Educational Psychology - an Introduction

elective courses

Educational psychology is concerned with understanding and enhancing

the processes of learning and teaching. It combines many branches of

psychology (including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, developmental

psychology etc.) to seek answers to such questions as: What are the

sources of learner and teacher motivation? How to improve learning in

different contexts? What psychological and environmental factors

promote or hinder learning?

This course offers an overview of selected key issues in educational

psychology. It focuses on theoretical and practical implications for

modern education stemming from research on cognitive processes,

emotion and motivation, social dimension of learning and many more.

Handbook: Woolfolk, A. (2015). Educational Psychology (13

th Edition).

Additionally, students will be also asked to read selected original

journal articles.

1. Behavioral approaches to learning – Should they be of interest to

modern education?

 Woolfolk, Chapter 6: Behavioral views of learning.

2. Applying the findings of cognitive psychology to educational practice

– Understanding memory processes.

 Woolfolk, Chapter 7: Cognitive views of learning.

3. Understanding complex cognitive processes - Learning strategies and

problem solving skills.

 Woolfolk, Chapter 8: Complex Cognitive Processes.

Short Test 1

4. Constructivist views on learning.

 Woolfolk, Chapter 9: The Learning Sciences and Constructivism.

 Buchs, C., Gilles, I., Antonietti, J.-P., & Butera, F. (2016). Why

students need to be prepared to cooperate: a cooperative nudge

in statistics learning at university. Educational Psychology, 36(5),

956–974. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2015.1075963

5. Motivation in learning and teaching.

 Woolfolk, Chapter 11: Motivation in Learning and Teaching.

 Aeschlimann, B., Herzog, W., & Makarova, E. (2016). How to

foster students’ motivation in mathematics and science

classes and promote students’ STEM career choice. A study in

Swiss high schools. International Journal of Educational

Research, 79, 31–41.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.06.004

6. Counteracting negative affectivity in the classroom.

 Sirianni, J. 2004. “Psychological Stress and Language Processing in

School-aged Children.” Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

and Audiology 28 (3): 112–121.

 Otwinowska, A., Foryś, M. (2015b) They learn the CLIL way, but

do they like it? Affectivity and cognition in upper-primary CLIL

classes. International Journal of Bilingual Education and

Bilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2015.1051944

Short Test 2

7. Putting theory into practice (This class will take a form of a

workshop, during which the participants will be designing and

restructuring classroom activities and seeking solutions to common

classroom problems.)

 Stroet, K., Opdenakker, M.-C., & Minnaert, A. (2016). Fostering

early adolescents’ motivation: a longitudinal study into the

effectiveness of social constructivist, traditional and combined

schools for prevocational education. Educational Psychology,

36(1), 1–25.

8. FINAL TEST

In terms of academic knowledge:

 gaining comprehensive academic knowledge of selected key topics in

educational psychology

In terms of academic skills:

 ability to apply knowledge of psychological research and theory to

confronting problems related to different dimensions of education

 ability to restructure classroom activities to promote more robust

learning

1 unexcused absence is allowed. The overall number of absences

(whether excused or unexcused) cannot exceed 3.

 The final test will constitute 70% of the final grade. It will include both

multiple choice and open-ended questions. The latter will mainly

concern the practical application of the knowledge gained during

classes.

 The short tests (classes 3 and 6) will constitute 20% of the final grade

(10% each test).

 The remaining 10% will be awarded for a short home assignment

based on classes 4 and 5.

 Additionally a student may be awarded extra points added to the final

test score for exceptionally valuable contributions throughout the

course (about 5% of the maximum score in the test).

In order to pass the course both the overall grade and the score for the

final test need to be at least 60%.