EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: An Integrated Approach To ...

1 Thomas Fetsco, Northern Arizona UniversityJohn McClure, Northern Arizona UniversityAllyn & Bacon75 Arlington St., Suite 300 Boston, MA 2005sample chapterThe pages of this Sample Chapter may haveslight variations in final published contact your local Allyn & Bacon/Longman PSYCHOLOGY: An Integrated Approach To Classroom DecisionsThe colors in this document are not an accurate representation of the final textbook you are reading this chapter, you are most likely beginning acourse in EDUCATIONAL psychology that is part of a teacher-trainingprogram. Like most people in your position, you are likely to beasking yourself two questions: Exactly what is EDUCATIONAL psychology? Why do I need to study EDUCATIONAL psychology? The answers to these questions are related and complex.

2 This chap-ter begins with brief answers. The remainder of the chapter clarifiesand elaborates those answers. However, you should keep in mindthat this first chapter is only the beginning of an explanation andthat the entire book is, to a certain extent, an attempt to help youanswer these Interstate NewTeacher Assessment andSupport Consortium(INTASC) has developed aset of standards that definethe knowledge, skills, andattitudes that contribute to thesuccess of teachers beginningtheir careers. (A full listing ofthese standards appears on p. 4 and on in the inside cover of thistext.) Learning the material presentedin this book will contribute to yourability to master the INTASC 1, in particular, correlates mostclosely with:Standard 9: Reflective Practice and Professional Growth CHAPTERS tandardsin This ChapterIntroduction to the Study of EDUCATIONAL Psychology1 Before proceeding with Chapter 1, be sure you read the Close-ups on the Classroomfeatures about Maria Lucero and Jeffrey Larkin.

3 At various points in the chapter, youwill revisit both teachers in their classrooms and follow their decision-making classroom experiences are closely Integrated with the key concepts of this chap-ter and serve as important models for understanding EDUCATIONAL Is EDUCATIONAL Psychology?What is EDUCATIONAL psychology? An exact answer to this question depends onwhom you ask. However, for the purposes of this book, EDUCATIONAL psychologyis de-fined as that branch of psychology that is concerned with the study of the mentalprocesses and behaviors associated with human learning and instruction. Educationalpsychologists ask questions about the nature of learners and learning, the character-istics of effective teaching, and how the nature of classrooms affects psychologists study a wide range of phenomena associated with learn-ing, both in the laboratory and in the classroom.

4 Over the last thirty years, however, EDUCATIONAL psychologists interest in classroom learning has increased dramatically. Areview of research reported in recent issues of the Journal of EDUCATIONAL Psychologyreveals the breadth of questions investigated by EDUCATIONAL psychologists. In 1999, theJournal of EDUCATIONAL Psychologyreported the results of studies investigating theteaching and learning of writing (four studies), mathematics and problem solving (eightstudies), and reading (fifteen studies). In addition, some studies investigated questionsabout the effects of technology on learning, individual student differences affectingschool achievement, and the effects of social influences on EDUCATIONAL psychologists ask questions about learning, they apply themethods of science, careful observation, and rational analysis to answer their ques-tions.

5 The answers to their questions are used to formulate and assess theories thatteachers use in their decision is a complex activity, and effective teaching requires a complex set ofknowledge and skills. These characteristics have been organized into various sets ofstandards that are used by many states in the certification of teachers, such as those2 PART ITheoretical Perspectives on OF THE TIMESE xpand your knowledge of theconcepts discussed in thischapter by reading current andhistorical articles from the NewYork Times by visiting the Themes of the Times sectionof the Companion am really enjoying student teach-ing in the fourth grade withGreg Henson. I m learning somuch that I know will help mewhen I get my own thing I ve learned aboutteaching is that I didn t knowas much about it as I thought.

6 Wereally only barely scratched the sur-face in my methods classes, and it s a lotharder and more complex than I thought it was going to ve been observing and helping out for three weeks, butnow Mr. Henson wants me to plan and teach my own lessonfor next week. This will be the first lesson of a unit on frac-tions and will introduce the basic concept of fractions andtheir uses. Now that I am going to teach a real lesson to realkids, I have a number of questions. For instance, what is thebest learning activity to use? I ve noticed that Mr. Hensonuses quite a variety of techniques, but I m not sure how hedecides what to use when. I am also worried about the stu-dents motivation and discipline during my lesson. I wonderif the kids will behave as well for me as they do for him.

7 Fi-nally, I am concerned about how to deal with student differ-ences. The students come from a variety of different ethnicbackgrounds, and there are several students whose familieshave recently emigrated from other I raised these questions with Mr. Henson, he askedthat I try to put together a lesson tonight and then sug-gested we could talk about it tomorrow before class starts. Weboth always arrive early, so we should have a good hour totalk before we have to get ready for the first theMariaLuceroStudent Teaching in the Fourth GradeClose-upsDecision Point: What information about the learners in s class might help Maria answer her questions?Elementarydeveloped by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium(INTASC), shown in Table A glance at the principles that make up the INTASC standards will give you an idea of how important an understanding of psychology isto teacher effectiveness.

8 Effective teaching results in student learning. Learning is apsychological process, and to influence this process teachers must understand the na-ture of this process and their book is intended to help you develop an understanding of learning and learn-ers, in accordance with the INTASC principles. Our Approach to this objective is basedon three assumptions. The first is that teachers must make decisions in complex multi-dimensional environments, and that the quality of their decisions influences their ef-fectiveness. The second assumption is that the scientific study of teaching and learningcan provide teachers with information that helps them better understand their class-rooms and therefore improve the quality of their decision making. The scientific studyof teaching and learning leads to formal theories about how people learn and how teach-ers may assist and guide the learning process.

9 The final assumption is thatno single theory of learning or teaching is optimal for every situation thatteachers will face in the classroom. Teachers need to know about, and flex-ibly apply, a variety of theories to make effective classroom decisions. Know-ing how research is used to develop and evaluate theories allows teachers tomake better decisions about which theory to use when. In summary, we believe that anunderstanding of scientific theories and how research is used to develop and modify the-ories can help you apply theories and research to your own , Theories, and EDUCATIONAL PracticeWithout initiation into the scientific spirit one is not in possession of the best tools whichhumanity has so far devised for effectively directed reflection. (Dewey, 1916, p.)

10 223)Science is a method of studying the world. This method includes the collection andanalysis of data and the generation of logical explanations for the data that have beengathered so far. These logical explanations are called theories. The effectiveness of3 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to the Study of EDUCATIONAL PsychologyAfter three and a half years ofstudy I m finally starting mystudent teaching, the last stepbefore I get my the next fifteen weeks I llbe working with Mr. WilliamGoodman and his ninth gradegeneral science classes. I ve beenobserving the class for a week andhave finally had my first one-on-one meet-ing with Mr. Goodman. He told me that he wants me to pre-pare a science unit on magnetism to be taught around thefirst of we talked, I told him that my most immediate concernwas how to deal with the wide range of student diversity inhis classes.