Educational Psychology, 13/e, GE Anita Woolfolk Prepared by Raye Lakey

1. Educational Psychology, 13/e, GEAnita WoolfolkPrepared by RayeLakey Chapter 1: Learning, Teaching, and Educational Psychology

2. Chapter 1 Outline • Learning and Teaching Today • What Is Good Teaching? • The Role of Educational Psychology

3. Chapter 1 Objectives • Describe the key elements of and changes to the No Child Left Behind Act. • Discuss the essential features of effective teaching, including different frameworks describing what good teachers do. • Describe the methods used to conduct research in the field of educational psychology and the kinds of questions each method can address. • Recognize how theories and research in development and learning are related to educational practice.

4. Learning and Teaching Today • Educational psychology • Important for all educators • For teachers of children and adults • For teachers of all subjects • Increases teachers’ longevity in teaching

5. Students Today: Dramatic Diversity and Remarkable Technology • Facts about diversity in our schools • 13% of U.S. inhabitants born outside U.S. in 2010 • 20% speak a language other than English at home • 60% of students with disabilities spent most of school day in general education classrooms in 2010 • 16 million (22%) U.S. children live in poverty (nearly 10% or 7 million in extreme poverty) • Average White household wealth = 18 times higher than Hispanic, 20 times higher than Black • 1 in 6 have mild to severe developmental disability • Commonalities in the midst of diversity • Students share technological literacy • More technologically literate than teachers

6. Confidence in Every Context • Teachers’ sense of efficacy: belief in their own abilities to reach even difficult students to help them learn • High self-efficacy: • A personal characteristic of teachers that predicts student achievement • Associated with harder work, greater persistence when students are difficult to teach • Associated with lower rate of burnout • Higher in schools having high expectations for students, high support for teachers • Increases with real success with students

7. High Expectations for Teacher and Students • No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, 2002 • Annual standardized achievement tests in reading and math for students in grades 3-8 • Testing in science less frequently • Basis for judging schools, determining whether students made adequate yearly progress (AYP) • All students required to reach proficiency by the end of the 2013–2014 school year • Scores often used to punish schools for missing proficiency goals • Criticized for negative consequences

8. Blueprint for Reform of NCLB • 2010 reform suggests changing from punishment-based system to rewards-based system • Five suggested priorities: • College or career readiness for all students • Great teachers, leaders in every school • Equity for all students, interventions in lowest performing schools • Raise the bar and reward excellence (Race to the Top grants) • Promote innovation and continuous improvement

9. Do Teachers Make a Difference? • Many studies indicate teachers make a difference • Quality of teacher-student relationships • Predicts a number of academic and behavior outcomes through grade 8 • Better behavior if teachers are sensitive to students’ needs, provide frequent and consistent feedback • Quality of teaching and student achievement • Students in top quartile teachers’ classrooms increase test scores 5% from beginning of year to end of year • Students in low quartile teachers’ classrooms fall farther behind • Students who have problems benefit most from good teaching

10. What Is Good Teaching? Inside 3 Classrooms • Bilingual 1st grade: 25 students speaking little English • Mastered district’s 1st grade curriculum • High teacher commitment, high student expectations • Suburban 5th grade: racial, ethnic, income diversity • Teacher shows interest in social/emotional development of students; teaches them to take responsibility • Eliot (in inclusive classroom) had severe learning difficulties • Became expert on his own learning; independent learner Key: Confident, committed, reflective teachers adapted to students’ needs

11. Models of Good Teaching • Framework for Teaching, Charlotte Danielson • Identifies 22 components (knowledge/skills) in four domains of teacher responsibilities that promote learning • Planning and preparation responsibilities • Classroom environment responsibilities • Instruction responsibilities • Professional responsibilities • TeachingWorks national project at Univ of Michigan • Identifies 19 high-leverage teaching practices/actions • Measures of Effective Teaching, Gates Foundation project • 3 measures: Student gains on state tests, surveys of students’ perceptions of teachers, classroom observations

12. Beginning Teachers • Often experience reality shock • Only partially prepared for full responsibilities of teaching through student teaching • Focus concerns on classroom discipline, motivating students, accommodating differences, and more • Ask, “How am I doing?” • With experience, shift from focus on self to focus on students’ needs • Ask, “How are the children doing?” • Judge teaching success by accomplishments of students

13. The Role of Educational Psychology • Beginnings: Issues discussed by Plato and Aristotle • Role of teacher, teaching methods, nature/order of learning, teacher-student relationship • History of educational psychology in the U.S. • William James, Harvard, 1890, lecture series • G. Stanley Hall (student of James) founded American Psychological Association • John Dewey (Hall’s student) • Father of progressive education movement • Founder of Laboratory School, Univ of Chicago • E. L. Thorndike, first educational psychology text, 1903, founder of Journal of Educational Psychology, 1910

