Chapter 1 Educational Psychology: A Tool for Effective Teaching Sesilia Monika

Outline: Exploring Educational Psychology Effective Teaching Historical Background Teaching: art and science Effective Teaching Professional knowledge and skills Commitment and motivation Research in Educational Psychology Why research is important Research methods Program evaluation research, action research, and the teacher as researcher Quantitative and Qualitative Research

1. Exploring educational psychology Educational psychology: the branch of psychology that specializes in understanding teaching and learning in educational settings

1.1 Historical background Three pioneers: William James: Talks to teacher John Dewey: children learn best by doing, adapt the world outside school, competent education for all children E.L. Thorndike: focus strongly on measurement Diversity and early educational psychology Mamie & Kenneth Clark: African-American  self conception George Sanchez: Latino psychologist  intelligence test Leta Hollingworth: gifted The behavioral approach Skinner: programmed learning - reinforcing students The cognitive revolution Benjamin Bloom: taxonomy  remembering, comprehending, synthesizing, evaluating Cognitive psychology: memory, thinking, reasoning, etc

1.2 Teaching: art and science Teaching: requiring improvisation and spontaneity

2. Effective teaching 2.1 Professional knowledge and skills (1) Subject matter competence Facts, terms, general concepts, organizing ideas, patterns of change within a discipline, beliefs about a discipline, and the ability to carry ideas from one discipline to another.

Instructional strategies Constructivist approach: a learner-centered approach to learning that emphasizes the importance of individuals actively constructing knowledge and understanding with guidance from the teacher Direct instruction approach: a structured, teacher- centered approach characterized by teacher direction and control, high teacher expectations for students’ progress, maximum time spent by students on academic tasks, and effort by teacher to keep negative affect to minimum (goal: maximizing student learning time)

Goal setting and instructional planning skills Thinking skills Critical thinking: thinking reflectively and productively and evaluating the evidence Goal setting and instructional planning skills Instructional planning, organizing the lessons Developmentally appropriate teaching practices Understands the children’s development Create materials appropriate for their developmental level Classroom management skills Establishing rules and procedures, organizing groups, monitoring and pacing classroom activities, and handling misbehaviors

Paying more than lip service to individual variations Motivational skills Help the students become self-motivated and take responsibility for their learning Communication skills Skills in speaking, listening, overcoming barriers to verbal communication, tuning in to students’ nonverbal communication, and constructively resolving conflicts, also interacting with parents Paying more than lip service to individual variations Differentiated instruction: involves recognizing individual variations in students’ knowledge, readiness, interests, and other characteristics, and taking these differences into account when planning curriculum and engaging in instruction

Working effectively with students from culturally diverse backgrounds Encourage students to have positive personal contact with diverse students and think of ways to create such settings Assessment knowledge and skills Decide type of tests  before, during, and after instruction Develop a grading system that communicate meaningful information about students’ performance Technological skills To support learning

2.2 Commitment, motivation, and caring Good attitude and caring about students Have confidence in their own self-efficacy, Don’t let negative emotions diminish their motivation Bring a positive attitude and enthusiasm to the classroom Characteristics of best teachers: Have a sense of humor, make the class interesting, have knowledge of their subjects, explain things clearly, spend time to help students, are fair to the students, treats students like adults, relate well to students, are considerate of students’ feelings, don’t show favoritism toward students

3. Research in educational psychology 3.1 Why research is important?? The sharing experiences of teachers, administrators, and experts will make a better teacher How can you tell which one to believe?  Look closely at research on the topics

Personal experience and information from experts can help you become an effective teacher. The information from research will help you sort through various strategies and determine which are most and least effective. Research helps to eliminate errors in judgement that result from relying exclusively on personal experience.

3.2 Research methods (1) 3.2.1 Descriptive research: Observation Laboratory: a control setting from which many of the complex factors of the real world have been removed Naturalistic observation: observation outside of a laboratory in the real world Participant observation: observation conducted at the same time the teacher/researcher is actively involved as a participant in activity or setting Interviews and questionnaires Concrete, specific, and unambiguous questions and some means of checking the authenticity of the respondents’ replies

Standardized tests: tests with uniform procedures for administrations and scoring. They assess students’ performance in different domains and allow a student’s performance to be compared with the performance of other students at the same age or grade level on a national basis Case studies: an in-depth look at an individual Ethnographic studies: in-depth description and interpretation of behavior in an ethnic or a cultural group that includes direct involvement with the participants

Personal journals and diaries Focus group: interviewing people in a group setting, in most cases to obtain information about particular topic or issue Personal journals and diaries Quantitative aspects: activities (how often use…) Qualitative aspects: attitudes and beliefs

3.2.2 Correlational research: research that describes the strength of the relation between two or more events or characteristics 3.2.3 Experimental research: research that allows the determination of the causes of behavior; involves conducting an experiment, which is a carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied is manipulated and all others are held constant

3.2.3 Experimental research (cont.) Independent variable: the manipulated, influential, experimental factor in an experiment Dependent variable: the factor that is measured in an experiment Experimental group: the group whose experience is manipulated in an experiment Control group: in an experiment, a group whose experience is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor Random assignment: in experimental research, the assignment of participants to experimental and control groups by chance

3.3 Program evaluation research, action research, and the teacher-as-researcher Program evaluation research: research designed to make decisions about the effectiveness of a particular program Action research: research used to solve a specific classroom or school problem, improve teaching and other educational strategies, or make a decisions at a specific level Teacher as researcher: also called teacher-researcher, this concept involves classroom teachers conducting their own studies to improve their teaching practice

3.4 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Quantitative research: employs numerical calculation in an effort to discover information about a particular topic Qualitative research: involves obtaining information using descriptive measures such as interviews, case studies, case studies, personal journals and diaries, and focus groups but not statistically analyzing the information Mixed methods research: involves research that blends different research designs and/or methods

Thank you…