Educational psychology Flashcards
What does educational psychology involve?
Application of psychological principles to children/young people, particularly in practical educational settings
Involves identifying, developing and applying psychological theories and techniques to learning and teaching to enhance performance and personal growth - knowledge drawn from child development, research, and studies of emotional and behavioural difficulties
Also increased recognition of how the social context influences child development
What are 5 key focus points for educational psychology?
How to facilitate learning and teaching Assessment strategies How to involve and engage students Methods to enhance educational context Behavioural problems and how to deal with them
Where do most educational psychologists work?
For local authorities where educational psych service is one of a number of support services for young people
Often work directly with children, either through observation and assessment or with small groups in relation to learning and behavioural/emotional difficulties
Also work in consultation with parents and teachers, often providing training e.g. whole-school approach to tackling bullying
How can educational psychologists contribute to the five key outcomes of the “Every child matters” protocol?
BEING HEALTHY - helping emotional development
STAYING SAFE - prevent bullying/discrimination
ENJOYING AND ACHIEVING - help with personal, social and educational achievements
MAKING POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS - development of appropriate behaviour in and out of school
ACHIEVING ECONOMIC WELLBEING - helping pupils progress to further education, employment or post-school training
How do behaviourist theories apply to education?
Focus on concrete and observable learning - look at how behaviour can be modified via reinforcement and feedback
Learning seen as an enduring change in behaviour resulting from experience, as distinct from biological factors
Teachers can use schedules of reinforcement having developed an appropriate behavioural response in a child to help make the behaviour self-sustaining (intrinsic motivation) i.e. gradually remove reinforcement
Ignore attention-seeking behaviours i.e. program of extinction
Children and conditioned responses e.g. test performance anxiety
Premack principle - more desired activity can serve as reinforcer for less desired activity
What is the most effective application of behaviourist theories in an educational context?
Classroom management, often in relation to emotional behavioural disorders wherein withdrawal of attention using extinction theory can help stop propagation of bad behaviour
What does cognitive social learning theory suggest?
Learning by observation of behaviour - learning as a change in mental processes that creates capacity to demonstrate different behaviours
What did Bandura consider to be 4 factors central to observational learning?
Attention
Retaining information
Reproducing info or behaviour
Motivation
How can social learning theory be applied in educational contexts?
Teachers can model desired behaviour and reinforce learners who display it too, ensuring that attention of other children is drawn to such outcomes
What are additional features in later versions of social learning theory?
Processes of self-regulation and self-efficacy, involving setting one’s own standards and being able to observe own behaviour reflectively
Students should be trained and encouraged to set own goals, self-evaluate progress and reinforce themselves for work successfully completed
What is the most effective application of social learning theory in educational contexts?
Capacity of teachers to model and reinforce behaviour
Not able to explain why learners will imitate some models but not others, nor does it explain role of context and social interaction in more complex learning
What are cognitive developmental theories of education like?
Interested in learning resulting from changes in mental PROCESSES that take place as we try to make sense of the world
Process more important than conclusion reached
What did the work of Piaget and Bruner revolve around?
Idea of children being like little explorers with a natural desire and intrinsic motivation to learn for themselves
Focus on exploratory interactions and learning through interactions with surroundings
Teachers should tap into the intrinsic motivation, emphasising active involvement in learning and providing activities that allow child to interact with environment
What is meant by thresholds of capability?
Children of different ages will perform different levels of complexity of mental operations, and teachers need to pitch their teaching at this level/slightly above to gently introduce disequilibrium which Piaget believed would prompt further exploration - too high and demotivation occurs
What is the discovery learning approach to teaching?
Inspired by work of Bruner and Piaget, the aim is to arouse curiosity, increase intrinsic motivation and help children become more independent learners - start with real problems and develop appropriate problem solving skills to break those problems down
Also emphasis on cooperative learning with children working in pairs/groups (all in same ZPD so can more easily help each other)
Technique will be ineffective for those children who struggle to generalise from specific events to other similar situations
What is the approach of constructivist theories of education?
More dynamic view of learning and behaviour, considering them along with social context - believe learners construct their own reality, based on perceptions of prior experiences and beliefs
So knowledge is constructed from experience, and learning is a personal world interpretation
What did Piaget’s learning theories emphasise?
Development of individual psychological constructivism, where social interactions influence learning process simply as a catalyst for reconstruction between stages i.e. they prompt disequilibration
What did Vygotsky suggest in contrast to Piaget?
Emphasised influence of social factors on development of internal representations (social constructivism) i.e. interactions with adults, more capable peers and cognitive tools acquired are internalised to form mental constructs - language, social interaction and higher-order thinking are all connected
How do cognitivist and social constructivist theories differ>
COGNITIVIST - knowledge actively constructed by learners in response to INTERACTIONS with environment
CONSTRUCTIVIST - role of language and culture in human intellectual development; all cognitive functions originate in social interactions; linguistic abilities enable overcoming of natural limitations of perceptual field by imposing culturally-defined meaning on the world; learning as a COLLABORATIVE process
What were Vygotsky’s two developmental levels?
Actual development - level already reached, at which learner can solve problems independently
Potential development - zone of proximal development, level learner is capable of reaching with appropriate guidance
What does Vygotsky’s theory suggest regarding education?
Opportunities for conversation e.g. parent-child, leads to broader and deeper understanding of minds of others (ToM) and possibly speeds progress towards understanding the minds of others
Language as a means of expressing meanings, thoughts and a key to understanding intentionality (even talking aloud was considered as being important in development of thinking)
What is the behaviourist approach to motivation?
Idea of using reinforcers to increase learning, forming a link between something the child likes/wants to do and something we want them to do
What are two limitations of the behavioural approach to motivation?
Focuses on external factors so cannot explain behaviours with no obviously observable reinforcer e.g. learning resulting from intrinsic motivation
Some children are more reward-oriented than others, and some may also become reliant on reinforcement thus reducing their interest in intrinsically-motivated tasks and they may become desensitised requiring bigger rewards to maintain the motivation
What is the cognitive approach to motivation>
Children naturally motivated to learn, and if they experience something they don’t understand they will be driven to make sense of it –> learning
