Discussing the Scope of Educational Psychology

Scope of Educational Psychology 

What does scope refer to? Actually scope includes the fields of operations, applications, topics, subtopics as well as the subject matter. As educational psychology is one an emerging and growing fields, its scope has never been stagnant or static. It is a dynamic one. It is always on the go. It has been and always will be changing its boundaries. Due to the researches in the field of psychology, educational psychology always appears with new dimensions adding to its scope and need.

The scope of educational psychology has the following areas:

Child Development's Different Stages 

From the stage of infancy, childhood and adolescence - Growth, development, general characteristics of physical, mental, emotional and social development at the various stages are the one of the areas of educational psychology.  

Heredity and Environment 

Educational psychology studies the impact of heredity and environment on the student. 

Child's Development of Other Aspects 

Educational psychology studies the different modifications which can be brought about in the behaviour and attitude of the child, how and when do physical, social, emotional and language development occur in children, and how do various instincts make their appearance. 

Learning Process 

Another main area of educational psychology is process of learning, laws and methods of learning as well as factors of learning. Interest, attention, motivation, memory, habits and transfer of training play very significant role in learning. 

Psychological Basis of Behaviour

Educational psychology deals with the psychological as well as the physiological behaviour of the learner. Psychological basis of behaviour are instincts, emotions, sentiments, suggestion, sympathy, imitation and play etc. Physiological basis of behaviour are nervous system and glands etc. 

Motivation 

Educational psychology gives the knowledge about the nature, principles and techniques of motivation in educational field. 

Individual Differences

Educational psychology studies individual differences and suggests ways and means to provide education to all types of pupils. No two individuals are alike. Individuals differ physically and psychologically. Individual differences are mainly caused by heredity and environment. 

Intelligence and Personality

Educational psychology also studies nature, development and assessment of personality and intelligence. 

Measurement and Evaluation 

Educational psychology is helpful in giving newer and newer techniques and tests for measuring intelligence, personality, aptitudes, interests and achievements etc. It is educational statistics which helps us in measurement and evaluation. 

Exceptional Children

Educational psychology studies about exceptional children. It studies about backward, retarded, gifted and creative children and their adjustment problems with home, family and school. 

Guidance and Counselling

Child is like a book whose every page has to be studied by the teacher. The teacher has to guide and counsel the students at every stage. Educational psychology studies the nature and process of guidance and counseling. 

Group Dynamics and Behaviour

Educational psychology studies group dynamics and group behaviour in class-room teaching and learning. It studies importance and effect of group on the individual. It also considers how an individual can modify the group life. It emphasizes the role of groups in the education of children. 

Statistics 

Educational psychology studies mean, median, mode graph, rank difference and co-relation. A careful analysis of the subject matter of educational psychology reveals that it has three important centres- 

