Learning, Knowledge and Human Development MOOC’s Updates

Understanding Educational Psychology

Learning Sciences is the study of how people learn and the factors that influence successful learning. It integrates knowledge from different fields including cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. Educational psychology is the scientific study of learning, focusing on how people learn and retain information. It studies the processes involved in teaching and psychological problems involved in teaching students. 

Educational psychology contributes to our understanding by studying how cognitive, emotional, and social factors influence the learning process. This helps identify a student's strengths and weaknesses and what learning style is necessary for each student's needs. This enables educators to develop teaching strategies, choose appropriate teaching methods, and create an effective learning environment for students. George Reese talked about Productive Struggle, where students learn to think critically and consider new approaches to come up with a solution. Teachers create challenging but achievable activities wherein students need to think, strategize, and accomplish complex tasks. Productive struggle fosters deep understanding, perseverance and critical thinking skills. This helps students see challenges and mistakes as opportunities for growth rather than failure. 

Educational psychology employs different theories to explain how people learn which includes behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, experientialism, and social contextual learning. Behaviorism focuses on how people learn through their interactions with the environment. Cognitivism focuses on how our minds process information and convert it into knowledge. Constructivism states that we construct knowledge through experiences and interactions with people around us. Experientialism focuses on learning via hands-on experience where learners gain knowledge by engaging in activities instead of reading. Social contextual learning occurs through observation, an example is a child observing people around him and then imitating these behaviors afterwards.

In summary, educational psychology is the field that studies how people learn to improve teaching methods and outcomes. It provides educators with theories and strategies to create an effective, engaging and active learning environment for students.