Educational psychology

this document describes the brief history of educational psychology, nature, and aims of educational psychology

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chapter NO. 1
Educational Psychology
Education
The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university “a
course of education”.
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, according to the APA “psychology
is a multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such areas as human development,
sports, health, clinical, social behavior and cognitive processes”.
Educational Psychology
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology in which the findings of psychology are
applied in the field of education. It is the scientific study of human behavior in educational setting.
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of
educational treatments, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools
as organizations. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used
interchangeably. Educational psychology is concerned with the processes of educational attainment
among the general population and sub-populations such as gifted children and those subject to
specific disabilities. Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with
other disciplines. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and
the learning sciences.
• According to Charles. E. Skinner: “Educational psychology deals with the behavior of human
beings in educational situations”. Thus, educational psychology is a behavioral science with two
main references– human behavior and education.
• In the words of E.A. Peel: “Educational psychology helps the teacher to understand the
development of his pupils, the range and limits of their capacities, the processes by which they learn
and their social relationships.”
• According to Stephen: “It is the systematic study of educational growth and development of a
child”
Nature of Educational Psychology
We can summarize the nature of Educational Psychology in the following ways:
• Educational Psychology is a science.
Like any other science, educational psychology has also developed objective methods of
collection of data. It also aims at understanding, predicting and controlling human behavior. An

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educational psychologist conducts his investigations, gathers his data and reaches his conclusions in
exactly the same manner as physicist or the biologist.

• Educational psychology is a social science:
Like the sociologist, anthropologist, economist or political scientist, the educational psychologist
studies human beings and their sociability.
• Educational psychology is a positive science:
Normative science like Logic or Ethics deals with facts as they must to be. A positive science
deals with facts as they are or as they operate.
• Educational psychology is an applied science:
It is the application of psychological principles in the field of education. By applying the
principles and techniques of psychology. It tries to study the behavior and experiences of the pupils. As
a branch of psychology it is parallel to any other applied psychology. For example: educational
psychology draws heavily facts from such areas as developmental psychology, clinical psychology,
abnormal psychology and social psychology.
W.A. Kelly (1941) listed the nature as following:
• To give a knowledge of the nature of the child.
• To give understanding of the nature, aims and purposes of education.
• To give understanding of the scientific methods and procedures which have been used in arriving at
the facts and principles of educational psychology.
• To present the principles and techniques of learning and teaching.
• To give training in methods of measuring abilities and achievement in school subjects.
• To give a knowledge of the growth and development of children.
• To assist in the better adjustment of children and to help them to prevent maladjustment.
• To study the educational significance and control of emotions.
• To give an understanding of the principles and techniques of correct training
Scope of Educational Psychology
The scope of educational psychology is ever-growing due to constantly researches in this field.
The following factors will indicate the scope of educational psychology:
• Nature of teaching-learning
This part includes the meaning and nature of teaching as will as of learning the concept of theory
of learning and teaching.

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• Human growth and development
This area covers the general and specific principle of development . Heredity and environment
maturation and training and also individual differences.
• Learning
The area must include the nature of learning how can we teach to children in learning we will
study the following points:
i. Law of learning ii. Principles of learning iii. Factors influence of learning iv. Curve and transfer of
learning
• Study of personality
When we see how our personal stability is under mined reached by twist in what we call, but to
which the psychology have given some labels as compensation ,identification, displacement ,then we
may fiend way of avoiding style process of growth that always open to guidance.
• Study Methods
In educational psychology we study observation, Interviews, case study and experimental
methods. By this study we can realize that a learner can improve if teacher motivates him/her by these
methods.
• Curriculum formation
Psychology principles are also used in curriculum formation for different stages . For Example:
In Developmental characteristics and learning.
• Measurement and evaluation
If we examine the activities and curriculum of a training college. we find that teachers training
program aims to develop positive attitude to word teaching projection and to provide the prospective
teacher with the necessary competence to meet the classroom challenges. They develop confidence in
trains to face the problems and adoptability to deal with unexpected problems in daily classroom
teaching.
• Study of abnormal students
Most important contribution of educational psychology is the provision and organization for the
exceptional children how had been neglected and devoid of educational facilities .
• Study of individual differences

