Option 1

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?

Productive struggle is encouraged by what psychologists call desirable difficulties: challenges that force the learner to retrieve information repeatedly over time, thereby strengthening long-term memory for later flexible transfer of the information to new contexts. According to James Reese’s analyzes the challenge on creating enviroments with productive struggle are to find tasks that are worthy and they have to emerge in a culture of collaboration where students. were free to interact with each other and able to ask the teacher with their problems, in addition on creating enviroments with productive struggle is to make the explicit prosedures for finding the right supports at the right time especially for young learners. Effort and persistence matter so much because we encounter new information through our limited short-term working memory system, which focuses attention by filtering out most environmental stimuli.

For the learning enviroments, educational psychology deals with the environment factors and learning situation which come midway between the learner and the teacher. Topics like classroom climate and group dynamics techniques and aids which facilitate learning, evaluation techniques, and practices, guidance and counseling etc. which help in the smooth functioning of the teaching learning process. Educational psychologists determine how a specific person can learn better concerning the learner’s social and environmental factors. It is the job of an educational psychologist to study various behaviours of learners and the best way to aid them in their educational endeavours.

Productive struggle entails more than simply assigning "hard work" to a student and leaving them alone to struggle. It is a learning opportunity that necessitates the creation, facilitation, and monitoring of the process by a teacher, especially as students learn how to struggle productively.

Students need a safe environment to take risks and struggle. It’s uncomfortable to struggle, but struggling—falling down and getting back up—is an important facet to learning. Productive struggle is not about being in pain or becoming frustrated. That’s “destructive struggle.” To help students embrace productive struggle as part of the learning process, we have to let them know that’ its’ OK not to know the answer. The goal is to participate in the discovery process. In addition, educators are there to support students when they get stuck.

Through productive struggle, students learn to understand their thought process. A key component to productive struggle is to investigate how someone thinks through a task, also known as metacognition. Teachers promoting productive struggle in their classrooms investigate with their students how certain lines of thinking and strategy work – and don’t work – in different situations. Students experiencing productive struggle might begin to understand and control their cognitive processes.

Reference :

Brown, P.C., Roediger, H.L., & McDaniel, M.A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 7 – 74.

https://www.psychreg.org/what-educational-psychology-how-does-help-learning/