The Concept of Educational Psychology

 The relevance of Educational Psychology in the
classroom can not be over-emphasized. This is because a teacher who has skills
and knowledge      in psychology will be
able to manage his/her classroom effectively. Besides, knowledge of psychology
is a sine-quo-non to successful
teaching-learning activities.

What Is Educational Psychology

Implications
of Educational Psychology to Classroom Situations

1)    Educational
Psychology allows the teacher to know the tone of his/her classroom. It assists the teacher to
understand the behaviour of every member of his/her classroom.

2)     It affords
the teacher the opportunity to know the factors that can enhance or impede
teaching-learning activities.

3)    It helps
the teacher to appreciate the importance of motivation, and how and when to
motive the students in the classroom.

4)               
It equips
the teacher to know or be able to predict what might likely happen to a learner in terms of his/her
personality, developmental stages and psychological problem.

5)     It gives
the teacher the opportunity of varying his/her instructional strategies based
on the behaviour of the students in the classroom. It is a known fact that no
particular instructional method is regarded as the best. The viability of any
instructional method is based on learners’ characteristics as well as the
instructions to be delivered at a particular time.

6) Educational
Psychology       enables     the teacher to understand the interest of the learners and how to follow this
in planning the curriculum or learning contents.

7)   It
aids/guides the teacher in grading or placing the learners into a particular
class. Feedback is an important aspect in the learning situation, a constant
evaluation of students’ performance will serve as a yardstick of measuring or
assessing whether the students are responding positively to learning situation
or there is a need for the
teacher to adjust his/her teaching style.

8)  Behavioural
problem is an integral part of learning process. It is an undesirable act in
the classroom. However, a teacher who is well    trained
will be able to explain why students behave irrationally at a particular time and how the
teacher can tackle such problems
without much harm to the classroom teaching/learning
activities.

9)   It also
assists the teacher to assess his/her effectiveness. It is believed that
teacher’s effectiveness is measured based on the learners’ performance in the
classroom, hence, a teacher with good foundation in psychology will be able to
judge his/her own efficiency and competency.

Psychology
of Learning

Psychology of Learning provides necessary
theoretical and empirical data regarding the learning process. It describes the
principles of learning, motivation strategies, transfer of learning, memory,
retention and forgetting. The interest in Psychology of Learning is not just in
academic per se, but is useful in understanding the fundamental problems or
emotional development motivation, social behaviour and personality of people.

Definition
of Learning

i.                 
acquires a
novel idea or experience to a situation;

ii.               
retains and
applies the idea, skills and knowledge in solving the confronting problems.

iii.             
modify
one’s behaviour by the experience gained in the past and making the change
permanent.

In view of the
above points, learning is considered as:

1)               
relatively
permanent change in behaviour

2)               
not just a
visible but also a manifest responses of the learner

3)               
modifying
the learner’s behaviour.

4)               
being
dependent on previously acquired experience.

Some behaviour cannot be described as being learnt because they occur at the moment of anatomical maturation. This type of learning occurs as one matures physically. For example, a child does not learn how to walk, eat or talk but acquires these skills as he/she advances in age. This behaviour is regarded as “specie-specific behaviour”.

Conclusion

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p style=”text-align: justify;”>Educational Psychology is an applied psychology which seeks to find and
provide necessary solutions to problems confronting the teacher and his/her
students in the classroom. The importance of educational psychology cannot be
over emphasized. Examples of its relevance are: to equip the teacher on how to
tackle students disciplinary problems in the classroom, guide the teacher in
the selection of the learning contents according to the students’ cognitive
capability, and to provide useful information about the differences among
learners and how these can be taken care of so that every member of the class
can benefit in the classroom activities. Psychology of Learning provides
necessary theoretical and empirical data regarding the learning process.