Application of Educational Psychology to Teach in a Way that Compliments How We Naturally Learn

The Influence of Educational Psychology on Natural Learning

Observations and research from the varied specialties of educational psychology, and cognitive studies in the educational system offer a number of clues on teaching methods. These methods can complement natural learning in human beings. It is, however, essential that one looks at the reasons as to why the educational system is failing as well as clues on the appropriate ways of fixing the issues behind the problem. However, it is quite difficult to integrate or incorporate the findings in the framework of the obsolete system that was initially aimed at catering for the industrial age.

It has, however, been imperative that there be collaboration between educational psychology and organizational psychology in analyzing how a part would fit into the system. A student refers to any individual that is undergoing through a long-term and structured process of learning. The system refers to the governing bodies charged with the responsibility of providing the necessary guidance in the learning process (Vellutino et al). Going by the definition of the student and in relation to the period that they are educated in, they are living dynamic lifestyles. It is unfortunate; however, that the student is subjected to outdated process of learning that does not sufficiently offer the guidance that is necessary to give the student the capability to excel in these times where skills are in high demand.

According to Vellutino et al, education aims at improving the quality of life. As much as the definition of the quality of life would be subjective, it is possible to come up with measures that are objective and relevant to the current age. This is, however, lacking in the education system thereby limiting the capability of the student to attain better standards of living. According to Smith& Hudgins, the education system also lacks the appropriate guidance on how students can live as well as make a living today. This has not only caused suffering in students but also in the global economy as well as the future sustainability and is likely to continue unless concrete measures are taken to assuage the situation.

Tuckman& Monetti asserts that educational psychology places emphasis on the necessity of breaking down the components making up a particular educational system. With educational psychology, it is possible to come up with ways of separating the education tools as well as the things that ease the process of learning a skill. This is because it would be easy to apply the learnt tools to the process of learning a particular skill. For instance, when one has mastered how to type, it would no longer be necessary to focus on where one's fingers go but rather on one's direction though the process in the document one is typing.

According to Vaughn et al, once an individual has learnt how to read, they would be able to process information needed to solve particular problems based on knowledge pertaining to similar problems encountered or documented in the past. However, it is ironical that most of the people who can type without looking at the keyboard would be hard pressed to recite its layout from memory. It, therefore, begs the question whether education systems just teach us the knowledge tools by memorizing the keyboard layout rather than on how to use it effectively. Tuckman & Monetti argues that educational psychology and cognitive studies outline the parts of the brain activated by differences between the attainment of muscle memory or intrinsic knowledge and the downside of teaching mastery via rote drilling.

Vellutino et al asserts that rote memorization would not only be ineffective but also unnecessary as it would be tantamount to memorizing the keyboard layout in order to know how to type or even learning all the grammar rules so as to learn how to speak in a particular language. Research has shown that incorporating the knowledge on large and specific scale would enhance retaining the necessary knowledge (Vellutino et al). This will eliminate the educational systems that totally hinder the mechanisms of teaching. These mechanisms foster not only efficient but also dynamic learning systems capable of being customized to allow for nurturing the distinctive needs of every student.

This paper delves into selected educational psychology components that have to be integrated strategically in the educational system and propose solutions on how these components may be integrated to avert a clash with bureaucracy, politics, as well as administrative policies. This way, it would be possible to by-pass the distractions that hinder us from modifying our educational system and rather put all the focus on appropriate nurturing of students to enhance their pursuit of happiness with the mentorship and guidance necessary for success.

Phases in education psychology.

Teacher Preparation

According to Byrne & Fielding, the importance of teacher preparation in enhancing the classroom-based learning environment cannot be gainsaid. In the student, centered, cooperative, direct, and explicit stages of instructing the students, there is no ideal form of instruction. All forms of learning should be strategically balanced as to maximize student learning. Conventional education systems place a lot of emphasis in direct teaching than our trends that lean on organic methodology of teaching in which teachers would be facilitating peer instruction. This system in my view would be very effective in meeting the demand for high attainment of skills. Spoon feeding students on information would allow for mental redundancy since no effort would be geared towards processing of information.

