Educational Psychology

1. The changing teaching profession and you

There is a lot to learn about teaching, and much of it comes from educational psychology. As a career, teaching
has distinctive features now that it did not have a generation ago. The new features make it more exciting in some
ways, as well as more challenging than in the past. The changes require learning teaching skills that were less
important in earlier times. But the new skills are quite learnable. Educational psychology, and this text, will get you
started at that task.

Chapter summary

Teaching in the twenty-first century offers a number of satisfactions—witnessing and assisting the growth of
young people, lifelong learning, the challenge and excitement of designing effective instruction. Four trends have
affected the way that these satisfactions are experienced by classroom teachers: (1) increased diversity of students,
(2) the spread of instructional technology in schools and classrooms, (3) increased expectations for accountability
in education, and (4) the development of increased professionalism among teachers. Each trend presents new
opportunities to students and teachers, but also raises new issues for teachers. Educational psychology, and this
textbook, can help teachers to make constructive use of the new trends as well as deal with the dilemmas that
accompany them. It offers information, advice, and useful perspectives specifically in three areas of teaching: (1)
students as learners, (2) instruction and assessment, and (3) the psychological and social awareness of teachers.

On the Internet

<www.ets.org/praxis> Try this website of the Educational Testing Service if you are curious to learn more
about licensing examinations for teachers, including the PRAXIS II test that is prominent in the United States (see
pp. xxx). As you will see, specific requirements vary somewhat by state and region.

<portal.unesco.org/education/en> This is the website for the education branch of UNESCO, which is the
abbreviation for the “United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.” It has extensive
information and news about all forms of diversity in education, viewed from an international perspective. The
challenges of teaching diverse classrooms, it seems, are not restricted to the United States, though as the new items
on the website show, the challenges take different forms in different countries.

Accountability in education

Action research

Assessment

Diversity

High-stakes testing

Instructional technology

Lifelong learning

Professionalism

Teacher research

Bash, L. (Ed.). (2005). Best practices in adult learning. Boston: Anker Publications.

Bredekamp, S. & Copple, C. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice, Revised edition. Washington,

D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

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