Details of the Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains

Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). It is most often used when designing educational, training, and learning processes. ................................. The Three Domains of Learning The committee identified three domains of educational activities or learning (Bloom, et al. 1956): .................... Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge) ............... Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self) ............. Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills) ..................... Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than we normally use. Domains may be thought of as categories. Instructional designers, trainers, and educators often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge [cognitive], Skills [psychomotor], and Attitudes [affective]). This taxonomy of learning behaviors may be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired a new skill, knowledge, and/or attitude. ................ While the committee produced an elaborate compilation for the cognitive and affective domains, they omitted the psychomotor domain. Their explanation for this oversight was that they have little experience in teaching manual skills within the college level. However, there have been at least three psychomotor models created by other researchers. ...................... Their compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest cognitive process or behavior to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised, such as the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today. ................... Cognitive Domain ............... The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills (Bloom, 1956). This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories of cognitive an processes, starting from the simplest to the most complex (see the table below for an in-depth coverage of each category): Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must normally be mastered before the next one can take place. ......................... Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl revisited the cognitive domain in the mid-nineties and made some changes, with perhaps the three most prominent ones being (Anderson, Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer, Pintrich, Raths, Wittrock, 2000): changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms rearranging them as shown in the chart below creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix The chart shown below compares the original taxonomy with the revised one: ............................ This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate. The new version of Bloom's Taxonomy, with examples and keywords is shown below, while the old version may be found here Table of the Revised Cognitive Domain ................... Cognitive Processes and Levels of Knowledge Matrix Bloom's Revised Taxonomy not only improved the usability of it by using action words, but added a cognitive and knowledge matrix. While Bloom's original cognitive taxonomy did mention three levels of knowledge or products that could be processed, they were not discussed very much and remained one-dimensional: ........................... Factual - The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems. Conceptual – The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together. Procedural - How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods. In Krathwohl and Anderson's revised version, the authors combine the cognitive processes with the above three levels of knowledge to form a matrix. In addition, they added another level of knowledge - metacognition: ............... Metacognitive – Knowledge of cognition in general, as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition. When the cognitive and knowledge dimensions are arranged in a matrix, as shown below, it makes a nice performance aid for creating performance objectives: .................................. However, others have identified five contents or artifacts (Clark, Chopeta, 2004; Clark, Mayer, 2007): Facts - Specific and unique data or instance. Concepts - A class of items, words, or ideas that are known by a common name, includes multiple specific examples, shares common features. There are two types of concepts: concrete and abstract. Processes - A flow of events or activities that describe how things work rather than how to do things. There are normally two types: business processes that describe work flows and technical processes that describe how things work in equipment or nature. They may be thought of as the big picture, of how something works. Procedures - A series of step-by-step actions and decisions that result in the achievement of a task. There are two types of actions: linear and branched. Principles - Guidelines, rules, and parameters that govern. It includes not only what should be done, but also what should not be done. Principles allow one to make predictions and draw implications. Given an effect, one can infer the cause of a phenomena. Principles are the basic building blocks of causal models or theoretical models (theories). Thus, the new matrix would look similar to this: ........................... The Cognitive Dimension ............................... An example matrix that has been filled in might look something like this:

What is Curriculum?

Definition of curriculum:

Curriculum can be defined as the entire program provided by an institute, classroom, school, board, province, or country. A class level is assigned sections (contents of a certain level) of the curriculum as defined by the school. If it is broadly defined, curriculum means everything that students learn, are taught, or even are exposed to, both inside the school and outside anywhere on the world at large. When we talk about curriculum development, we are usually talking about curriculum that teachers and administrators consciously plan for. It has rightly been said "Curriculum is a tool in the hands of the artist (teacher) to mould his material (pupils) according to his ideas (aims and objectives) in his studio (school)."

What is the scope of curriculum
Curriculum is important for many reasons:
i. To avoid being overwhelmed by or unfocused in curriculum planning
ii. To help you assess students' readiness for and receptiveness to a particular curriculum
iii. To help you collaborate with families and other teachers to make sure students are having a coherent, meaningful experience with learning

Curriculum can be ordered into a procedure
Step 1: Diagnosis of needs.
Step 2: Formulation of objectives.
Step 3: Selection of content.
Step 4: Organization of content.
Step 5: Selection of learning experiences.
Step 6: Organization of learning experiences.
Step 7: Determination of what to evaluate and of the ways and means of doing it.

Four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice
Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted.
Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – products.
Curriculum as a process .
Curriculum as praxis.

Questions Related To Curriculum
1. Discuss the nature and scope of curriculum.
2. Examine the significance of situation analysis in curriculum development.
3. Discuss The sociological foundation of curriculum.
4. Curriculum must be flexible. Discuss this statement in the perspective of behavioural based curriculum.
5. Discuss different trends in curriculum at national level.

