Introduction into EP
Questions to be discussed:
1. What do teachers need to know about development (cognitive
development)?
2. What do teachers need to know about learning process? Knowledge
acquisition: perception, attention, memory, imagination. Information
Processing
3. What do teachers need to know about learners?
4. What do teachers need to know about classroom management?
5. What do teachers need to know about teaching profession and themselves?
6. What do teachers need to know about Assessment?
7. What do teacher need to know about the perspectives of education?
Material to be studied:
I The Objectives of Educational Psychology:
-to reveal the mechanisms and patterns that explain how education and learning
influence the intellectual and personal development and cognitive activity of the
student; 1, 2
- to determine the mechanisms and patterns of how the socio-cultural experience
becomes learned, how it is structured and stored in the individual consciousness of
the student and is used in various situations; 2
- to determine the relationship between the intellectual and personal development
of the student and the forms, methods of teaching and educating influence
(cooperation, active forms of learning, etc.); 1,4
- to determine the features of the learning organization and managing; 4
- to study the psychological basis of the teacher's activity, their individual
psychological and professional qualities; 5
- to determine the mechanisms, patterns of developing learning, in particular, the
development of scientific, theoretical thinking; 2
- to determine the patterns, conditions, of knowledge acquisition, knowledge
criteria assessment, to determine operational composition of activities based on
them in the process of solving various tasks; 2
- to determine the psychological basis for testing and measuring the level and
quality of knowledge acquisition and their correlation with state educational
standards; 6
- to develop the psychological basis for further improvement of the educational
process at all levels of the educational system. 7
- to determine the challenges and opportunities of education in the digital age7
II. Methods of Educational Psychology
3 sources of data
1. Life record data (observation, 10 experts)
2. Questionnaire data consists of a list of questions, along with the choice of
answers, printed or typed in a sequence on a form used for acquiring
specific information from the respondents.
3. Objective test data responses maximize objectivity, in the sense that
response options are structured such that examinees have only a limited
set of options. MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Миннесотский многопрофильный личностный перечень), 16-
факторный личностный опросник Кэттелла Cattel
III. What stages of development can I expect to pass through during my first
year of teaching?
The Survival Stage
(Borich, 1993; Burden, 1986;
Fuller, 1969; Ryan, 1992). The distinguishing feature of the survival stage of
teaching is that your concerns will focus on your own well-being more than
on the teaching task or your learners.
Will my learners like me?
Will they listen to what I say?
What will parents and teachers think of me?
Will I do well when the principal observes me?
Will I ever have time to myself?
The Task Stage
At this stage you begin to feel confident that you can manage the day-to-day
routines of the classroom and deal with a variety of behavior problems. You
are at the point where you can plan your lessons without an exclusive focus
on managing the classroom. Your focus turns toward improving your
teaching skills and achieving greater mastery over the content you are
teaching.
How good are my instructional materials?
Will I have enough time to cover all the content?
How can I add variety to my presentations?
Where can I get some ideas for a learning center?
What’s the best way to teach writing skills?
The Impact Stage
The final stage of teacher growth and development is characterized by
concerns that have to do less with management and lesson delivery and more
with the impact of your teaching on learners.
At this stage, your principal concerns might be these:
How can I increase my learners’ feelings of accomplishment?
How do I meet my learners’ social and emotional needs?
What is the best way to challenge my unmotivated learners?
What skills do they need to best prepare them for the next grade?
Teacher Concerns Checklist
Directions. This checklist explores what teachers are concerned about at different
stages of their careers. There are no right or wrong answers, because each teacher
has his or her own concerns. Following are statements of concerns you might have,
read each statement and ask yourself: WHEN I THINK ABOUT TEACHING, AM
I CONCERNED ABOUT THIS?
If you are not concerned, or the statement does not apply, write 1 in the box.
If you are a little concerned, write 2 in the box.
If you are moderately concerned, write 3 in the box.
If you are very concerned, write 4 in the box.
If you are totally preoccupied with the concern, write 5 in the box.
1.Insufficient clerical help for teachers.
2.Whether the students respect me.
3.Too many extra duties and responsibilities.
4.Doing well when I’m observed.
5.Helping students to value learning.
6.Insufficient time for rest and class preparation.
7.Not enough assistance from specialized teachers.
8.Managing my time efficiently.
9.Losing the respect of my peers.
10.Not enough time for grading and testing.
11.The inflexibility of the curriculum.
12.Too many standards and regulations set for teachers.
13.My ability to prepare adequate lesson plans.
14.Having my inadequacies become known to other teachers.
15.Increasing students’ feelings of accomplishment.
16.The rigid instructional routine.
17.Diagnosing student learning problems.
18.What the principal may think if there is too much noise in my classroom.
19.Whether each student is reaching his or her potential.
20.Obtaining a favorable evaluation of my teaching.
21.Having too many students in a class.
22.Recognizing the social and emotional needs of students.
23.Challenging unmotivated students.
24.Losing the respect of my students.
25.Lack of public support for schools.
26.My ability to maintain the appropriate degree of class control.
27.Not having sufficient time to plan.
28.Getting students to behave.
29.Understanding why certain students make slow progress.
30.Having an embarrassing incident occur in my classroom for which I might be
judged responsible.
31.Not being able to cope with troublemakers in my classes.
32.That my peers may think I’m not doing an adequate job.
33.My ability to work with disruptive students.
34.Understanding ways in which student health and nutrition problems can affect
learning.
35.Appearing competent to parents.
36.Meeting the needs of different kinds of students.
37.Seeking alternative ways to ensure that students learn the subject matter.
38.Understanding the psychological and cultural differences that can affect my
students’ behavior.
39.Adapting myself to the needs of different students.
40.The large number of administrative interruptions.
41.Guiding students toward intellectual and emotional growth.
42.Working with too many students each day.
43.Whether students can apply what they learn.
44.Teaching effectively when another teacher is present.
45.Understanding what factors motivate students to learn.
3 7 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 4
2 6 1 5 0 4 9 3
The following items on the Teacher Concerns Checklist represent dimensions of
self, task, and impact:
Self: 2, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 35, 44
Task: 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 21, 25, 27, 31, 33, 40, 42
Impact: 5, 15, 17, 19, 22, 23, 29, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45
To determine your score, total the number of responses in each of the three
categories of concern—self, task, and impact. The higher your score in a category
(out of a maximum 75 points), the more you are identified with that stage of
concern. Also, by summing responses to items in each category and dividing by
the number of items completed, you can compute an average rating for each of the
three areas.
The sum of the scores for each of the three areas of concern can be recorded in the
format below, shown here with some sample data:
Stage Beginning End Change
Self 60 45 215
Task 45 60 +15
Impact 15 30 +15
This example shows a shift of concern from self to task and impact, which is
typical of student teachers who spend about a semester in a field experience.
Smaller shifts following this same pattern are not uncommon, however, after a
semester of in-school observation without practice teaching. Larger shifts,
particularly from task to impact, are frequently noted for beginning in-service
teachers during their first two to three years of teaching.