However, it does not render direct teaching as entirely inappropriate in any way. It would only be crucial if done in proper timing. In enhancing the learning process, the students may be allowed to find out on their own solutions to particular problems then learn the techniques. Alternatively, they could be guided systematic prior to allowing them to perform on their own. There is no uniformity in the appropriateness of a particular method of instructing the students. The appropriateness of a particular method would be dependent on the learning style of a particular student. This underlines the importance of teachers collectively being more sensitive to the learning styles of particular students and customizing their instructions in accordance with the student's level of dependence (Vaughn et al).

Research has shown that on discovering the level of dependence, the students may be guided in ways that enhance their learning. Initial emphasis should be on direct instruction then practicum later or passive experiential-based learning then explicit reflection. Given the impossible nature of customizing the learning process to the masses, it would be necessary that a supplemental educational system identify how an individual's characteristic traits and skill sets progresses. The findings made in the supplemental program would allow for the inquiry on how best a student learns and provide the appropriate setting accordingly (Jack et al.)

Academic Motivation

Jack et al note that the more a person does something regularly, the more they will desire to do it perfectly. This is because, with time, the individual would get along with the uneasiness that comes with a particular activity. It is crucial to note that extrinsic motivators would only work up to a certain age. Beyond a certain age, they would be ineffective in triggering innate desire from the student to perform (Jack et al). In essence, the students would only do what is necessary in which case, the gap between recognition of learning as a continuous and lifelong process would increase. To the student, it will be impossible to relate school with his or her personal life. In developing increased intrinsic motivation level necessary for enhancing long-term memory as well as high order processing of the learning experiences and material, eliciting passion would be necessary. Emotions would be elicited through arts then applied through assessment of humane characteristics that elicit passion.

According to Carol S.Dweck, Caution- Praise Can be Dangerous, every time instructors or teachers give students some feedback, they are ultimately sending messages that would affect the students and shape their opinions on their motivation, achievement, and themselves. She also states that when children are praised for their efforts or hard work, they would like to continue engaging in that particular process and would not be diverted from learning by concerns of how smart they may or may not look.

Testing & Assessment

While testing is a vital component in any education system, the shape that it has taken make it look as if it is geared more to benefiting the administration rather than the students body. Standardized tests and No Child Left Behind seem to be more aimed at using the children's standards than to enhance a particular region's scale to meet the national or state standards. In essence, these tests generate unnecessary competition instead of enhancing skill collaboration to solve universal societal problems.

John P. Papay Estimates across Outcome Measures Different Tests, Different Answers: The Stability of Teacher Value-Added.
According to John P Papay, researchers agree that value-added strategies of evaluating the students represent a substantial improvement as compared to the traditional analysis that is based on the levels of test scores. Since students sort into classes and schools selectively, a simple comparison of the test scores would provide limited information on the school or teacher performance. It would be more advisable that students be evaluated for progressive improvement.

Language and Literacy

Language and literacy are educational tools that necessary for progress not only in critical thinking of varied material but also in communication of understanding particular information. God readers are good decoders in that they can read words by sight. If, however, they do not know a particular word, they would get an idea of its meaning by looking at its context. It is noteworthy that students have a desire to go on reading and speaking through application of their linguistic and reading skills to things that they are attached to or things that must communicate (Byrne & Fielding).

It is necessary to cater for the communication style of the student when writing or reading. On acquiring reading skills in contexts from which they derive enjoyment, they may transfer the skills to reading things that they actually do not enjoy.

Journal of Educational Psychology Byrne, B., & Fielding-Barnsley, R.

The research by Byrne & Fielding shows how an easy form of phonemics assessment can be effectively taught. In teaching 4-year old children to recognize instances when similar phoneme recurred in varied words, the children were shown images of varied objects and taught to choose the ones whose names had similar first sound. In addition, the kids were taught to recognize images whose names had similar end sound. A single phoneme in a particular position was taught to minute groups every session. Letters representing target phonemes were incorporated too. A control group undertook story reading as well as meaning based activities by the use of the same pictures. It was noted that the phonemics assessment taught kids outperformed the control group in matching the written with the spoken word as well as in the initial and final tasks of identifying phonemes.

Cultural Diversity

It is imperative that eliminating socio-economic and socio-cultural barriers creates an environment where all parties concerned would be in a position to participate. This happens in situations where an individual who lives under socio-cultural status is placed in novel environments where such labels are unknown; the stereotype is eliminated leading to increased reading capability.

