Educational Psychology focuses on all there is to the teaching-learning process. It is a very broad area, with many possibilities yet to be explored. It helps to understand the dynamics and processes of learning since it considers day-by-day observation of contexts and their influence, comprehension of learners’ and educators’ behaviors and learning histories, trial and error to identify the best teaching methods for each educational environment, age, group etc. Shakir and Sharma (2017) made a very interesting overview of many possibilities toward which this field of study, knowledge and work may have an approach, and indicated the ones mentioned above to create a positive learning environment [1].

This field helps to understand how educational problems are solved/dealt with, how learning itself happens and what should be done to improve the educational system as a whole. And all of this makes the collection of evidence possible, leading to hypotheses and, later on, theories. As we were able to see throughout this course, psychologists such as Skinner, Vygotsky, Piaget considered elements such as those in their theories, each in a different manner.

Also, Educational Psychology is not as interested in how many facts and topics students have acquired, typical of a traditional vision of schooling known as instructionism [2]. Rather, it looks forward to understanding how the learners develop, if they are able to improve and in which ways, as well the meaning of improvement altogether. In fact, educational psychologists consider very important to innovate when it comes to teaching and to making the learning environment as healthy and interesting as possible.

When George Reese brought up the topic of productive struggle, he, too, mentioned that there should be a creative setting and development of the educational environment, so that the learners will stay motivated to not only solve problems but actually understand and reproduce them. The students are able to understand that they are responsible for the problem solving, which empowers them to engage a lot more in the activities than if the teacher did the thinking for them. Creating productive struggle requires that the teacher and the students work in a flexible way.

Regarding Learning Sciences, I found a very interesting web article by McGraw Hill’s Applied Learning Sciences Team, in which they discussed what are the Learning Sciences and why is it important to study them. These are divided into eight disciplines, or, as they were called, interdisciplinary foundations: Design Studies, Cognitive Science, Instructional Design, Computer Science, Psychology, Neuroscience, Linguistics, and Education [3]. All these different disciplines allow us to ask and answer questions, form hypothesis and test them, observe and adapt different educational spaces and tools.

Taking the example of Psychology itself as one of the learning sciences, educational psychology may focus on how the studies in this field are conducted, where is Psychology taught, how is it taught and what practical uses do people make of them. Theories that we’ve seen in this course, such as Vygotsky’s learning through social interaction theory and Skinner’s learning by reinforcement and extinction and punishment theory, as well as many others, can be used to have a better understanding on this matter, too. You can use educational psychology to improve the teaching of the bigger field (Psychology) itself.

Also, there are theories by social psychologists that may contribute to this process as well, such as Albert Bandura’s Social Learning theory or, as he later called it, Social Cognitive Theory, according to which children observe people behaving in many ways, and these people will be their models to shape their own behavior. The children will observe adults doing different things, and if these things catch their attention, they will remember and reproduce them (but that will depend on whether these children have a favorable condition to do so, e. g. if a group of children has developed well enough to swim, they will be able to learn different techniques with adult swimmers until they have mastered the sport themselves). Bandura considered there would be a balance between nature and nurture, personal and interpersonal elements. There wouldn’t only be stimuli and consequences surrounding one’s behavior, but there would also be the individual’s psychological events involved in the learning process. I’ve linked a very interesting article reviewing Bandura’s theory below [4]. However, since it’s a web article, if you’d like to go straight to Bandura, there is one of his books, cited by the author of the article, here [5]. This theory can be used as well in the context of university: students have their teachers as their models, and the teachers will display different behaviors and information, which will soon be internalized and reproduced by the students. However, if the students are too young or have some sort of limitation, they may not be able to engage in this process.

Bringing back educational psychology, this field will also contribute to understanding how Psychology is learned when the former shines a light on the latter’s interdisciplinary nature, and how each discipline will contribute to learning itself. So, learning will be a two-way “road”: it will not only involve the process itself, but studying about it as well. And that is what makes education and educational psychology so unique.

Sources:

[1] Shakir, M., & Sharma, S. (June 2017). Using Educational Psychology for Better Teaching-Learning Environment. International Journal of Education, vol. 8, 20-28. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27333.76005.

[2] Sawyer, R. K. (2006). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[3] Available at: https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/what-is-learning-science-a1dc07ec4ce

[4] McLeod, S. A. (2016). Bandura – Social learning theory. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

[5] Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.