This textbook is an introduction to the psychology of education.
This books lays the foundation for prospective teachers to learn about various teaching methodologies and covers material typically found in many teacher training programs. Chapters in the text can be assigned either from beginning to end, as with a conventional printed book, or they can be selected in some other sequence to meet the needs of particular students or classes. In general the first half of the book focuses on broader questions and principles taken from psychology per se, and the second half focuses on somewhat more practical issues of teaching. But the division between “theory” and “practice” is only approximate; all parts of the book draw on research, theory, and practical wisdom wherever appropriate. Chapter 2 is about learning theory, and Chapter 3 is about development; but as we point out, these topics overlap with each other as well as with the concerns of daily teaching. Chapter 4 is about several forms of student diversity (what might be called individual differences in another context), and Chapter 5 is about one form of diversity that has become prominent in schools recently—students with disabilities. Chapter 6 is about motivation, a topic that is heavily studied by psychological researchers, but that also poses perennial challenges to classroom teachers.
This resource is an update of the Educational Psychology textbook originally published by Rosemary Sutton and Kelvin Seifert. The chapters have been realigned to compliment a semester long upper division course for Education majors. This update also includes supplemental links that provides a more expansive foundation of educational psychology principles.
Faculty may contact the course developers, Yan Yan (yyang@westga.edu) or CJ Ivory (civory@westga.edu) for access to test banks on the supplementary materials.