Educational psychology: characteristics and theories

Educational psychology, or educational psychology, is a discipline whose objective is oriented to the understanding and explanation of teaching and learning processes. Thus, it allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn? How do we teach?

Furthermore, how can we learn and teach better? In this article, we will define the scope of action of this branch of psychology and we will talk about the most important models that have seen the light within this discipline.

Educational psychology: origin and conceptualization

Before delving into the definition of educational psychology, let’s talk about its origin. Coll is one of the authors who approaches, for the first time, the discipline of educational psychology, in 1990. In doing so, he finds two pieces of evidence:

Educational psychology is knowledge that has to do with the application of the principles and explanations of psychology to educational theory and practice. There is disagreement on almost everything else: what its application consists of, what content it includes, what relationship it has with other areas of Psychology, etc.

One of the characteristics that has penalized the conceptualization and recognition of educational psychology is its lack of identity. An identity that blurs its edges in three points:

That its birth has given rise to a discipline between psychology and education. That there is no coincidence among the different specialists regarding whether it is basic or applied knowledge. The variety of models on which it has been based when constructing their knowledge.

What is educational psychology?

Despite what has been mentioned, educational psychology has little by little been defined and consolidated, and today it is a fairly solid discipline in the psychological and also educational field. It can be defined as the ‘branch of psychology responsible for the study of the processes of change that arise in the personas a result of their relationship with formal or informal educational institutions (school, family, etc.)’.

By its very nature, Educational psychology is closely linked to developmental psychology. The latter studies the evolutionary phases of human beings, the capacities, skills and advances that are experienced at all times, so that it can be evident if there is a problem and propose interventions to facilitate learning.

On the other hand, educational psychology differs from psychopedagogy, for example, in that the latter is oriented to the study of the psychological processes involved in learning and teaching throughout life. On the other hand, educational psychology is also focused on analyzing the ways of learning of human beingsas well as the ways of teaching.

It is also dedicated to analyzing the effectiveness of educational interventions, with the aim of improving the different interventions. In short: educational psychology studies how people learn; In addition, you can focus your attention on subgroups of students or pupils, such as children with high abilities and children with some type of disability (intellectual, sensory, etc.).

Topics in Educational Psychology

From the materials teachers use to the individual needs of students, educational psychologists dig deeper to better understand the learning process. Some of these topics of study in educational psychology include:

Educative technology: focuses on how different types of technology can help students learn.Instructional design: design of effective learning materials.Special education: assist students who may need specialized instruction.Curriculum Development– Creating courses that maximize learning.Gifted students: assist students identified as gifted learners.

Educational psychologists work with educators, administrators, teachers, and students to discuss how to help people learn better.

Theories of educational psychology

There are different theories and models framed within educational psychology. Let’s talk about the most relevant ones.

Behavioral models

Within the behavioral models, the first to emerge within this discipline, we find: Watson’s classical conditioning model, Thorndike’s instrumental conditioning model and Skinner’s operant conditioning model.

Watson’s classical conditioning model

John B. Watson’s famous classical conditioning. Watson (1878-1958), based on the works of Pavlov (1849-1936), verifies how Links are established between stimuli and reflex responses that are in principle independent of each other.. According to their model, generalization effects are also observed to other neutral stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Thorndike’s instrumental conditioning model

According to Thorndike, learning is the product of repeated practice and exercise in numerous ER (stimulus-response) pairing situations. Complex learning is the end result of a long history of small connections due to their consequences..

Skinner Model: Operant Conditioning

Skinner’s model (1904-1990) establishes that learning occurs based on its consequences. Skinner, together with his Harvard collaborators, applied the basic principles of Experimental Analysis of Behavior and suggested a series of educational strategies related to behavior modification techniques. Among them the following stand out:

Shaping.Attenuation.Chaining.Token economy system.Self-regulation or self-control.

Cognitive models

Within the cognitive models of educational psychology we find: Bandura’s social cognitive theory, information processing models and Gagné’s cumulative learning theory. What does each of these theories consist of?

Bandura’s social cognitive theory

According to the Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura (1925), Behavior is controlled by the person through cognitive processes and by the environment, through external social situations. Bandura called this view, “reciprocal determinism.”

The psychologist stressed that people are neither “powerless objects controlled by environmental forces,” nor “free agents who can become anything they decide.” Thus, both person and environment are reciprocal determinants of each other.

Information processing models

Another model of educational psychology is the information processing (IP) model, the approach with which cognitive psychology emerged in the 1960s. This approach is characterized by the study of the mind, through the analogy of the mind with a computer.

According to Slobin (1985), from this approach The mind is conceived as a system that receives, encodes, stores and retrieves information.

Gagné’s cumulative learning theory

Finally, Robert M. Gagné’s (1916-2002) cumulative learning theory, also known as the general theory of instruction, tries to integrate different knowledge about learning that have been contributed from the different behavioral theories. His theory is based on two principles:

Not all learning is the same. Each type of learning requires different skills from students and different instructional procedures of teachers. Learning is hierarchical, that is, the highest levels of instruction depend on the lowest ones.

To establish this hierarchical view of learning, Gagné defines a taxonomy of 8 different types of learning, which range from the simple to the complex, and considers them all equally necessary. These 8 levels are the following:

Learning signals (level 1). Learning stimuli and responses. Chaining. Verbal association. Multiple discrimination. Learning concepts. Learning principles. Problem solving (level 8).

Constructivist models

From this perspective the child (or student) is considered an active agent in his or her own learning process. Through experimentation, exploration and practice you acquire and improve your skills, instead of being a mere passive recipient of knowledge.

Lev Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory exemplifies this proposal. In this case, the teacher provides the materials, structure and guidelines for the student to solve the problem or acquire learning and progress in his or her own development.

Disorders and difficulties associated with learning

Learning disorders are information processing difficulties that prevent people from learning a skill and using it effectively. The most common learning disorders that educational psychology must deal with affect skills in reading, written expression, mathematics or non-verbal skills. Let’s see what they are.

dyslexia

It is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and understanding how they are associated with letters and words. Dyslexia generates difficulties in learning and using language, reading and writing, since the phonological processes and decoding of isolated words are affected. Some of the most obvious manifestations of this disorder are:

Difficulties in acquiring phonological awareness. Problems in evoking specific names (colors, letters, numbers). Difficulties in learning automatic verbal sequences (days of the week, months of the year, alphabet). Problems in learning the sounds of words and in associating the sound to a letter. When reading, errors of substitution, rotation, omission and inversion of letters are made. Reading is slow, laborious, forced, repetitive, slow. Spelling errors when writing.

dyscalculia

Disorder characterized by a alteration in numerical processing and calculation. It causes difficulties in acquiring the mathematical skills necessary for a correct interpretation of time scales (calendars, schedules), addresses (street numbers, latitudes, longitudes), and arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). Some symptoms of dyscalculia are:

Difficulty recognizing the meaning of numbers. Difficulty learning to count, recognize and match numbers. Problems solving mathematical exercises. Problems calculating different mathematical operations. Difficulty interpreting quantities. Difficulty writing numbers. Confusion of numbers. …