Week 1: What is Educational Psychology? PDF

**Lecture Notes** ================= **Our focus for Week 1** ======================== In regards to our focus, this week we will get introduced to educational psychology - what it is, its history, approaches to research, and research methods. We will also discuss reflective practice as well as cur...

**Lecture Notes** ================= **Our focus for Week 1** ======================== In regards to our focus, this week we will get introduced to educational psychology - what it is, its history, approaches to research, and research methods. We will also discuss reflective practice as well as curricular and instructional planning. The goal is to develop an understanding of how to apply knowledge of educational psychology to your planning activities. Primary Learning Objective 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. **EARLY AUGUST Planning for the Upcoming School Year** - - - - - - - - - **Student-teacher relationships** **"What is the most important influence upon your education?"** → once they went through all the results of the study, every group (teachers, parents, students, administration) addressed student-teacher relationships as having a major impact on education **Reflective Practitioner are Educators Who** - - - - - - - - - **Dr. Cameron 5 Basic Planning Concepts** **→** establishing a calm and assertive atmosphere → meaningful learning is based on **psychological security**, this necessary for learning to unfold **What is Educational Psychology?** - - **Four Commonplaces of Education** **Teacher → Topic → Setting → Student** - - - **What is the outcome when teachers and researchers pay little attention to one of the commonplaces?** - - - - - - **Central Topics of Educational Psychology** Educational Psychology takes into account how core psychological concepts and principles influence education practice. This relationship is **bidirectional**. Educational psychology also considers how educational practice itself frames psychological perspectives and research. - - - - - - - - - **Learning and Cognition:** How do students think and learn? what are some potential barriers to their learning? How can our teaching be constructed to support learning needs? **Development**: Is the curriculum developmentally aligned \[with each student\]? *What ages/grades can students be taught/not taught particular curricular concepts? How do changes in students' cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and physical development influence the teaching and learning process?* **Social and Cultural Influences:** How do classrooms or culturally unique neighbourhoods affect teaching, learning and development? **Motivation:** Why do some students engage in certain activities and tasks while others do not? Through engagement, students are telling us something. How can teachers use students\' interests to facilitate learning \[instrinically\]? **Behaviour/Classroom Management:** How can students learn to self-regulate their behaviour and their learning? How do teachers construct classroom environments that are academically effective and inspire learning? Teachers often help co-regulate students as well as foster safety (physically and psychologically). If students do not feel safe, their mind is not open to learning. **Individual Differences:** How can our teaching be developed to take advantage of existing individual differences (cognitive, emotional, and behavioural abilities)? Why do students need more instructional help than others? **Assessment and Evaluation:** How can educators best determine whether or not students have learned? How is assessment linked to our instruction so objectives are clear? How is instruction guided by assessment? **Teaching and Instruction:** Thinking about the four commonplaces in education, what kinds of teaching methods are best? Under what conditions should they be applied? **Psychological Foundations of Curricula:** How does curriculum design impact pedagogy? **History of Educational Psychology** *→ The early beginnings of educational psychology research can be traced to the work of Johann* *Friedrich Herbart and his disciples who, in the mid- to late 1800s, were the first to make pedagogy, or teaching, the focus of systematic research. Despite their own research shortcomings, Herbartians convinced teachers and educational administrators that education was a field to be taken seriously and studied scientifically.* *→The work of Hall and James, and especially their unique-for-the-time lecture series, reveals an early desire among both psychologists and educators to develop better psychological understandings of teaching.* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fm6wNzK70]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fm6wNzK70) *DEWY:* → **learning by doing (experiential learning)** is more effective because students are immersed in the present and not the future (e.g., thinking about an exam). Accidents can happen, but students will take notes, summarize findings, and learn from mistakes. → **discussion** helps prepare students for conversations in a democratic society. Through debates, students learn to formulate their own opinions, convenience others and see the world from a different point of view. → **interaction** with the environment is essential for the learning process since education is an experience that is subject to constant change. Passive recipients of knowledge learn very little (e.g., being lectured to). → learning is **interdisciplinary** because it allows students to build on what they already know and strengthen their understanding. To the brain, this is effective because it links new knowledge to previous experiences. **The Shift** - - - - - - - - **Educational Psychology Research** Better teaching and learning occurs when educators contemplate how research findings are relevant to their classrooms. **Credible Research** *→ Credible research is the judicious application of appropriate investigative procedures in an* *effort to best answer the questions being asked. The way in which research is conducted is* *referred to as the method.* *→ This term speaks to three important features that separate proven and reliable research from the logical assumptions, intuitive hunches, and common-sense applications that are often erroneously used to describe or explain educational phenomena.* 1. 2. 3. *When all three of the above features are properly applied, the findings of a study are said to be valid (they answer the question asked) and reliable (the same answer is highly likely if the research is repeated).* *→ This does not mean, however, that assumptions, hunches, and common-sense explanations* *do not play an important role in educational research. Very often, highly perceptive teachers* *identify perplexing situations that defy logical or accepted explanations, and this leads to the* *most intriguing research questions.* **Systematic:** makes research reliable because it shows the researcher has *methodically* considered *all possible factors* related to the question. **Objective:** eliminates bias \[that the researcher brings in\]. → bracketing is when you think about your personal biases before conducting research and then you acknowledge and "shelf" them so you do not bring them into your own observations or research. **Testable:** variables can be applied and observed in educational settings. **Valid:** outcomes answer the question asked. **Reliable:** the same outcomes are likely if the research is repeated. **Steps in the Research Process** **Quantitative Research Methods** - - - - - - - - - - **Qualitative Research Methods** - - - - - - **Teacher Planning** *Poor planning may result in occasional mistakes and setbacks, but not doing any planning* *will certainly result in instruction that is vague and directionless, students who do not learn despite their best efforts, and classrooms that lack predictability, structure, and routine. Annette has learned that good planning involves a careful and simultaneous consideration of (a) what she will teach, (b) the order in which it will be taught, (c) what teaching methods and materials she will use, (d) the type of environment she will teach in, and (e) how andwhen her students will be assessed.* **What Needs Planning?** - - - - - **Results of Effective Planning** - - - **Curricular Planning**... the learning experiences and goals that teachers develop for their classes in light of students' characteristics and the teaching context (Darling-Hammond et al., 2005)  **Top-Down Approach** Diagnostic Testing → What are students coming into the course knowing? Do you need to pre-teach for certain topics? 1. 2. 3. 4. *The main objective of her planning process at this point in August is to establish and visualize "the big picture" for all of her teaching and to determine the basic sequencing of all topics. Annette uses some of the sequences and thematic units suggested in the curriculum guides, modifies several others to suit her teaching preferences, and designs completely new and different units based on her inherent need to teach common topics across various grades, as well as on her growing knowledge about her students and the community and region where they live. She constructs just a few daily lesson plans now (enough to get her started in September) and will develop the rest as the year unfolds.* *When she does start to design her lesson plans in earnest, she will follow two well-proven rules: (1) the purpose of each lesson will be clear, and (2) the theme or essence of each lesson will be flexible enough to accommodate interruptions (systemic or behavioural) and teachable moments.* *As recommended by Dr. Cameron, Annette assembles her pre-instructional assessment* *indicators by modifying the final tests or other evaluation methods that were administered* *at the end of the previous school year. While this process initially seemed an onerous task,* *it actually turns out to be relatively easy once she gets started. Annette reads a copy of* *each test or evaluation method for each grade, and using information from respective cur-* *riculum guides, she reduces each one to between 10 and 20 questions (10-14 questions for* *the younger students and 15-20 for the older ones). On each assessment tool, more than* *half the questions assess global or general curricular objectives, while the remaining ques-* *tions assess specific knowledge or skills. Annette knows that after the summer holidays,* *students will remember general concepts better than specific topical details. Allowing time* *for differing student abilities, she estimates that each pre-instructional assessment will* *take between 45 and 60 minutes. Recognizing the limited attention span of the younger* *students, Annette will have them complete each test in two shorter time periods.