Educational Psychology

      Educational Psychology

By Hai Mar Phyo (Sophia 2)

 

What is Educational Psychology?

 



Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioural perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

Educational psychology incorporates several other psychology disciplines, including developmental psychology, behavioural psychology, and cognitive psychology.

 

The Developmental Perspective


The developmental perspective includes studying biological, cognitive, emotional, and social development throughout the lifespan. This perspective focuses on how children acquire new skills and knowledge as they grow and develop.

For developmental psychologists, there is a balance between nature and nurture in the learning process. This means that as the brain develops, the capacity for learning, problem-solving, and memory increases, and at the same time, life experiences with family, playmates, teachers, and mentors facilitate the learning process and acquisition of knowledge.

By understanding how children think at different stages of development, educational psychologists can better understand what children are capable of at each point of their growth. This can help educators create instructional methods and materials aimed at specific age groups.

 

The Behavioral Perspective



This perspective suggests that all behaviours are learned through conditioning, such as positive reinforcement. Psychologists who take this perspective rely firmly on the principles of operant conditioning to explain how learning happens.

For example, teachers might reward learning by giving students tokens that can be exchanged for desirable items such as candy or toys. The behavioural perspective operates on the theory that students will learn when rewarded for desirable behaviour and punished for bad behaviour.

While such methods can be useful in some cases, the behavioural approach has been criticized for failing to account for internal processes such as attitudes, emotions, and intrinsic motivations for learning.

 

The Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive approach has become much more widespread, mainly because it accounts for factors such as thinking, attention, information processing, and memory formation.

Cognitive psychologists’ value constructs such as individual beliefs, perspectives, emotions, and motivations that contribute to the learning process. This theory supports the idea that a person learns because of their own intrinsic motivation, not because of external rewards as a behaviourist would view it.

Educational psychologists who take a cognitive perspective are interested in understanding how kids become motivated to learn, how they remember the things that they learn, and how they solve problems, among other topics.

 

 

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