EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology

Introduction

Over the years, educational psychology has been a part of teacher preparation, moving from a centerpiece in many programs, through periods when it was deemed irrelevant by some, to current concerns about its role in the reforming of teacher education and teaching. Today, psychological knowledge is used to ground reforms in teaching and schooling, particularly the call for teaching for understanding. Current standards for teacher certifications and licensure and suggestions for reform in teacher education assume that teachers will have a deep and generative understanding of learning, development, motivation, and individual differences. This report explores several themes that recur in the writing on reforms and teacher standards: the need to place learning at the center of teaching, the call for integrated studies, and the value of collaboration with the public schools. These themes have both positive and negative implications for the role of educational psychology in teacher education.

Discussion

Research suggests that many factors help to become a competent and successfull teacher. The overarching goal of this report is to examine the past and present status of educational psychology in the preparation of teachers. I focus on three themes that recur in the writing on teacher standards and reforms--themes that have implications for what about educational psychology teachers should learn and how that learning should take place. The themes are (a) the centrality of student learning in teaching, (b) the call for integrated studies, and (c) the value of collaboration with the public schools.

Educational Psychology

This examination begins with a brief glance at the history of educational psychology in teacher education, then moves to consider how the content and focus of educational psychology have changed over the years as both teacher education faculty and students demanded greater relevance, application, and utility from the study of educational psychology. Next, I look to the future by analyzing selected perspectives on standards and reforms in teaching and teacher preparation--most written by educators and policymakers outside educational psychology. What messages do these views of the future hold for our field? In many of these reform agendas are affirmations of the importance for teaching and teacher education of topics historically studied by educational psychologists, such as learning, development, motivation, and individual differences? Although few teacher educators or policymakers over the years have questioned the value of psychological knowledge, there is less agreement about what exactly should be learned or how the learning should take place.

The third part of this report focuses on the three reform themes listed earlier. The first theme, student learning as the center of teaching, has implications for what educational psychology should be taught. The last two themes, integrated studies and collaboration with the schools, are related to how the learning of educational psychology might take place. I suggest a few opportunities and dangers in embracing these reforms and then conclude by describing challenges for educational psychology in teacher education.

In 1886, James Sully published a book for teachers promoting faculty psychology and formal discipline, concepts developed ...