* *Based on the topics covered in the diagnostic assessment, Annette also prepares the les-* *son plans she needs for the start of school. These lesson plans address both language arts/* *English and math for each group of students. She knows that unless her pre-instructional* *assessment tools are way off the mark, these lessons will only require minor modifications* *in order to be suitable instructional starting points.* ***Curriculum Planning*** *→ To lay people, "curriculum" is simply what is taught in schools. They are unaware of the knowledge, planning, and analysis of curricula that form the basis for expert teacher practice. Without a firm understanding of curriculum design and planning, good teaching would be impossible, even for experienced educators.* *→ Darling-Hammond et al. (2005) define curriculum planning as the learning experiences and* *goals that teachers develop for their classes in light of students' characteristics and the teaching context.* *→ They (p. 200) outline the following three interrelated elements of the curricular planning process:* 1. 2. 3. **Instructional Planning** - - **Instructional Approaches** - - - - - - *As a result of my constructivist understandings, my approach to teaching contains the fol-* *lowing three student-centred elements that take full advantage of the constructivist perspec-* *tive: (1) each of my lessons contains specific learning outcomes that fall under the umbrella of* *overarching themes, allowing my students to see where and how new and specific information* *is related to larger frames of knowledge; (2) students get to construct their own meaning and* *knowledge under my watchful guidance; thus, \| can prevent them from constructing knowl-* *edge only on their own and/or constructing knowledge that is obviously incorrect; and (3)* *students in my classes engage in problem-based learning (emphasizing problem-solving pro-* *cesses) and project-based learning (emphasizing a product or artifact as an outcome) because* *while these types of activities are mostly student-directed, they are still teacher-facilitated and* *they are ideal for collaborative efforts by groups of students. In my classroom, these combined* *instructional strategies require students to utilize a wide-ranging set of academic abilities to* *solve authentic, real-life problems and/or academic problems while producing related aca-* *demic products.* **Self-Regulated Learning** "\... the ability to stay calmly focused and alert, which often involves - but cannot be reduced to self control. The better child can stay calm and focused and alert, the better he integrates the diverse information coming in from his different senses, assimilates it, and sequences his thoughts and actions\... Self-regulation nurtures the ability to cope with greater and greater challenges because it involves arousal states, emotions, behavior, and - as the child grows older -thinking skills." -- Shanker (2010) → When the child is calm, they are better able to take information in through their senses, both internally and externally. Then, they can take this information in to sequence their thoughts and actions and cope with challenges. It is not about taking away stress, but helping them regulate themselves during stressful situations. *According to Paris and Winograd (2003), SRL emphasizes the autonomy and responsibility of students to take charge of their own learning by being aware of what effective thinking entails and comparatively analyzing their own thinking habits (metacognition); being strategic in their approaches to learning and problem-solving (including knowing what the strategy is, how the strategy operates, and when and why the strategy is applied); and making motivational decisions about the goal of an activity, the perceived difficulty and value of the task, the self-perceptions of the learner\'s ability to accomplish the task, and the potential benefit of success or liability of failure.* **Instructional Approaches** **Best Practices** 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. **Generic Guidelines** 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. **Chapter 1: Early August - Planning for the Upcoming School Year** =================================================================== *Additional Reading Notes* ***Salient Points*** *→ According to Schunk and Zimmerman, competence beliefs are students evaluative perceptions about their means, processes, and capabilities to accomplish certain tasks: control beliefs are students perceptions about the likelihood of accomplishing tasks under certain conditions. In the past, before they separated these two functions, researchers and educators considered and treated competence and control in the same way. As a result, teachers attempted to motivate competent students by telling them to try harder or to try again, and when that approach did not work, they used shame or bribery as last-resort motivators. But for many non-motivated students, no amount or type of reasonable or unreasonable persuasion worked.