Educational Psychology is the application of scientific method to the study of the behavior of people in instructional settings. Although the behavior of teachers and students is of greatest interest, educational psychologists also study the behavior of other groups, such as teacher aides, infants, migrants, and the aged. The areas covered by educational psychologists inevitably overlap with other areas of psychology, including child and adolescent development, social psychology, psychological testing, and educational counseling.
Development of the Field of Educational Psychology
The philosophic, rather than the scientific, method was the main mode for inquiry about learning and the mind until 1879, when the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt founded a laboratory in Leipzig devoted to the scientific study of psychology. Another German psychologist of the time, Hermann Ebbinghaus, developed techniques for the experimental study of memory and forgetting. Before Ebbinghaus, these higher mental processes had never been scientifically studied; the importance of this work for the practical world of schooling was immediately recognized.
At the same time, the American philosopher and psychologist William James started a laboratory at Harvard University for experimental psychology. James, influenced by Charles Darwin, was interested in how behavior adapted in different environments. This functional approach to behavioral research led James to study practical areas of human endeavor, such as education. In 1899, he published Talks to Teachers, in which he discussed the relation between psychology and teaching.
James's student Edward Lee Thorndike is usually considered the first educational psychologist. In his book Educational Psychology (1903), Thorndike claimed to report only scientific and quantifiable research. In 1913-14, he published three volumes of material containing reports of virtually all the scientific study in psychology that had relevance to education. Thorndike made major contributions to the study of intelligence and ability testing, mathematics and reading instruction, and the way learning transfers from one situation to another. In addition, he developed an important theory of learning that describes how stimuli and responses are connected.
The field of educational psychology flourished within the progressive movement in education that had begun in the early 20th century. The Great Depression, however, led psychologists to adopt a more modest position about their potential for improving education. From the early 1930s until the mid-1940s, only a few people conducted empirical research in educational psychology. Four things changed the outlook of the field again: World War II, the postwar baby boom, the curricula reform movement, and the growing concern for disadvantaged children.
During World War II, psychologists in the armed forces were required to solve practical educational problems. They learned to predict, for instance, who would make a good pilot or radio repairperson; they learned to teach skills such as aircraft gunnery and cooking quickly. When the war ended, many of these psychologists turned their attention to testing and instruction in education. Concurrently, as schools were filled by the postwar baby boom, educational psychologists were needed to design and evaluate instructional materials, training programs, and tests. By the late 1950s, when the U.S. was carrying on a technological race with the Soviet Union, efforts to update the American school curriculum were increased. Educational psychologists worked with leaders in science and mathematics to develop new curricula and new teacher-education programs. Later, millions of dollars of federal money were allocated to improve the academic performance of disadvantaged students. Educational psychologists were deeply involved in the design and evaluation of programs to accomplish this goal.
These societal forces led to rapid growth in the field after 1960. Today, more than 3000 educational psychologists belong to the American Psychological Association, and almost 5500 members of the American Educational Research Association are concerned with issues in the field. Most universities now require teachers to take at least one course in educational psychology.
Theories in Educational Psychology
Because of the wide diversity in human beings, instructional settings, and fields of study, no general theory has been formulated that is applicable to all educational psychology. Instead, psychologists work on developing theories about particular phenomena in learning, motivation, development, teaching, and instruction.
Learning Theory
Different theories of learning help educational psychologists understand, predict, and control human behavior. For example, educational psychologists have worked out mathematical models of learning that predict the probability of a person's making a correct response; these mathematical theories are used to design computerized instruction in reading, mathematics, and second-language learning. To understand a child's emotional aversion to school, the respondent (or classical) conditioning theory originated by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov may be used. Pavlov's theory describes how stimuli that occur together may come to evoke similar responses. To inquire about the origins of a child's disruptive classroom behavior, the operant (or instrumental) conditioning theory of Thorndike and the American psychologist B. F. Skinner may be applicable. This theory describes how rewards shape and maintain behavior. School violence and vandalism may be partially understood through the social-learning theory of the Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura (1925- ), which describes the conditions under which people learn to imitate models. Information-processing theory is used to understand how people solve problems by analogy and metaphor.
Motivation
Attribution theory describes the role of motivation in a person's success or failure in school situations. Success on a test, for instance, could be attributed to luck or hard work; the theory predicts the behavior of students depending on their responses.
Development
The theory of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget that intellectual ability is qualitatively different at different ages and that children need interaction with the environment to gain intellectual competency has influenced all of education and psychology. This new concept of intelligence affected the design of learning environments for young children and the development of mathematics and science programs.
Theory in Teaching
The scientific study of teaching is a relatively new development; until the 1950s, little systematic observation and experimentation took place. The research on teaching has been consistent in its implications for academic achievement. The variables that educational psychologists have found to be important in classroom teaching include the time teachers allocate to instruction, the amount of content they cover, the percent of time that students are engaged in learning, the congruence between what is taught and what is tested, and the ability of the teacher to give clear directions, provide feedback, hold students accountable for their behavior, and create a warm, democratic atmosphere for learning.
Instructional Theory
The American educator Robert Gagne (1916- ) developed a hierarchical theory that some types of learning are prerequisites to other kinds of learning. His research has been fruitfully used in determining the sequence of instruction.
Applications
In schools, educational psychology has been applied recently to creating a system of instruction known as mastery learning, which is based on the belief that most students can achieve high grades if certain procedures are followed: (1) The curriculum is broken down into logically sequenced units of about two weeks' duration; (2) the students pass a test at the end of each unit of learning before proceeding to the next unit; (3) alternate forms of instruction and tests are available so that students can do remedial work if they fail the first time; and (4) students determine for themselves the amount of time they need to complete a unit. This form of instruction is usually successful in courses that stress acquisition of knowledge.
Educational psychologists frequently engage in curriculum research and development. Instructional plans and test items are designed to match specified objectives. The plans then are tested and, if necessary, redesigned on the basis of empirical findings. This method has also been used to design instructional television programs and a wide range of ancillary curriculu
m materials.
Techniques of educational psychology are used in teacher-training programs. Principles of behavior modification are applied to a wide set of teaching problems such as reducing the noise level of disorderly classrooms or increasing the study time of students who daydream.
Educational psychologists have devised in-service teacher-training programs to improve reading and mathematics instruction in accord with the findings of recent empirical research. These studies demonstrate that research on teaching can be used to train teachers in ways that will increase student achievement, even in low-achieving classrooms.
Current Trends in Educational Psychology
Educational psychologists are becoming increasingly interested in how people receive, interpret, encode, store, and retrieve information. Attempts to understand the cognitive process have shed light on human problem solving, memory, and creativity. Because of many new theories about appropriate ways to assess an individual's ability and aptitude, educational psychologists are also working in the area of test development. The educational impact of technological advances such as the microcomputer, for instance, will also be studied and evaluated during the next few decades. Recent laws in the U.S. that require handicapped, emotionally disturbed, and learning-disabled children to be taught whenever possible in regular classrooms have extended the area of empirical study, as new problems occasioned by these changes require new solutions from educational psychologists.
