Option #1

Comment: Educational psychology is also concerned with the dynamics of learning. In his contribution to this course, George Reese analyzes by way of example the notion of "productive struggle." How can educational psychology help us to understand the processes of learning?

Before we dive into how educational psychology can help us to understand the processes of learning, we must first identify what is the learning process. According to the article found in The Center for Development & Learning, it states: There are six interactive components of the learning process: attention, memory, language, processing and organizing, graphomotor (writing) and higher order thinking. These processes interact not only with each other, but also with emotions, classroom climate, behavior, social skills, teachers and family. In order to engage, motivate and teach all learners at optimal levels, teachers must understand the learning process in general, understand and respond to students’ individual emotional and cognitive profiles and select instructional strategies and tactics that are effective for diverse learners.

Now that we’ve defined the processes of learning, we can link how educational psychology is beneficial to learning. First and foremost, as educators we must fully understand that not every student learns the same way, meaning we must use differentiated instructional strategies to conduct a lesson. Only through this approach are we able to create an effective and efficient learning environment.

In addition, teachers must provide guidance to their students. A teacher must play different roles, in and out of the classroom. Teachers act as mentors, whether it be academically or emotionally. Therefore, knowledge of educational psychology allows teachers to provide educational and vocational guidance necessary for students at different ages.

Make an Update: Take one area of the learning sciences. How does educational psychology contribute to our understanding? What evidence does it offer? What interpretative concepts and theories does it provide?

According to Wikipedia, learning sciences (LS) is an interdisciplinary field that works to further scientific, humanistic and critical theoretical understating of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and the improvement of instructional methodologies. Educational psychology is one area of LS. Through educational psychology educators are better able to help students in areas such as problem solving. What we have learned is that people are more engaged and have a high interest in real-world conditions. This influences how learners interpret information or actions and how they develop knowledge and skills. Consequently, there’s emphasis placed on the importance of social and physical context of cognition. That being said, the aim of teachers is to develop a rich learning environment, be it in formal setting such as classrooms or informal setting such as museums.

Reference:

https://www.cdl.org/articles/understanding-the-learning-process-to-effectively-differentiate-instruction/

http://neweconomicseducation.blogspot.com/2012/05/benefits-of-learning-psychology.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_sciences

https://edpsych.education.wisc.edu/academics/learning-sciences/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508406.2018.1440353