Nature of educational psychology:
I. Educational psychology is an
applied branch of psychology. It applies various principles of psychology and
tries to study the behavior and experiences of the children.
II. It also suggests ways- means for
the modification of children’s behavior.
III. It is concerned with the problems
of the school and plans for a sound education of the child.
IV. It is the study of children’s
behavior as it is influenced by various factors of the school.
V. It employs a scientific approach to
the problems in the school and tries to solve them
VI. It acquaints the teacher with the
classroom situations and equips him to solve the various problems in the best
possible manner.
Definitions:
1.
Crow and Crow,” Educational psychology describes and explains the learning
experiences of an individual from birth through old age”.
2.
Charles E. Skinner,” Educational psychology is that branch of psychology
deals with teaching and learning.’’
3.
Stephen,” Educational psychology is the systematic study of the educational
growth and development of the child.”
SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:
By scope of study we mean an area,
contents or elements that constitute a subject of our study. Every well-defined
subject has its distinct area of study of its own and its learner at the
beginning is supposed to have clear concept of it. Then only one may be
conscious of its need that motivates for study.
Educational psychology as a promising
subject has its scope of study to which our direction may be directed.
Following are the scopes:
1.
Learner’s behavior: It has the subject matter
knitted around the learner. With this section of its subject matter, it
acquaints us with the need of knowing the learner’s behavior such as his
abilities, needs, aptitudes, developmental characteristics of heredity and
environment, interests and other potentialities of the learner.
Educational psychology helps in
deciding what learning experience are desirable at what stage of the growth and
development of the learner. It facilitates the selection of the desirable
learning experiences for the learner.
3. The learning process:
After knowing the learner and deciding
what learning experiences are to be provided, the next problem is what should be the nature of learning and how
it should take place. It deals with the topic such as, laws, principles and
theories of learning, factors responsible for learning, methods and conditions
for effective teaching and learning, etc.
4. The learning situation:
It has a subject matter to deal about
the conditions of classroom, group behavior, various aids to facilitate
learning, various techniques of evaluation, guidance and counseling services,
educational technology and other facilities of learning that helps in the
smooth functioning of the teaching learning process.
5.
The teacher:
The teacher is the potent force in any
scheme of teaching and learning. It studies teacher’s mental health, physical
condition, emotional attitudes, adjustment, personality traits, capabilities,
professional efficiency, skills of teaching and dealing with the learners.
6. Evaluation
of student’s achievement: It helps in analyzing the prevalent examination system and
brings its defect into light. It helps in constructing scientific educational
test. In order to measure the intelligence, attitude, aptitude and interests
etc. test of different types are constructed.
7.
Study of unconscious mind: it has been observed that many of the abnormal
and undesirable behavior and activities and deeply rooted in the unconscious
mind and its elements. To study the nature and causes of their complexity and
to normalize the situation covers an interesting area of its study.
8.
Statistics in education: Human behavior being a variable is measured. Such
measurements are interpreted and tabulated with the help of statistical
technique. This application of statistics to educational measurement has become
an important branch of educational psychology.
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