* *→ Students have to truly believe that they can, within reason, exert some semblance of control over the classroom factors that govern their learning. Therefore, my approach to teaching this year will include the development and use of methods that require various facets of the self-regulation function (meaningful tasks, self-determined processes and products, cooperative learning, self-design, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation of academic activities).* *→While they always seem to have a never-ending litany of excuses about why they did not* *or could not learn, they have essentially given up. This is a psychologically protective tactic that preserves their overall well-being. Moreover, it Is a stronger psychological function in these individuals than the threat of failure or embarrassment due to fallure or even the embarrassment of being caught luing about why they did not try to learn (eg, \| left my homework on the bus). What is not realized is that no amount of control over external influences will calm students inner fears of the psychological risks presented by the challenges inherent in new learning tasks. As a result, the learning task stil does not get done, and teachers and parents feel frustrated by the fact that the allowance of more control was ignored or abused.* *→ What is not realized is that no amount of control over external influences will calm students inner fears of the psychological risks presented by the challenges inherent in new learning tasks. As a result, the learning task stil does not get done, and teachers and parents feel frus-* *trated by the fact that the allowance of more control was ignored or abused.* ***Teaching Considerations*** *→ Classroom and behaviour management is always an important issue, but it will be an even* *bigger issue for you because of your students' inherent age and social interaction differences.* *Immediately establish the calm, assertive atmosphere we discussed in the course. Take the* *time to engage the students in discussions about classroom rules. Allow them to negoti-* *ate rewards and consequences with you. As was mentioned several times, nothing is more* *conducive to excellent learning than psychological security. Conversely, nothing undermines* *learning more than a chaotic classroom.* *→ Rather than presume what students have learned up to this point, construct some short but* *targeted pre-instructional assessments to determine the proper curricular starting points* *for each student/group. If available, modify and shorten the previous teacher's end-of-year* *tests. By constructing your own assessment indicators, you'll avoid misinterpreting someone* *else's grades.* *→ Analyze your various curriculum guides (by grade and subject) for common themes among* *educational outcomes, and use these commonalities to prepare sets of teaching lessons and* *units. For example, while teaching new fractions concepts to Grades 4/5, use the same notes* *to review fractions concepts for Grade 9/10 algebra. Similarly, all students can do project pre-* *sentations (usually an English learning objective) on the same day and to the whole student* *body, even though they are presenting on different topics and at different levels of complexity* *and ability.* *→ Be sure to construct your formative assessment and summative assessment instruments when you are constructing your daily lesson and unit plans. Not only will this process save you* *from later having to build all your assessment tools at the same time, but it will ensure that all* *your tests, quizzes, and assignments evaluate students based on exactly the same educational* *outcomes that you used to plan your lessons. Finally, and this is a tip to help you start on track and stay on track, after one or two lessons, make sure that everything you are teaching is doing two basic things: (1) building on what students already know and (2) presenting tasks that are both challenging and attainable. Continuing this type of personal exercise will ensure that you are engaging in reflective practice.* ***Reflective Practice*** *By reflective practitioner we mean a teacher who chooses to analyze and reflect on his or her practice and to assess the effects of his or her teaching in order to become a more effective educator. Most important, however, this conscious choice is driven by an ethical and moral responsibility to best serve the students, not to meet some sort of evaluative standard.* *According to Sockett, there are three ways that teachers can relate to scholarly knowledge:* *(1) the teacher simply applies whatever "the research says" should be done;* *There is a growing consensus that teachers have to be open-minded in their interpretations of classrooms and schools and they must embrace self-inquiry into their foundational practices. In other words, teachers must see their practice in terms of constantly testable hypotheses rather than as an established or permanent way of being.* ***Applying Psychological Theories to Education*** *According to Sternberg (2008), there are five inter-related reasons why psychological theories about learning and instruction need to be applied to education:* 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.