Taking a Look at Educational Psychology

“It takes a village to raise a child.” I never quite understood that saying when I was growing up, but my experiences teaching and working in school settings have showed me how true it really is. Obtaining a degree in school psychology will allow me to give the support that students, families and educators need to ensure that every student will thrive.

​When I declared a psychology major during the second year of my undergraduate career, my objective was to attend medical school and eventually become a psychiatrist. I enjoyed the psychology classes in which I was enrolled and found them to compliment the premed curriculum I also wanted to study. I reasoned that a major in psychology would provide insight that could later be useful in my planned studies of psychiatry. Although I decided against going to medical school, psychology remained the primary area of focus of my studies with the ultimate career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. While my long term professional plans include achieving a PhD and becoming a clinical psychologist. Pursuing a masters degree in

In summary, this course has really educated my view of being a teacher as well as being able to interact with today’s diverse and fluctuating educational setting. Therefore, the discussions were very good ways in understanding how

By doing Module 1 of this course I had opportunity to think about my career as a teacher. In order for me to improve learners’ learning I have to create for them appropriate environment using different teaching strategies in which every learner feels respected and safe. Learners need to know that learning has a purpose and what they are learning it is relevant to their lives. Also it is important to provide them with feedback regarding their progress on what they are trying to achieve, how far they are from the goal that was set. And how to achieve all I have to keep on trying new things and improving teaching skills. The actual teaching, classes I attended for this course gave me opportunity to better myself as a teacher. I learned about teaching principals from our teaching classes, later applied my knowledge in my actual teaching practice and also learned about teaching ideas through the web. From all these I understood that my development as a teacher should never end because teaching is a part of a life-long

Probably the most useful pieces of information that I garnered from these four portfolios has to be section two, where we planned out goals for the next four years. All the things I listed on there were things I had previously considered doing, but I never looked into the requirements of what I needed to accomplish those goals. Clearly knowing now at the start of university for me will allow me to proceed forward more knowledgeable in the goals that I wanted, and know more clearly now the smaller stepping stones that will take me to where I want to be. In addition to this, I learned a variety of things from these portfolio projects ranging from peers’ experiences in college, my strengths as a person, and pinpointing exactly what I seek in a

In the future, I ultimately intend to be a psychologist. With being a psychologist, I am taking on the responsibility on how to lead people into having an overall better life and promote positive change for them. Psychologists often specialize in studying and examining the brain and human behavior. That being said, psychology is a very important branch of science that attempts to help us stay sane!

Portfolios offer the teacher and student an in-depth knowledge of the student as a learner. This means that the teacher can individualize instruction for the student. Weak areas can be strengthened and areas of mastery built upon. Learners are involved in this process of tracking their learning and can take control of their learning.

The first week of this unit I had a mix of emotions, excitement and stress . The topics covered each week have giving me the opportunity to increase my knowledge in many areas. Having an interest in teaching when I started this course has now grown to having an interest in learning as well. Reflecting on my education as a child has shown me the growth in teaching and our current education system.

One of the more popular areas of psychology is Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology can be explained several ways. The idea is to study theories and concepts from different parts of psychology and apply them in educational settings. These educational settings may occur in different school settings such as preschool. The goal of educational psychology is to create a positive student-teacher relationship. Educational psychology uses five different types of psychology, behavioral, cognitive, developmental, and social cognitive, and constructivist in this research paper I will be briefly discussing each type of psychology listed above.

Over the course of this semester, I have had the opportunity to learn about educational psychology. I have always enjoyed psychology and was especially interested in how it applied to teaching in the classroom. There were five specific concepts we discussed over the semester that especially interested me. I found that homogenous and heterogeneous grouping, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, operant conditioning, cooperative learning, and divergent versus convergent thinking are five psychological concepts that every teacher should learn about in preparation for teaching.

Educational psychology is based on study of learners, learning and teaching. (salvin, 2003). Therefore, educational psychologist works are focus on emotional needs of the learners and to understand how to structure educational systems in order to meet the mental. So, they concentration on how the learners will learn, identify and suggest well-organized teaching method. As well as, Educational psychologist contribute to science and practice for improving society. Scope of educational psychology is the areas of study that are included in a particular subject.

Educational Psychology fosters an understanding for student development and helps teachers be effective, design lessons and make a difference for their students. First we must define what education psychology is, and how it applies student development and to the education community. The textbook, “Educational Psychology” written by Anita Woolfolk, (2012), defines educational psychology as, “A distinct discipline with its own theories, research methods, problems, and techniques. Educational psychologists do research on learning and teaching and, at the same time, work to improve educational practice.” (p. 12). Essentially, educational psychology is the study and research behind creative and effective learning strategies and the principles for development and learning. It enables teachers to reach and engage their students at the highest level of learning with effective learning strategies. Learning educational psychology through the study of cognitive development and the influences on children and adolescents as they grow, the implication of moral and identity development, as well as obligations teachers have professionally to create safe learning environments that promote high expectations and inclusion of all learners, helps teachers to nurture and understand their students. For example, learning about student diversity and culture, characteristics, learning levels, how to design and present content, enhance classroom management creating a safe effective learning

Educational Psychology is a division of psychology that works with the education of children, teaching methods, guidance, and the assessment of aptitude and development. The main purpose of educational psychology is to understand and improve the teaching and learning process.

     Intrinsic motivation can be defined as “motivation associated with activities that are their own reward” (Perry 2003). It is motivation that stems from your inner feelings and views which feed your desires to accomplish and perform. Oppositely, extrinsic motivation is “motivation created by external factors such as rewards and punishments” (Perry 2003). When you are extrinsically motivated, you are only performing the task for what you will gain from completion. On the other hand, when we are intrinsically motivated, there is no requirement for external rewards or punishments

I think this course has more prepared me for teaching in higher education through providing various perspectives and considerations around diverse challenges within a teaching and learning environment. This course taught about effective teaching practices that encourages a teaching professional to