Introduction to Educational Psychology

EDUC2102 Week 1 Lecture Notes



What is Educational Psychology?

 About learning

 Individual behaviour

 The way individuals think and learn in an educator setting

 Informs effective teaching



Educational psychology seeks to understand learning and what helps/hinders the

process.



Some ideas about learning:

 Quantitative or qualitative?

 Gained from external sources or constructed internally?

 Best done in groups or individually?

 Easy or hard work?

 For enjoyment or for some other purpose?



Blooms Taxonomy: A Hierarchy of Learning – A qualitative view

Create: Produce new or original work

Evaluate: Justify or stand a decision

Analyse: Draw connections among ideas

Apply: Use information in new situations

Understand: Explain ideas or concepts

Remember: Recall facts and basic concepts

, Solo Taxonomy: Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes

Pre-structural Unistructural Multi-structural Relational Extended Abstract

Simple Complex



Principles of Development

 We develop at different rates and different domains

 Development is gradual and cumulative

 Development is relative and orderly



Structure of a brain cell

 Neuron: nerve cell which has axon and dendrites

 Axon: transmits electrical pulse from neurons

 Dendrites: branches of a neuron that receives impulses

 Synapses: Gap between axon/dendrite of two neurons

 Neurotransmitters: specialised molecules that transmit impulses across the

synapse



Prenatal Brain Development

 Neural development begins in the first weeks after conception

 Inputs are largely genetic and biomedical- this means that exposure to toxicity

via the maternal system can be harmful to foetal development

 Language recognition begins before birth

 Unborn babies prefer “face” patterns of light