I can now avail myself with knowledge of ways to promote student learning. It has provided an insight into diverse perspectives on learning. I am now conscious of the many issues that I may come across that affects student learning. I am capable of creating a constructive learning environment for students and be capable of now applying psychological principles and practices to facilitate student learning.
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