Educational psychology

Educational psychology is the study of how people learn. It looks at learning from both thinking and behaving points of view. This helps experts understand differences between people, such as their intelligence, how they think and feel, what makes them want to learn, and how they control themselves. Educational psychologists use tests and measurements to make learning better in schools and other places where teaching happens.

This field is closely related to other subjects. It is mainly based on psychology, just like medicine is based on biology. It also uses ideas from neuroscience. Educational psychology helps many areas of education, like planning lessons, using technology in teaching, creating school programs, managing classrooms, and helping students who need extra support. It connects with cognitive science and theories about how people learn.

Educational psychologists study how people remember things and think in new ways. They use many different ideas from other areas of psychology, such as learning through rewards, how people naturally think and feel, and how we process information.

In recent years, educational psychology has grown quickly. School psychology started with testing intelligence to help students who needed special education. It also worked to support children from different backgrounds during a time when fighting for equality was important. Today, educational psychologists work with many professionals to help students learn better in the classroom.

History

Educational psychology is a fairly new field that became a specific area of study in the 20th century. Thinking about teaching and learning has existed for a long time, with people discussing differences in how people think, how to teach, and how knowledge is shared. These ideas are important for understanding how we learn and think.

Some ideas about educational psychology go back to ancient times with thinkers like Plato and Aristotle. They talked about the purpose of education, how to train the body and mind, and how to build good character. They also discussed how music and art affect a person's development, the role of teachers, and the relationship between teachers and students. Plato believed that knowledge comes from within us and grows through experience. Aristotle thought that knowledge comes from connecting ideas together.

William James

In the 1600s, John Locke introduced the idea that we are born with a "blank slate" and learn through experience. He believed that our minds start empty and fill with knowledge as we experience the world. Later, in the 1700s, Jean-Jacques Rousseau suggested that education should focus on the child’s age and experiences to help them think for themselves.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, important figures like William James, Alfred Binet, Edward Thorndike, and John Dewey helped shape educational psychology. They used scientific methods to study how people learn and developed ways to measure intelligence and understand learning differences.

From the 1920s onward, the field grew as more people attended school. Ideas about progressive education — where learning is active and student-centered — became popular. Researchers like Jerome Bruner and Benjamin Bloom explored how students think and learn best, emphasizing the importance of clear goals and active learning.

Perspectives

Behavioral

Applied behavior analysis is a science that uses behavior rules to help improve learning. Teachers can help students follow rules by giving praise, stars, or tokens that can be traded for small prizes. However, some believe that rewards can sometimes reduce a student’s natural love for learning. But in other cases, rewards can actually help students want to learn more. Many helpful treatments for different challenges use these behavior rules.

Cognitive

Three experiments reported by Krug, Davis and Glover demonstrated the advantage of delaying a 2nd reading of a text passage by one week (distributed) compared with no delay between readings (massed).

Many educational psychologists focus on how the mind works during learning. They study thoughts, memories, feelings, and how people understand and remember information. One idea is that how our mind stores and uses information matters a lot. For example, spacing out learning over time helps students remember better. Using special ways to help remember information, like rhymes or pictures, can also be useful. Solving problems is a key part of learning, and it often involves using what we already know to understand something new.

Cognitive view of intelligence

Everyone learns and thinks differently. Some children may find it harder to focus, learn new things, or speak clearly. Others may learn very quickly. Intelligence can be measured with special tests, and these help teachers give each child the right kind of help. Some children may need extra support, while others might need more challenging work.

Developmental

Developmental psychology looks at how children’s thinking grows and changes over time. It helps teachers understand what children can learn at different ages. For example, younger children learn differently than older children, and teachers can use this knowledge to plan lessons that match each age group. Understanding how children’s thinking develops also helps teachers support each child’s unique learning style.

Constructivist

Constructivism is a learning theory that says students learn best when they are active and use what they already know. Social constructivism adds that learning often happens through interactions with others, like teachers and classmates. For example, students learn math by seeing how mathematicians solve problems, not just by memorizing rules. This means that to truly learn something, students need to see it used in real situations.

Jean Piaget's Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget studied how children’s thinking develops through different stages. He believed that from birth, children have natural ways of understanding the world, and these ways change as children grow. He described four main stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each stage shows how children’s thinking becomes more advanced over time.

Conditioning and learning

Educational psychology studies how people learn at different ages, from childhood to adulthood. It uses ideas about how the mind grows and changes to help teachers understand how students think and behave.

An abacus provides concrete experiences for learning abstract concepts.

For example, Jean Piaget's theory of development suggests that children go through stages as they grow. Younger children learn best with things they can see and touch, while older children can think about ideas that are not right in front of them. People also change in how they understand right and wrong as they grow.

Motivation is very important for learning. It helps students focus, try harder, and keep going even when things are tough. Some students are driven to learn for the joy of learning itself, while others are motivated by grades or rewards. Understanding what drives each student can help teachers support better learning.

Technology

For broader coverage of this topic, see Educational technology.

Instructional design helps create learning materials and activities based on ideas from educational psychology. For example, designers use a taxonomy of educational objectives by Benjamin Bloom to set clear learning goals. Bloom also studied mastery learning, a method where students move to new topics only after fully understanding the earlier ones. He found that combining this with one-on-one help works very well.

Technology plays a big role in educational psychology. It helps psychologists with testing and organizing, and it helps students learn better. Students with special needs often find technology like apps and videos engaging and motivating. Learning with technology can make lessons clearer and more interesting, helping all students, including those who struggle socially or emotionally, to take part in learning from far away.

The following list includes some technological tools used in education:

Applications

Teaching

Research on classroom management and pedagogy helps teachers learn better ways to guide students and support their growth. The goal is to create a friendly learning space and help students manage themselves. This includes building good relationships between teachers and students, keeping classes focused, and helping students who face challenges.

Introductory educational psychology is often taught to future teachers. It usually covers how people learn, keeping students motivated, checking how well students understand lessons, and managing classrooms. There is a Wikibook about educational psychology that goes into more detail about these topics.

Counseling

A class size experiment in the United States found that attending small classes for 3 or more years in the early grades increased high school graduation of students from low-income families.

Training

To become an educational psychologist, students first finish an undergraduate degree, then go to graduate school to study educational psychology, counseling psychology, or school counseling. Many also earn a doctoral degree to use the title "psychologist". Educational psychologists work in many places. Some work at universities, studying how people learn and develop. Others help design educational materials and programs. In schools, they help students with learning and behavior, offer counseling, and support teachers. School psychologists, similar to educational psychologists, often work directly with students in schools.

Many high schools and colleges now teach educational psychology. Some colleges even require it for all students. In the UK, students need a degree approved by the British Psychological Society before starting a special three-year program to become a psychologist.

Recently, more university programs in the US have started teaching about how race, gender, disability, trauma, and poverty affect learning. Some universities now offer special certificates for professionals to work in areas like helping students with autism or trauma.

Employment outlook

Jobs for psychologists in the United States are expected to grow faster than most jobs. About one in four psychologists work in schools. In the US, the median pay for psychologists in primary and secondary schools was US$58,360 in May 2004.

In recent decades, more women have become professional researchers in educational psychology in North America.

Methods of research

Educational psychology often uses numbers and data to study how people learn. This is called quantitative research. But sometimes, researchers also use words and stories, which is called qualitative research. They also mix both ways of studying.

Educational psychologists use different ways to watch and test people. They look at how things are connected and do experiments. They have helped create tools to better understand learning, like special tests and ways to look at lots of information together.