Copyright Allyn & Bacon 1997 Woolfolk : Educational Psychology Chapter 1 Teachers, Teaching, and Educational Psychology

Overview of Chapter 1 What is good teaching? Would teaching be a good career for me? What do expert teachers know? What are the concerns of beginning teachers? How theory and research inform teachers? What problems will Ed Psych help me solve?

What is Good Teaching? l Bilingual First Grade l Suburban Sixth Grade l Inner-city Middle School l Two Advanced Math Classes

Expert Knowledge l Content l General teaching strategies l Curriculum l Subject-specific knowledge l Learners l Settings l Goals & purposes of teaching

Time for Reflection Think of an ‘expert teacher’ you had in the past. How many of the ‘expert knowledges’ did that teacher demonstrated on a consistent basis?

Teaching: Artistry, Technique, and a Lot of Work!

Art versus Science l Teaching as a science: effective techniques l Teaching as an art: reflective, inventive l Teaching as a combined effort

A Perspective on the Art versus Science Question

Where the world ceases to be the stage for personal hopes and desires, where we, as free beings, behold it in wonder, to question and to contemplate, there we enter the realm of art and science. If we trace out what we behold and experience through the language of logic, we are doing science... continued

...if we show it in forms whose interrelationships are not accessible to your conscious thought but are intuitively recognized as meaningful, we are doing art. Common to both is the devotion to something beyond the personal, removed from the arbitrary. Albert Einstein

Concerns of Beginning Teachers

Common Concerns l Classroom discipline l Motivating students l Accommodating differences l Evaluating student work l Dealing with parents l “Reality shock”

The Role of Educational Psychology l Understanding and improvement of instruction l What people think and do as they teach and learn l Solving the everyday problems of education

Common Sense versus Research

Common Sense? l Taking turns in primary reading class. l Classroom management: student movement. l Skipping grades.

Research

Overview of Research l Descriptive research – Ethnography – Case studies – Participant observation – Correlation l Experimental research – Causal – Manipulative l Principles and theories

Correlations l Strength and direction l Size of number is the strength l The sign (+ or -) is the direction l Positive = same direction l Negative = opposite directions l Range is to l Does NOT indicate cause

Experimental Research l Comparable groups of subjects l Random assignment of subjects l Treatment l Measurement after treatment l Statistically significant

A Quick Tour of Topics in Educational Psychology

Topics in Ed Psych l Central focus: Learning and teaching l How children develop l How children differ l Three main approaches to learning l Motivation l Classroom management l Assessment and evaluation

Summary Good teaching Teaching as a career Expert teachers Concerns of beginning teachers Research Textbook topics

Check for Understanding Compare and contrast expert and novice teachers. Use examples from your experience that illustrates your comparisons and contrasts.

Check for Understanding Students in a classroom are being divided into two groups to test a new teaching method. They are assigned to the groups by drawing numbers from a hat. What kind of research is being used?

Check for Understanding Current conceptions of educational psychology view it as being concerned with a. teaching. b. learning. c. improvement of classroom methods. d. all of the above.

LRogien: Boise State University End Chapter 1