Chapter 1

Educational Psychology
Fourteenth Edition
Cluster 1
Learning, Teaching, and
Educational Psychology
Copyright © 2020, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Learning Objectives
1.1 Describe the key elements of the No Child Left Behind
Act and its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and
discuss the continuing impact of testing and accountability
for teachers and students.
1.2 Discuss the essential features of effective teaching,
including different frameworks describing what good
teachers do.
1.3 Describe the methods used to conduct research in the
field of educational psychology and the kinds of questions
each method can address.
1.4 Recognize how theories and research in development
and learning are related to educational practice.

Outline
• Learning and Teaching Today
• What Is Good Teaching?
• The Role of Educational Psychology

Learning and Teaching Today
• Student diversity in U.S. classrooms
– 25% living in immigrant families
– 22% living in poverty
– Typical Black and Hispanic households far below
wealth of White households
– 12% with developmental disability (1 in 6)
– 20% with divorced or separated parents
• Teachers: 92% White, 7% Black
• High level of technological literacy among all students

Confidence in Every Context
• Teacher self-efficacy: Belief in your own abilities to reach
students, help them learn
• High teacher self-efficacy
– Is a predictor of student achievement
– Leads to persistence with difficult students
– Leads to lower rate of teacher burnout
– Improves with school support for teachers
– Increases as teacher succeeds with students

High Expectations: Teachers and
Students
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, 2002
Annual achievement tests: Reading and math, grades 3-8
Testing in science less frequently
Test scores used to assess adequate yearly progress (AYP)
All students should reach proficiency by 2014
Schools and teachers penalized for underperformance
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 2015
Testing, data collection continue; failure redefined
Interventions for underperforming schools set by states
State-funded “equitable services” for private schools
Increased access to preschool

Do Teachers Make a Difference?
• Teacher-student relationships predict aspects of student
success
• Positive relationships = positive student engagement
• Studies compare least and most effective teachers
• Ineffective teaching = lower student test scores
• Low-achieving students benefit most from effective teaching

What is Good Teaching?
Good teaching: Application of knowledge, creative invention
Inside classrooms of 3 outstanding teachers:
1. Bilingual 1st grade: 25 students speaking little English
– Student mastery of 1st grade curriculum
– High teacher commitment, high student expectations
2. Suburban 5th grade: racial, ethnic, income diversity
– Teacher interest in students’ social/emotional development
– High expectations for learning and taking responsibility
3. Inclusive classroom: Eliot’s severe learning difficulties
– Intensive tutoring > Eliot’s ability to learn independently

Models of Good Teaching
• Framework for Teaching, Charlotte Danielson
– 22 components (knowledge/skills) in four domains
▪ Planning and preparation
▪ Classroom environment
▪ Instruction
▪ Professional responsibilities
• TeachingWorks national project at University of Michigan
– 19 high-leverage teaching practices/actions
• Measures of Teacher Effectiveness, Gates Foundation Project
– Factors for assessing teaching that leads to student learning
– 1) Student gains on state tests; 2) students’ perceptions of
teachers; 3) classroom observations

Beginning Teachers
• May experience reality shock
– Only partially prepared for full responsibilities of
teaching
– Tend to focus on discipline, motivating students,
accommodating differences
– Ask, “How am I doing?”
• May adapt with experience, support, and hard work
– Focus on students’ needs
– Ask, “How are the children doing?”
– Judge teaching success by accomplishments of
students

The Role of Educational Psychology
• Beginnings date to Plato and Aristotle
– Role of teacher, teaching methods, nature/order of
learning
• Educational psychology in U.S. linked to teaching
– William James at Harvard, 1890 lecture series
– G. Stanley Hall (James’s student), founder of American
Psychological Association
– John Dewey (Hall’s student), father of progressive
education
– E. L. Thorndike, 1st educational psychology text (1903),
founder of Journal of Educational Psychology (1910)

Educational Psychology Today
• Distinct discipline with its own theories, research methods
– Also applies methods and theories of psychology
• Research focused on teaching and learning processes
• Working to improve educational policy and practice
• Not always aligned with common sense practice
– Diverse opinions among teachers about what is
sensible
– Strongly held beliefs often not supported by research
• Issue: What sounds sensible versus research-based practice

