A summary in English of the book 'Educational Psychology' by John W. Santrock 6th edition. Chapter 1 up to and including 10 (chapter 3 only the third part) and chapter 12 & 13. Important terms are Indicated in red.
Summary
Educational Psychology
Author:
- John W. Santrock
Chapter 1 Educational Psychology: A tool for effective teaching
§1.1 Exploring Educational Psychology
Learn students how to learn and not what to learn. We want students to take ownership
of their learning. Students should think for themselves.
Psychology is a scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology that specializes in understanding
teaching and learning in educational settings.
Three pioneers:
- William James
Gave lectures in which he discussed applications of psychology to educating children.
Start lessons at a point just beyond the child’s level of knowledge and understanding to
stretch a child’s mind.
- John Dewey
First major educational psychology laboratory.
A child is an active learner.
Education should focus on the whole child and emphasize adaptation to the environment.
Children deserve to have a competent education (boys and girls as well as children from
different ethnic groups).
- E.L. Throndike
Focused on assessment and measurement.
Educational Psychology should have a scientific base.
Two pioneering African American psychologists Mamie and Kenneth Clark.
George Sanchez intelligence test was culturally biased.
Behavioral approach: Skinner built on Thondike’s ideas. A mental process is not observable
so it isn’t scientific. Developed programmed learning (reinforcing student each of a series of
steps until the student reached a learning goal).
Cognitive revolution: Bloom had the taxonomy of cognitive skills (remembering,
comprehending, synthesizing and evaluating) which teachers should help students develop
the use of.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were not created in an effort to inform teachers about ways to
educate children but they have many applications that can guide teaching.
§1.2 Effective Teaching
,Teachers must master a variety of perspectives and strategies to be effective and master
them in different levels.
- Professional knowledge and skills
- Commitment, motivation and caring
# Subject-matter competence: not only known facts, terms and general concepts but also
knowledge about organizing ideas, connections, ways of thinking, patterns of change within
discipline and ability to carry ideas from one discipline to another.
Constructivist approach: A learner-centered approach to learning that emphasizes the
importance of individuals actively constructing knowledge and understanding with guidance
from the teacher.
- William James & John Dewey
- Collaboration: Children working with each other in their efforts to know and
understand
Direct instruction approach: a structured, teacher centered approach characterized by
teacher direction and control, high teacher expectations for students’ progress, maximum
time spent by students on academic tasks, and efforts by the teacher to keep negative affect
to a minimum.
- E.L. Thorndike
# Effective teachers use both instructions
# Thinking skills like critical thinking involve thinking reflectively and productively by for
example evaluating evidence. This is not easy for children. Also think open minded and be
careful with interpreting.
# Set high goals and planning: have organized plans with specific criteria for success. Make
learning challenging and interesting.
# development understand developmental pathways and progressions and choose the
correct instructional material.
# classroom management create an environment in which learning can occur
# motivational skills good strategies for helping students become self-motivated and take
responsibility. Real world learning opportunities, establish high expectations and show
personal interest helps.
# communication skills verbal and nonverbal communication with parents and students
# paying more than lip service to individual variations take individual variations into account
and keep in mind that children have varying levels of intelligence. Differentiated instruction:
involves recognizing individual variations in students’ knowledge, readness, interests, and
other characteristics and taking their differences into account when planning curriculum and
engaging in instruction. So provide three/four levels of instruction.
,# working effectively with students from culturally diverse backgrounds be sensitive to the
needs of people from different backgrounds. Encourage personal contact with diverse
students.
# assessment knowledge and skills decide the type of assessment you want to use to
document your students’ performance.
# technonolgical skilss technonly can support learning. Intergration should match up with
students learning needs. Some technology standards for students:
- Empowered Learner (Active use to reach goals)
- Digital Citizen (demonstrate responsibility)
- Knowledge Constructor (use resources and tools to construct knowledge)
- Innovative Designer (solve problems)
- Computational Thinker (create solutions and test them)
- Creative Communicator
- Global Collaborator (widen perspectives by connecting with others)
Beside al of this effective teachers care about their students. Their commitment and
motivation help get teachers through tough times.
§1.3 Research in Educational Psychology
Sometimes is said that experience is the best teacher. But we don’t know how valid
these conclusions are. Providing valid information of how to be a better teacher can be
done by research.
The three basic methods used to gather information in educational psychology are
descriptive, correlational and experimental.
Descriptive research: observing/recording behavior. It cannot prove what causes some
phenomenon. The observations are accurate, reliable and efficient.
Observation Laboratory observations are made in a controlled setting from which
many of the complex factors of the real world have been removed. It is controlled but
artificial. Naturalistic observation conducted in the real world rather than in a laboratory.
Participant observation conducted while the teacher-researcher is actively involved as a
participant in the activity of setting.
Interviews and questionnaires to find out experiences, beliefs and feelings.
Good surveys and interviews involve concrete, specific and unambiguous questions.
Limitation: individuals give socially desirable answers/untruthful.
Standardized tests test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring.
They assess students’ performance in different domains and allow a student’s
performance to be compared with the performance of other students at the same age or
grade level on a national basis.
Physiological measures fMRI (images of the brain), heart rate, hormones,
genetic and environmental influences.
Case studies An in-depth look at an individual.
, Ethnographic studies In-depth description and interpretation of behavior in an ethnic
or a cultural group that includes direct involvement with the participants. (most of the
time it is a long-term project)
Focus Groups interviewing people in a group setting and obtain information about a
particular topic or issue.
Personal Journals and Diaries for quantitative aspects (how often) or qualitative
aspects (attitudes and beliefs)
Correlational research: research that describes the strength of the relation two or more
events or characteristics. Observed correlation: As permissive teaching increases,
children’s’ self-control decreases (there can be a first, second or third event cause). Not a
dependable way to isolate the cause.
Experimental research: research that allows the detemination of the causes of behavior
and involves conducting an experiment, which is a carefully regulated procedure in
which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studies in
manipulated and all others are held constant. Cause; event being manipulated. Effect;
behavior that changes because of manipulation.
Independent variable: the manipulated, influential, experimental factor in an
experiment.
Dependent variable: the factor that is measured in an experiment.
Experimental group: the group whose experience is manipulated in an experiment.
Control group: in an experiment, a group whose experience is treated in every way like
the experimental group except for the manipulated factor.
Random assignment: in experimental research, the assignment of participants to
experimental and control groups by chance.
More narrowly targeted work often includes program evaluation research, action
research and teacher-as-researcher
Program evaluation research: designed to make decisions about the effectiveness of a
particular program. Results are not intended to be generalized to other settings.
Action research: research used to solve a specific classroom or school problem, improve
teaching and other educational strategies, or make a decision at a specific location.
Teacher-as-researcher: concept involves classroom teachers conducting their own
studies to improve their teaching practice.
Quantitative research: employs numerical calculations in an effort to discover
information about a particular topic (correlational/experimental)
Qualitative research: Involves obtaining information using descriptive measures such as
interviews, case studies, personal journals and diaries, and focus groups but not
statistically analyzing the information.
Mixed methods research: involves research that blends different research designs or
methods.
Chapter 2 Cognitive and language development
§2.1 An Overview of Child Development
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