The Advantages of Microteaching

The Benefit of Micro Teaching Learning Microteaching manifests itself in this chapter as: *a reduced situation; *a training and practice situation; *a simulated situation. In this sense, the advantages that microteaching has over other traditional teacher training programs are obvious. These advantages are summarized as follows: (a) Microteaching is a training opportunity and the students can profit from all of the advantages of the situation. (b) Microteaching provides the student with a much less complex learning milieu than, e.g., school practice. (c) It offers the student the opportunity to more easily and purposefully practice teaching skills during the presentation of micro-lessons. (d) It provides the student with a context in which his primary responsibility is to learn to teach more effectively without the urgency of taking into account the needs and demands of pupils. (e) It offers the student the opportunity to systematically analyze and evaluate his teaching. (f) It offers the student the opportunity to practice particular teaching skills until they are mastered before the more complex real teaching situation is dared. (g) The systematic practice of teaching skills creates the possibility of forming a bridge between theory and practice. (h) Implementing interaction-analysis instruments offers the opportunity to objectively analyze particular activities and makes the student sensitive to part-activities that the skill manifests. 129 (i) The fact that the micro-lesson takes a short time gives the student the opportunity to better identify the elements of the learning contents and then further design his micro-lesson around them. (j) The student himself, or under the guidance of a teacher educator, can easily correct problems or errors that arise because the variables he has to take into account are limited (a-j: Calitz, 1981: 46). (k) It gives each student the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the improvement of his fellow students and at the same time it puts a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders. (l) To present a micro-lesson to fellow students in the same subject area gives him the opportunity to present his micro-lesson on any grade level. (m) It provides the opportunity to students to put themselves, as far as possible, in the position of the pupils with whom they must try to deal. (n) The student who presents the micro-lesson is challenged to communicate with his "pupils" about the content on an appropriate learning level even though he presents his micro-lesson to fellow students. The greatest value of microteaching is the changes it brings about in students regarding their teaching. The greatest changes brought about by microteaching are: *a greater grasp of teaching as a complex, challenging profession; *a greater interest in and enthusiasm for teaching; *an increased self-confidence; *a greater concern for improving and evaluating his own teaching. (Turney, et al, 1973: 8).

Teaching Terms and Their Meanings

1. Reflective Teaching:- Reflective teaching is a process where teachers think over their teaching practices, analyzing how something was taught and how the practice might be improved or changed for better learning outcomes
Explanation:- Reflective teaching is a process where teachers think over their teaching practices, analyzing how something was taught and how the practice might be improved or changed for better learning outcomes. Some points of consideration in the reflection process might be what is currently being done, why it's being done and how well students are learning. You can use reflection as way to simply learn more about your own practice, improve a certain practice (small groups and cooperative learning, for example) or to focus on a problem students are having. Let's discuss some methods of reflective teaching now.

2. The Proliferation of Teacher Training Institutions:- Rapid increase in the number or amount of those institutions where teachers can be trained.

3. Situated Cognition:- Situated cognition is a theory that posits that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts.

4. Pedagogy:- the function or work of a teacher; teaching. 2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods.

5. Peripheral: - (of a device) able to be attached to and used with a computer, though not an integral part of it.

6. Hands-on Method of Teaching:- Hands-on learning is an educational method that directly involves the learner, by actively encouraging them to do something in order to learn about it. In short, it is 'learning by doing'. But is it an effective way to learn, or simply a fad? This article outlines some of the main advantages and disadvantages of hands-on learning.

7. Microteaching:- Microteaching is organized practice teaching. The goal is to give instructors confidence, support, and feedback by letting them try out among friends and colleagues a short slice of what they plan to do with their students.

8. Teacher Education Programmes:- 1. Pre-primary teacher education 2. Primary teacher education 3. Secondary teacher education 4. Higher education programmes 5. Vocational Teachers Training

9. Homogeneous:- of the same kind; alike.

10. Behavior:- A stereotyped motor response to an internal or external stimulus.

11. Character:- An individual's set of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns learned and accumulated over time.

12. Cognition:- The act or process of knowing or perceiving.

13. Cognitive:- The ability (or lack of) to think, learn, and memorize.

14. Gene:- A building block of inheritance, which contains the instructions for the production of a particular protein, and is made up of a molecular sequence found on a section of DNA. Each gene is found on a precise location on a chromosome.

15. Identity:- The condition of being the same with, or possessing, a character that is well described, asserted, or defined.

16. Maturity:- A state of full development or completed growth.

17. Personality:- The organized pattern of behaviors and attitudes that makes a human being distinctive. Personality is formed by the ongoing interaction of temperament, character, and environment.

18. Socialization:- The process by which new members of a social group are integrated in the group. 

19. Temperament:- A person's natural disposition or inborn combination of mental and emotional traits.

20. Gestalt Theory:- Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

21. HyperCard:- HyperCard is an application program and programming tool for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers, that is among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web.