Using Research to Understand and
Improve Learning
• Descriptive research: Studies of detailed information about
specific situations
• Correlations: Statistical descriptions of relationships
between two variables
– Positive: Variables increase or decrease together
– Negative: One variable increases while other variable
decreases
• Correlations do not show causation

Using Research: Experimental
Studies
• Experiments with cause and effect
• Variables manipulated (cause) and effects recorded
– Participants (subjects): People being studied
– Random: Subjects grouped without a definite pattern
– Quasi-experimental: Naturally existing groups (not random)
• An aspect 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)
• Single-subject design: Determine effects of a therapy, teaching
method, other intervention

Using Research: ABAB Experimental
Designs
Determine effect of an intervention, a teaching method, or
therapy
1. Establish baseline, noting specified behaviors (A)
2. Introduce intervention and note the results (B)
3. Remove intervention for a period of time (A)
4. Reinstate intervention and note the results (B)

Using Research: Clinical Interviews,
Case Studies, Ethnographies
• Clinical interview: Pioneered by Jean Piaget
– Open-ended questioning to probe responses, follow up
on answers
• Case studies: In-depth study of one person or situation
– Often involves extensive interviewing
• Ethnography: Descriptive study focused on life within a
group (understand what their events mean to them)
– Participant observation method: Becoming part of the
group being studied

The Role of Time in Research
• Longitudinal studies: Observe subjects over months/years
as changes occur
• Cross-sectional studies: Focusing on groups at different
ages (rather than following same group for years)
• Microgenetic studies: Observation/analysis of changes in a
cognitive process as it unfolds (days or weeks)
– Observe an entire period of change
– Make many observations
– Put observed behavior “under a microscope”

Quantitative versus Qualitative Research
Qualitative: Use words, dialogue, events, images as data
• Explore specific situations/people in depth; tell their story
• Procedures: Interviews, observations, transcript analysis
• Interpret subjective, personal, or socially constructed
meanings (as in case studies, ethnographies)
Quantitative: Take measurements; make calculations
• Use statistics to assess relationships, measure differences
• Procedures: Statistical analyses, tests, structured
observations
• As objective as possible (correlations, experimental studies)
• Generalizable results (apply to similar situations/people)

Mixed Methods Research (Qualitative
+ Quantitative)
• Purpose: Study questions broadly and deeply
• Three different approaches:
– Collect quantitative and qualitative data; merge data in
analyses
– Collect quantitative data; then conduct in-depth
qualitative interviews
– Conduct qualitative procedures; then collect
quantitative data

Scientifically Based Research and
Evidence-Based Practices
• Rigorous systematic research
– Provides valid and reliable data
– Uses appropriate statistical methods
– Provides basis for evidence-based
interventions/practices
• Evidence-based interventions
– Educational programs and practices that are consistent
with scientifically based research
– Required by law (Every Student Succeeds Act) in
failing schools

Teachers as Researchers
• Action research
– Systematic observations/tests of methods conducted
by teachers
– Purpose: To improve teaching/learning
– Process: Same observation, intervention, data
gathering, analysis as large research projects
• Design-based research
– Research questions identified by practitioners
– Data gathering and analysis by researchers to address
questions

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
– An attempt to explain phenomenon, make predictions
– Beginning and ending points of research cycle
– Source for developing hypotheses
• Hypothesis: Prediction of what will happen in a research
study based on theory and previous research

Research Cycle
• Empirical process (based on systematically collected data
as evidence)
• Steps in the process
– State hypotheses/question based on current theories
– Systematically gather data
– Interpret and analyze data
– Modify and improve explanatory theories based on
data analysis
– Formulate new, better hypotheses based on improved
theories

Supporting Student Learning
Factors supporting K-12 student achievement in classrooms
• Student personal factors
– Student engagement: Minds, motivations, behaviors
– Learning strategies: Cognitive, metacognitive,
behavioral
• School and social-contextual factors
– School climate: Academic emphasis, positive climate
and teacher qualities
– Social-familial influences: Parental involvement,
positive peer influences
Supporting factors all addressed in educational psychology

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