Journal Research - Language and Literacy for a New Mainstream Kerry Anne Enright UC Davis

In reading the Language and Literacy for a New Mainstream article, by Kerry A. Enright it was nice to see a sampling of what is happening with transitional literacy due to bilingualism. In that, the article ultimately concluded that Leesa, the bilingual Mexican-American exhibited the hybrid thought process of both her cultures. Furthermore, by avoiding a label because of her proficiency in English she was able to build the self-esteem necessarily to apply her exposure to two worlds in her everyday learning. This translated into purposeful learning that went beyond the standards of her senior assignment. I find this to be an instance of the Sapir-Whorf, although admittedly unproven, in that she was able to draw on multiple perspectives from her cultural exposure and apply them without the hindrances and encumbrances of being socially labeled as inadequate because of her form of expression. In other words, she was fully accepted by her peers because she was able to adopt the way she expressed herself to match the literacy and terminology used by her respective peers. I.e.: I would infer that to the Latin community she would use expressions that they would relate to and to the Caucasian community she would do the same respectively.

Meta-Cognition

Dunlosky & Nelson asserts that an individual should be capable of thinking about his or her own thought more so in self-monitoring as well as a comparison of potential outcomes that an individual has not personally experienced. It is my belief, however, that as far as student performance is concerned, and the student must be flexible enough to move between mindlessness, full meta-cognitive awareness as well as mindfulness and the capacity to trust his instincts on implicit ability to carry out a certain task.

According to Dunlosky & Metcalfe; Dunlosky & Nelson; Koriat & Ma'ayan, metacognition is inferential just like other Meta-cognitive judgments. This does not mean that the judgments are random or arbitrary. Rather it means that the making of accurate judgments is adaptive. Understanding the heuristics that people use in making the meta-cognitive judgments and whether there are variations over their lifespan is essential in order to understand how individuals gain and retain their sense of agency.

Supplemental Education

Mending the interworking of human resources within abstract social systems used in educating the masses is certainly a herculean task. This has necessitated the creation of private institutions where only selected students can benefit. With the numerous students confined in unproductive academic systems due to their socio-cultural and socio-economic circumstances, supplemental education would be appropriate. This would upgrade the educational system catering for any student irrespective of the educational setting (Dunlosky & Nelson).

According to Bridglall et al, studies done on high-achieving students indicate that they combine strong school and home resources, which support their personal and intellectual development. They also engage in varied supplementary educational activities, extracurricular activities, school events and even have positive links with peers and adults who have high expectations on their achievements.

Special Education

While quite a number of students have mental disabilities, few people have considered them as strengths. However, we could have a new-age mentality that emphasizes on the use of modern day metal disorders as gifts that would unlock the secrets of the society and humanity. These include conditions such as bipolar disorders, disorderly schizophrenia, autism and ADHD.

VAUGHN, S., LINAN-THOMPSON, S., & HIGKMAN, P. Response to instruction as a means of identifying students with reading / learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 69, 391-409.

Vaughn et.al proposed a standard treatment protocol in which children with disabilities would be subjected to treatment trial. In case they respond to treatment trial, they would be seen as disability-free and remediated, therefore, returned to class for instruction. In case they do not respond, they would be taken through a more intensive treatment protocol. Valentino et.al did experiments in which case first-grade teachers selected the poorest students in their classes. These students were assigned contrast and tutoring groups where they would receive a thirty-minute one-to-one intervention 5 days a week. The intervention incorporated sight-word practice decoding, comprehension strategies, phonemic awareness as well as connected text reading. After the second grade, two thirds of the students showed good growth. Velluntino state that these children were not reading-disabled but rather instruction disabled.

Comparative Education

It is crucial to understand the academic processes of different countries in order to understand where we are as well as what we can do to complement globalization in line with the new age of diversified thinking as well as empathy to other cultures for the future generations.

According to Dresden, New York and Wroclaw (the great schools revolution) Economist September, variations in culture play a vital role in the success of children in their education. Since most Asian parents are more attentive to the test results of their children than the western ones, their schools are much more successful. It is only with such comparisons that the western schools can draw lessons on success, which Dresden advances as focusing more on underachieving students, choosing different types of schools, high teacher standards, and decentralization of schools.

