Chapter review, The Psychology of Education, for Martyn Long and others
In chapter 1, the author shed light on the importance of psychology since many of us held ideas and beliefs about education as a result of limited knowledge or ideological perspectives. These can lead to arguments that can only be resolved by looking for direct evidence or other forms of relevant knowledge such the psychology. Psychological knowledge, theories and techniques can help us understand how we think and learn, and how we can address the learning needs of students.
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Psychology as a discipline is emphasis on developing theories about human behaviour and carrying out investigations to test and modify them, experimental investigation, non-experimental investigations, quasi-experimental, natural experiments and correlational studies are some quantitative designs to investigate human behavior theories. Furthermore, students, teachers, the educational processes and its outcomes are much more than just sets of numbers. Consequently; qualitative and quantitative approaches can be utilized to investigate human behaviour theories. While qualitative approaches attempt to get closer to reality by looking at information that differs in kind rather than in the amount.
In regard of describing and analyzing the findings, the author focusses on triangulation, it is needed for draw reliable conclusions, since the psychological and educational researchers often use the statistics of quantitative data to describe and analyze what they have found. It is useful to have a basic idea of some key statistical concepts, so researchers can understand and be critical of how the information from investigations has been interpreted. Moreover; the researcher should have the basic knowledge of statistics to avoid misleading of findings in the quantitative approach, and not to be selective of what approve the researcher's hypothesis in the qualitative approach.
Then he raised a concern regarding the applying of pure psychology in education due to the complexity of practical education as many factors that interact or combine to give rise to a number of different effects. It is therefore always important to evaluate real-life applications of psychological ideas, rather than rely on ideas that are derived purely from the original abstract theories; since some of the early psychological theories about learning, for instance, were derived largely from studying the responses of rats and pigeons in mazes and cages!
However; the application of different psychological perspectives of education helps in generating alternative ways of approaching problems such as understanding the behaviour of children in school. The various perspectives (Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Humanistic, Psychobiological and Cognitive) are often complementary. For instance, behaviourism based on rote learning while Cognitive approaches emphasize the use of meaning and understanding.
Furthermore; the author argued that the importance of theory stems from utilizing the theoretical knowledge with applied areas and to go beyond everyday experience and understanding. Because the developments in education often lack the theoretical foundation and are frequently inspired by social processes or ideological beliefs.
Furthermore; the author argued that the importance of theory stems from utilizing the theoretical knowledge with applied areas and to go beyond everyday experience and understanding. Because the developments in education often lack the theoretical foundation and are frequently inspired by social processes or ideological beliefs.
Paradigms are general ways of looking at or understanding an area. Paradigms in the particular fields of psychology and education often change radically over time. For example; earlier paradigms of learning saw the child as relatively passive absorbing information from a didactic teacher, it is changed to cognitive paradigm which emphasizes that child in school is active in constructing new knowledge, skills and understanding, and the teacher as a facilitator of learning.
However, in light of changing in paradigms, a number of alternative perspectives now question the fundamental underlying premises of psychological and educational knowledge based on postmodern ideas. Therefore; When psychological understanding is applied to areas of real-life educational debate, it can help us to decide between opposing plausible explanations or to change the way in which we view those areas.