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Educational psychology helps to measure children’s interest, intelligence and capacities. How
can we improve their personality ?, How can we learn and improve their intelligence?
• Research
Educational psychology helps in developing tools and devices for the measurement of various
very able which influence the behavior the performance. We can control, direct and predict the behavior
of students on the base of research study in classroom teaching.
• Heredity and environment
Effects of heredity and environment to what extent heredity and environment contribute to words
the growth of the individual , and how this knowledge can be made use of for burning about the
optimum development of the chef form a silent future of the scope of educational psychology.
• Providing guidance and counseling
This is one of the most important field are areas of study in counseling in the field of educational
psychology.
Educational is nothing providing guidance to the growing child. This guidance forms an important
aspect of educational psychology.
Aims of Educational Psychology
• To understand the learner
• To understand the problems of the student
• To understand the leaning process
• To maintain discipline
• To make socialization in classroom
• To select method of teaching
• To understand the characteristics in different developmental stages
Development of Educational Psychology
The early years of Educational psychology is a fairly new and growing field of study. Although
it can date back as early as the days of Plato and Aristotle. Dates back to the time of Greek philosophers
Aristotle and Plato discussed topic still studied by educational psychology.
• Plato and Aristotle
Plato and Aristotle researched individual differences in the field of education, training of the
body and the cultivation of psycho-motor skills, the formation of good character, the possibilities and
limits of moral education. Plato focused on knowledge acquisitions an innate ability which progress
through acquisition and understanding of the world. Both of them focused on Role of teacher, Teacher-
student relationship, Method of teaching, Nature or order of learning, Role of affect in learning, Effect

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of music, poetry and other art on individual differences. Aristotle observed phenomenon of association
which he called Law of association that included 1.Contiguity 2.Succession 3.Similarity 4. Contrast
• John Locke
John Locke is considered one of the most influence philosopher in post-renaissance Europe, A
time period which begin around the mid-1600s. he was Known as educationist and had many books
published into other languages after his death. Came up with the theory of “Tabula RASA”. Known as
‘clean’ or ‘blank slate’. At birth, children as considered a blank slate or neutral his behavior is shaped by
environment that is similar to the nurture theory. New experience serves as a stage of growth. Examples
of blank slate: going to bathrooms, Riding bikes, walking and throwing ball.
Philosophers of education such as Juan vives, john Pestalozzi, and john Herbart had examined, classified
and judged the methods of education centuries before the beginnings of psychology in the late 1800s.
• Juan vives
Born on 6 march 1494 and died in 1540. Spanish humanistic and educational theorist. Not
limited to education also deal with subject, philosophy, psychology, politics, social reform and religion.
His studies focused on humanistic learning, which opposed scholasticism. He was prominent thinker to
emphasize the location of school is important to learning: away from noises, air quality should be good.
Hygienic food for teachers and students. The importance of understanding individual difference of
student. In 15Emphasize 38, introduced his educational ideas in his writing “de anima et vita”. In this
publication vives explores moral philosophy as a setting for his educational ideas. Explain different part
of soul that are responsible for different operations.
The vegetative soul: Soul of nutrition, Growth and Reproduction. Sensitive soul: Involves five external
senses. Cogitative soul: Includes internal senses and cognitive facilities.
• John Pestalozzi
Children should learn through activities and through things. They should be free from pursue their
own interest and draw their own conclusion. Acknowledged for opening institutions for education.
Writings books for mother’s teaching, home education, elementary books for students mostly focusing
on the kindergarten level. In later he published teaching manual and methods of teaching. He introduced
“ educationalization” in which he created bridge between social issued and education by introducing the
idea of social issues to be solved through education.
• John Herbart
John Herbart (1776-1841) is considered the father of educational psychology. He believed that
learning was influenced by interest in the subject and the teacher. He thought that teacher should
consider the students existing mental set. What they already know when present in new information or
material.

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Five steps teachers should use:1. review material 2.prepare the student for new material 3.present the
new material 4.relate the new material to old material 5.show how the student can apply the new
material and show the next material.
1890-1920
This period is considered the golden era of educational psychology. Emerging new disciplines.
Application of scientific methods to solve educational problems. Expansion of elementary & secondary
schools. Three major figures: 1. William James 2. Stanley Hall 3.John Dewey.
• William James (1842-1910)
James is the father of psychology in America. William James commented that: “Psychology is a
science, teaching is an art; and sciences never generates arts directly out of themselves”. He made
contributions to educational psychology: his famous series of lectures talk to teachers on psychology,
published in 1899. Defines education as “the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies
to behavior”. He states that teacher should “train the pupil to behave so that he fits into social and
physical world”. Teachers should realize the importance of habit and instinct.
• Edward Thorndike
Edward lee Thorndike was born on august 31, 1874 and died on august 9, 1949). An American
psychologist work on animal behavior and learning process. Supported scientific movement in
education. Based teaching practices on empirical evidences and measurement. He was first to say that
individual differences in cognitive tasks were due to many stimulus response patterns a person had
rather than a general intellectual ability.
Theory Of Transfer: Thorndike with Robert wood worth on the theory of transfer found that learning
one subject will only influence your ability to learn another subject if subjects are similar. This theory
has less emphasis on learning the classic, that don’t contribute to overall intelligence. He contributed
word dictionaries that were scientifically based to determine the word and definitions used. His biggest
contribution to testing was the caved intelligence test which used multidimensional approach and first to
use a ratio scale. His later work was on programmed instruction, mastery learning and computer-based
learning.
• Benjamin Bloom(1903-1999)
He worked in department of education. Divided educational objectives into three domains:
1. Cognitive 2. Affective 3. Psychomotor
• Nathaniel gage(1917-2008)
Focus on improving teaching. Also understanding the process involved in teaching and focus on
research.