Copyright Allyn & Bacon 1997

WoolfolkWoolfolk:: Educational PsychologyEducational Psychology

Chapter 1Chapter 1

Teachers, Teaching,

and

Educational Psychology

Overview of Chapter 1Overview of Chapter 1

What is good teaching? Would teaching be a good career for me? What do expert teachers know? What are the concerns of beginning

teachers? How theory and research inform

teachers? What problems will Ed Psych help me

solve?

What is Good Teaching?What is Good Teaching?

Bilingual First Grade

Suburban Sixth Grade

Inner-city Middle School

Two Advanced Math Classes

Expert KnowledgeExpert Knowledge

Content General teaching strategies Curriculum Subject-specific knowledge Learners Settings Goals & purposes of teaching

Time for ReflectionTime for Reflection

Think of an ‘expert teacher’ you had in the past. How many of the ‘expert knowledges’ did that teacher demonstrated on a consistent basis?

Teaching: Artistry, Technique, Teaching: Artistry, Technique, and a Lot of Work!and a Lot of Work!

Art versus ScienceArt versus Science

Teaching as a science: effective techniques

Teaching as an art: reflective, inventive

Teaching as a combined effort

A Perspective on the Art A Perspective on the Art versus Science Questionversus Science Question

Where the world ceases to be the Where the world ceases to be the stage for personal hopes and stage for personal hopes and desires, where we, as free beings, desires, where we, as free beings, behold it in wonder, to question and behold it in wonder, to question and to contemplate, there we enter the to contemplate, there we enter the realm of art and science. If we trace realm of art and science. If we trace out what we behold and experience out what we behold and experience through the language of logic, we are through the language of logic, we are doing science...doing science...

continuedcontinued

...if we show it in forms whose ...if we show it in forms whose interrelationships are not accessible interrelationships are not accessible to your conscious thought but are to your conscious thought but are intuitively recognized as meaningful, intuitively recognized as meaningful, we are doing art. Common to both is we are doing art. Common to both is the devotion to something beyond the devotion to something beyond the personal, removed from the the personal, removed from the arbitrary.arbitrary.

Albert Einstein

Concerns of Concerns of Beginning TeachersBeginning Teachers

Common ConcernsCommon Concerns

Classroom discipline Motivating students Accommodating differences Evaluating student work Dealing with parents “Reality shock”

The Role of The Role of Educational PsychologyEducational Psychology

Understanding and improvement of instruction

What people think and do as they teach and learn

Solving the everyday problems of education

Common Sense versus Common Sense versus ResearchResearch

Common Sense?Common Sense?

Taking turns in primary reading class. Classroom management: student

movement. Skipping grades.

ResearchResearch

Overview of ResearchOverview of Research Descriptive research

– Ethnography– Case studies– Participant observation– Correlation

Experimental research– Causal– Manipulative

Principles and theories

CorrelationsCorrelations Strength and direction Size of number is the strength The sign (+ or -) is the direction Positive = same direction Negative = opposite directions Range is -1.00 to +1.00 Does NOT indicate cause

Experimental ResearchExperimental Research

Comparable groups of subjects Random assignment of subjects Treatment Measurement after treatment Statistically significant

A Quick Tour of Topics in A Quick Tour of Topics in Educational PsychologyEducational Psychology

Topics in Ed PsychTopics in Ed Psych

Central focus: Learning and teaching How children develop How children differ Three main approaches to learning Motivation Classroom management Assessment and evaluation

SummarySummary Good teaching Teaching as a

career Expert teachers Concerns of

beginning teachers

Research Textbook topics

Check for UnderstandingCheck for Understanding

Compare and contrast expert and novice teachers. Use examples from your experience that illustrates your comparisons and contrasts.

Check for UnderstandingCheck for Understanding

Students in a classroom are being divided into two groups to test a new teaching method. They are assigned to the groups by drawing numbers from a hat. What kind of research is being used?

Check for UnderstandingCheck for Understanding

Current conceptions of educational psychology view it as being concerned with

a. teaching.

b. learning.

c. improvement of classroom methods.

d. all of the above.

LRogien: Boise State University

End Chapter 1End Chapter 1