1. Learning, Teaching, and Educational Psychology
Cluster 1
Modules 1 – 2

2. Focus Questions Who are the students in today’s classrooms?
What is the No Child Left Behind Act?
Does teaching matter?
What is good teaching?
What are the greatest concerns of beginning teachers?
Why should I study educational psychology?
What roles to theory and research play in this field?
Describe three families of theories explaining learning and development and three issues that run through these theories.

3. The Role of Psychology in Education
Learning and Teaching Today
What is Good Teaching?
The Role of Educational Psychology
Preview: Theories for Educational Psychology
Diversity and Convergences

4. What Would You Do? Read “What Would You Do?” on p. 1
What would you do to help all your students to progress and prepare for the testing?
How would you use the intern so that both she and your students learn?
How could you involve the families of your non-English speaking students and students with learning disabilities to support their children’s learning?

5. Learning and Teaching Dramatic Diversity: Students Today
Have many different backgrounds
Come from diverse families
Face difficult challenges
Many have disabilities
Teachers are less diverse
91% are white

6. No Child Left Behind
Reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965
All students in grades 3-8 must take standardized tests once per year
All students must take one standardized test in high school
AYP- Adequate Yearly Progress
Schools must report results separately for groups such as minorities and students with disabilities

7. Do Teachers Make a Difference?
Teacher-Student Relationships
“The association between the quality of early teacher-child relationships and later school performance can be both strong and persistent”
The Cost of Poor Teaching
Less effective teaching can contribute to lower academic gains

8. What is good teaching?
A science, or an art? Are teachers sages on stages or guides on the side?
Teachers must be knowledgeable and inventive
Use a range of strategies
Use research-based strategies for managing classes
Flexibility
Knowledgeable about your students

9. Beginning Teachers Concerns
Classroom management
Motivating students
Accommodating students with differences
Evaluating student work
Dealing with parents
Getting along with other teachers
Difference between new and experienced teacher:
New teacher- “How am I doing?”
Experienced teacher- “How are the students doing?”
Educational psychology provides new teachers the foundation they need

11. Role of Educational Psychology
Educational Psychology and teaching
Began with early educators and psychologists observing children in classrooms
Educational Psychology today
Research on teaching and learning
Child/adolescent development
Motivation
Others?

12. Educational Psychology
Is it just common sense?
How do we find answers to many of our most pressing challenges in the classroom?
Often, we rely on common sense responses that may not serve students well.
Educational psychology is a field dedicated to the scientific study of teaching and learning.

13. Using Research Descriptive Studies Correlation Studies Survey results
Interview responses
Video or audio of classroom interactions
Correlation Studies
Ask: what is the relation between two variables?

15. Using Research Experimental Studies
Random assignment
Cause and effect
Single-Subject Experimental Designs
Examines the impact of an intervention
Microgenetic Studies
Study cognitive processes in the midst of change

16. Using Research The role of time in research Teachers as researchers
Short term observations
Longitudinal studies
Teachers as researchers
Action research (problem-solving investigation)

17. Using Scientific Research
NCLB- educational programs and practices receiving federal funds must be based on “scientific research”
Observations or experiments
Valid and reliable data
Clearly described and repeatable
Must be peer reviewed

18. Theories for Teaching
Theory: “an interrelated set of concepts that is used to explain a body of data and to make predictions about the results of future experiments”
Principles and theories are both useful-
Principles will help you with specific problems
Theories will provide new ways of thinking about problems

19. Theory Preview Jean Piaget Lev Vygotsky Sigmund Freud Erik Erikson
‘Natural’ cognitive development
Lev Vygotsky
Sociocultural Theory
Sigmund Freud
Dream analysis, sex and aggression
Erik Erikson
Psychosocial theory

20. Contextual Theories Lev Vygotsky- Urie Bronfenbrenner-
Zone of proximal development
Development within the context of human interaction
Urie Bronfenbrenner-
Bioecological model for development
Many diverse contexts for development

21. Diversity and Convergences
Students are increasingly diverse, while teachers remain primarily white and middle class.
Diverse approaches to research can address a variety of problems.
No Child Left Behind seeks to close the gap between high achieving and low achieving students. Is it working? If not, how would you fix it?