22. Epistemology:- the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.

23. Baha'i:- a monotheistic religion founded in the 19th century as a development of Babism, emphasizing the essential oneness of humankind and of all religions and seeking world peace. The Baha'i faith was founded by the Persian Baha'ullah (1817–92) and his son Abdul Baha (1844–1921).

24. Motor Skill:- A motor skill is simply an action that involves your baby using his muscles. Gross motor skills are larger movements your baby makes with his arms, legs, feet, or his entire body. So crawling, running, and jumping are gross motor skills. Fine motor skills are smaller actions.

25. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH DEVELOPMENT:- The term is used in purely physical sense. It generally refers to increase in size, length.
Changes in the quantitative aspects come into the domain of Growth.

26. Maturation:- Maturation is the process by which we change, grow, and develop throughout life. Developmental psychologists look at many different types of maturation throughout the lifespan. The types of maturation that we will focus on in this lesson are physical maturation and cognitive maturation.

27. Gestalt Psychology:- Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that believes all objects and scenes can be observed in their simplest forms. Sometimes referred to as the 'Law of Simplicity,' the theory proposes that the whole of an object or scene is more important than its individual parts.

28. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.

Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being thorough, careful, or vigilant. Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well. Conscientious people are efficient and organized as opposed to easy-going and disorderly.

Neuroticism is a fundamental personality trait in the study of psychology characterized by anxiety, fear, moodiness, worry, envy, frustration, jealousy, and loneliness.
Educational research refers to a variety of methods, in which individuals evaluate different aspects of education including: “student learning, teaching methods, teacher training, and classroom dynamics”.

Brief Introduction And Definitions of Evaluation, Measurement, Assessment and Test

Introduction To Assessment and Judgement in Educational Setting

Before simplifying the definitions of the above mentioned terms it is necessary to throw some light on these as a whole as an introductory part of educational measurement or judgement. For most of the learners it is not easy know the difference between testing, assessment, and evaluation. If we define these terms within an educational setting, they are all used to measure:

i.     how much and in what way all the given tasks are accomplished

ii.    how the assigned materials are being used and mastered by the students

iii.   how much the student are learning

iv.   whether students are achieving the already set goals and objectives. 

v.   how the students spend much of their academic time

vi.  how they value themselves academically

For most of the teachers it is extremely important to learn as to what assessment means. Assessment is one of the most vitally important aspects of an educational system. Although you may believe that assessments only provide instructors with information on which to base a score or grade, assessments also help you to assess your own learning. Educationists make the difference between assessment, evaluation, and testing. 

Simple Definition of Measurement, Evaluation, Test and Assessment

Definition of Measurement:

Measurement refers to the set of procedures and the principles as to how to use the procedures in educational tests and assessments. Some of the basic principles of measurement in educational evaluations would be raw scores, percentile ranks, derived scores, standard scores, etc. According to J.P Guilford, measurement means the description of data. All the class tests - monthly, bimonthly, midterm, final term exams's scores can be counted in measurement.

Definition of Evaluation: 

Evaluation in education means procedures which are used to determine whether the subject (i.e. student) meets a preset criteria, such as qualifying for special education services. This uses assessment (remember that an assessment may be a test) to make a determination of qualification in accordance with a predetermined criteria. In simple words, evaluation is the process of making judgments based on pre-set criteria and evidence.

Definition of Test: 

Test is a method of determining a student's ability to complete certain tasks or demonstrate mastery of a skill or knowledge of content, that is learning stuff). Some of the types of tests would be multiple choice tests, or a weekly spelling test. While it is commonly used interchangeably with assessment, or even evaluation, it can be distinguished by the fact that a test is one form of an assessment. In other words a test or quiz is used to judge or examine someone's knowledge of something to determine what he or she knows or has learned. Testing measures the level of skill or knowledge that has been achieved.

Definition of Assessment: 

Assessment if the the process of gathering information to monitor progress and make educational decisions if necessary. As noted in my definition of test, an assessment may include a test, but also includes methods such as observations, interviews, behavior monitoring, etc. Assessment refers to measuring what you know and what have learned. Assessment is the process of documenting knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs, usually in measurable terms. The goal of assessment is to make improvements, as opposed to simply being judged. The benefit of assessment is to help a teacher ro build confidence in the students ability to learn.