The Integrated Solution

Eliminating the gap between life and learning is important in upgrading the education system. Supplemental education program provides upgrades for every student whether in the private or public institutions. This is one of the key phases that collectively endear to solve the major problems pertaining to the provision of continuity between life and learning. This continuity essentially entails bridging the gap and eliminates the idea that many students have about education only being confined to institutions (Bridglall et al). It must be recognized that education as a process is continuous and the institutional setting is only a communal setting that collaborates and enhances the growth of varied skills sets that every student may intrinsically have and even develop. The aim of the solution is to assist the student to identify their passions and skills and enhance the application of the lessons learnt to grow into projects that have an impact on the society (Bridglall et al).

As concerning the appropriate learning environment, studies show the efficiency of generating camaraderie through having one goal. All the members who are vulnerable to that goal would develop camaraderie due to their interdependence in accomplishing their call to action. In this case, they would be tied to the project by their emotions, and they have an innate motivation to come up with solutions to the problems on which they have a common compassion for (Hastings). The innate motivation to succeed in achieving a common goal would make any hurdle or obligation encountered to be worthwhile. This includes undertaking tough class assignments. Members of a team would not be deterred from pursuing their goals by the hurdles, the discomfort in handling these hurdles not withstanding. Contextualized in the education system, students must have a call to action rather than the common call to attention. This common goal generates a call to action in which case the students realize that the hurdles encountered in reaching their goals are actually necessary steps unlike calling to attention (Horn).

Hastings argues that the student would not be reading in order to satisfy extrinsic motivators such as grades; but rather to gain knowledge or apply the material to enhance the achievement of the common goal. This leads to the creation of a natural desire to generate a flow in that classroom that is creating continuity between the instructions or physical stimulus that is actually taking place and the things that are processed mentally. In essence, the students will have a genuine desire to pay attention and concentrate in class. They will show signs of inquiry while in class as they search for the material that they will be applying in achieving the common goal in their projects.

In addition, there are variations as to the levels of talents and skills that every student would exhibit. In this case, we aim at enhancing collaboration among the intrinsically growing skill sets that students may be acquiring. Rather than the usual trends incorporated in the many schools where the students would be competing for talents and skills, the aim would be to allow them to work together and foster collaboration by using their talents and skills. The students would also be helped to attain new skills through their interactions with their peers in the respective projects. Initially, we aim at gauging their innate skill and talents through identifying the things that they like doing in such a way that they would not notice time go by. It is only when we determine what they love doing that we would be sure that they are genuinely interested in a particular project and the learning process would be promoted (Hastings).

Jigsaw Education System

For every child, the establishment of relationships with his or her peers is important for his or her development more so in education. In this case, the education system through which the student goes must be capable of fostering relationships between the student and others. Jigsaw education system has been shown to have a positive effect on social interactions between disabled students and non-disabled ones in physical educational settings. This system basically involves giving students a topic on which they should gain expertise as a group or as individuals. Having gained the expertise, the individual students or even group of students would take the rest of the class through the topic. More often than not, the students would be reorganized into new groups which are comprised of experts from the varied topics. These experts would take turns taking others through their respective areas of expertise. In addition, the instructor would use the group to provide demonstration and facilitate information.

The basic idea behind jigsaw educational system is fostering communication through group work. Social interaction has always been very important more so in physical education when combined with making a student more physically educated.

Inclusion classrooms have always been battling with lack of cooperation pertaining to social interaction levels between disabled students and the non disabled ones devoid of teacher prompts or classroom aids (Apache). Positive social traits are at the core of the social goals and aim. Instructors should be able to teach in such a way that the all students whether disabled or not derive the benefits. This is the kind of capacity advanced by jigsaw education system. Studies show that there is actually a connection between jigsaw education system and social skills.

Studies have shown Jigsaw cooperative Learning as the most effective style of teaching more so in inclusive education settings. It positively affects self-esteem, academic achievement, development o social skill, equity achievement and active learning (Dyson). Its most engaging characteristic is its focus on academic as well as social outcomes.

By having the students relying on one another, more social interaction was fostered. Studies showed that students in such settings had considerably lower levels of negative stereotyping and prejudicial attitudes. The group participants showed lower absenteeism, excellent academic achievement as well as higher self-confidence compared to students in competitive classrooms (Signh).