14. Educational Psychology Today • Viewed as a distinct discipline with its own theories, research methods, problems, techniques • Also applies methods and theories of psychology • Research focused on learning and teaching • Working to improve educational policy and practice • Research does not always support common sense practice • Research shows diversity of opinions among teachers about what is sensible • Strongly held beliefs often not supported by research • Issue: Not what sounds sensible, but what is demonstrated (by research) to be effective

15. Using Research to Understand and Improve Learning • Descriptive studies • Collect detailed information about specific situations using observation, surveys, interviews, recordings • Results often include reports of correlations • Correlation studies: Statistical descriptions of how closely two variables are related • Positive: Relationship between variables increases or decreases together • Negative: Relationship between variables shows one increasing while other decreases and vice versa

16. Using Research: Experimental Studies • Experimental studies look at cause and effect • Variables are manipulated and effects recorded • Participants (subjects): People being studied • Random: Subjects randomly grouped for study • Quasi-experimental studies: Using naturally existing groupings such as classesor schools as the subjects • An aspect of situation is changed for one group, not others • Compare results of each group • Statistically significant differences: Not likely to occur by chance (indicating cause/effect relationship) • Correlations do NOT show causation • Single-subject design: Determine effects of a therapy, teaching method, other intervention

17. Clinical Interviews, Case Studies, Ethnographies • Clinical interview: Pioneered by Jean Piaget • Open-ended questioning to probe responses, follow up on answers • Case studies: Investigation of one person or situation • Example: Interviewing family members, teachers, friends to identify students for gifted program • Ethnography: Study of naturally occurring events in life of a group to understand meaning of events to the people • Participant observation: Researcher becoming participant in the group being studied

18. The Role of Time in Research • Longitudinal studies: Happen over months or years • Example: Study of cognitive development • Involves keeping up with subjects for years • Cross-sectional: Study groups of students at different ages • Example: Study how conceptions of numbers changes from age 3 to age 16 • Interview children of different ages • Microgenetic studies: Observation/analysis of changes in a cognitive process as it unfolds (days or weeks) • Observe period of the change • Make many observations • Put observed behavior “under a microscope”

19. Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research • Qualitative: Use words, dialogue, events, images as data • Goal: Explore specific situations/people in depth; understand meaning of events to people involved • Interpret subjective or socially constructed meanings (as in case studies, ethnographies) • Assume no process of understanding meaning can be completely objective • Quantitative: Take measurements; make calculations • Use numbers/statistics to assess relationships among variables or differences between groups • Try to be as objective as possible (as in correlational and experimental studies) • Generalizable results (apply to similar situations/people)

20. Evidence-Based Practice • Integrate best available research with insights of expert practitioners and knowledge of the client • What kind of research should guide education? • Robert Slavin and others argue for scientific evidence • David Berliner and others disagree because context cannot be controlled in classrooms, education settings • Complementary methods: Using both qualitative and quantitative methods to fit the research questions • Questions involving causes, meanings, relations among variables; pursue both depth and breadth • Example: Study 10 classrooms, explore how teachers with fewest behavior problems establish positive learning environment

21. Teachers as Researchers • Action research: Systematic observations, tests, methods conducted by teachers to improve teaching/learning • Use same kinds of observation, intervention, data gathering, analysis as large research projects • Examples of problem-solving investigations focused on a specific teaching or learning problem • Which writing prompts encourage the most creative writing in my class? • Would assigning task roles in science groups lead to more equitable participation of girls/boys? • Reported in journals such as Theory Into Practice

22. Theories for Teaching • Principle: An established relationship between factors • Becomes established when enough studies in a certain area point to same conclusions • Theory: Integrated statement of principles that attempts to explain a phenomenon and make predictions • Beginning and ending points of research cycle • From theories, develop hypotheses to be tested • Hypothesis: A prediction of what will happen in a research study based on theory and previous research

23. Research Cycle • Empirical process (based on systematically collected data to test and improve theories) • Steps in the process • State hypotheses or research questions based on current understandings or theories • Gather and analyze data about the questions • Interpret and analyze data gathered • Modify and improve explanatory theories based on results of analyses • Formulate new, better questions based on improved theories

24. Supporting Student Learning Factors that support K-12 student achievement • Student personal factors • Student engagement: Engaging their behavior, minds, motivations, emotions • Learning strategies: Teaching cognitive, metacognitive, behavioral strategies • School and social-contextual factors • School climate: Academic emphasis, positive teacher qualities, school with positive climate • Social-familial influences: Parental involvement, positive peer influences Educational psychology addresses these supporting factors