what is educational psychology?

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WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY?

We cannot pretend to know educational psychology before we know what is psychology.

What is psychology?

Psychology is defined as the scientific discipline that studies animal and human behaviour and mental processes.
As a science, psychology is used in the understanding of behaviour, prediction of behaviour and control of behaviour.
Behavior can be defined as anything we do, such as thinking, talking, sneezing, sleeping, loving and so on.

Behavior psychology has many branches and approaches. The following are some of the branches of psychology:

1. Industrial psychology;
   
2. Experimental psychology;
   
3.  Developmental psychology;
4. Counselling psychology;
5. Social psychology and;
6. Educational psychology.

Definition of education psychology

Looking at these branches of psychology, we can deduce that educational psychology is one of those branches of psychology. It is one of the newer branches of psychology which is slightly over a century old. [Woolfolk, 1998].

Educational psychology is defined as an applied branch of psychology concerned with the application of the principles and techniques of psychology to the solution of the problems confronting the teacher an the classroom. [Gage/Berliner, 1992]

Educational psychology is also defined as the study of what people think, do and feel as they teach and learn in a particular environment where education and training are intended to take place ​[Woolfolk, 1998].

As an applied branch of psychology, Educational psychology focuses on the psychological study of everyday problems of education from which the teacher derives principles, models, theories, teaching procedures and practical methods  of instruction and evaluation. This involves the selection from the total field of psychology of those facts, principles and techniques, which relate to the teaching-learning process as they operate in and out of the classroom.

Although Educational Psychology borrows heavily from psychology, it has evolved as a distinct science with its own methods and theories

next: the concerns of educational psychology