The benefits of jigsaw style of teaching rests on its attributes which include individual accountability, positive interdependence, enhancing face-to-face interaction, processing and interpersonal and small groups skills.

Individual accountability is the answerability in which case the teacher finds out whether students completed particular tasks. It entails recognition, tests, monitoring of student behavior, verbal praise and monitoring the behavior of students (Grineski). In Jigsaw education system, students are under an obligation to learn their own parts before teaching other members of the group that particular portion.

In positive interdependence, the group members learn to rely on one another even as they work together to finish a task. Research shows that when students work together towards attaining a common goal, they are more willing to put more effort to safeguard the success of the group (Dyson). Low achievers would also feel more comfortable when they are working with the group mates who are more capable. Through interdependence, the individual efforts would be embraced and encouraged by all since every members contribution is viewed as success and not frustration.

At the heart of Jigsaw method is enhanced face-to-face interaction. This enhances the social reasoning and brings in peer tutoring in which case students would assist one another on lesson objectives that compromise cognitive, social as well as psychomotor goals.

Group processing refers to time allocated to looking into how well members of a group achieve their objectives and even maintain good working relationships. The students are given opportunities to communicate effectively, work together and be responsible for their own learning. At the end of the lesson, the debriefing period allows students to talk about the challenges they face in which case the teacher gains information and insights helpful in future learning (Hind).

Small group skills and interpersonal skills would be developed via tasks or activities in which the students take part including taking responsibility, shared decision-making, listening, learning to encourage one another and even give or receive feedback. Jigsaw education system aims at teaching social cooperation as well as the capacity to understand how an individual is affected by another person's behavior. It is important that students are taught not only to consider but also accept others through abiding by the common rules.

Note on Student Tutoring

I have always been an advocate for one-on-one tutoring. As a student, it particularly helped me when studying calculus; in fact, I would say my entire understanding of calculus was thanks to my sessions with the tutors and not the class itself. These experiences brought the idea of instructional distances between teacher and student, especially at the collegiate level with large lecture halls. It can be overwhelming for students to take in so much information from a tenured professional, especially when they are not engaged in conversation (Horn). This is a violation of Grecian Maxims and it constituents internal restlessness, or lack of mental- physical flow. In other words, the minds are occupied elsewhere while their bodies are physicallypresent in class. The solution I propose to this dilemma is to have different generations of students teach one another while professors mediate the education. The professor's act as the highway lanes and students are the information highways; the students are free to switch lanes as they want. A new topic of information is analogous to getting off an exit and switching to a new highway.

In Can Tutors Be Supported in Giving Effective Explanations? By Wittwer et al. the authors discuss how effective tutors can be with their explanations of their knowledge to students. The conclusion of the question was to have the tutors tailor their session to the base knowledge of their pupils. This was discussed in the practicum; to my recollection, the agreement was that students should be able to explain how well they know what they are inquiring about. The session should be conversational so that the tutor can gauge how engaged the student is and if he or she is actually gaining knowledge in the subject. To add to the diagnosis approach, I would ponder the effect of having multiple tutors or utilizing one tutor that can "grow" with their students' progression in the subject.

Family Pods Model Structure

In summary, the Family POD model is based on the jigsaw method of education and aims to incorporate concepts behind tutoring, mentorship; project based learning, portfolio assessment and progress reports, individual learning plans, and family camaraderie. The students are screened for placement based on skills and passions to find identified intrinsic motivators, and are monitored as they grow with their project. All students are not merely subject to call to attention based learning, as lecture halls and cramming for exams provide, but have a call to action. All their work is longitudinal and aims to be societally impactful. Furthermore, the in-school program will be organized in such a way that it will allow them to dynamically apply what they are learning their respective classes as they are learning it on a top-down approach to their education.

The Family POD system has two phases for participants, the Skill Phase, which adheres to students in secondary schooling, and works identify innate skills and develop new skills. The Career Phase applies to those in post-secondary education, college, and aims to help the students hone their skills for application to a career path or if they chose to turn their projects into small businesses.

Conclusion

In enhancing the capacity of students to inculcate lessons in their education, a comprehensive framework that bridges, the gap between school environment, and their lives would be important. This gives them the capability to own the learning process since they would be genuinely interested in the lessons knowing well that they will be applying them and not only for the test purposes.

References

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