Educational Psychology Goals and Objectives - Hot Topics Covered in Educational Psychology

Educational psychology is considered as any other science that deals with the study of human psychology in all its circumstances and conditions. 
In this article, we will let you know educational psychology goals and objectives, educational psychology perspectives, and hot topics covered in educational psychology.

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The aims of educational psychology and topics covered in educational psychology

Educational Psychology Goals and Objectives - Hot Topics Covered in Educational Psychology

What is Educational Psychology?

Educational psychology is the science that studies human behavior in educational situations during the learning process with all its elements and conditions, such as studying the psychological requirements for completing the educational process, understanding the mechanisms of the learning process, motivations of behavior, mental processes, educational guidance, individual differences, and other topics that all flow into the educational environment, and everything that affects it. 

So it is a science that works on applying studies and research related to the educational environment by enriching those in charge of the learning process with concepts, principles, and modern methods, and the important theoretical foundations necessary to complete the process of learning and education, in addition to knowing and identifying educational problems, and their appropriate methods of solution

Educational Psychology Goals and Objectives 

Different sciences generally seek to achieve three main goals: understanding, forecasting, and controlling.
So scientists strive to understand the concerned phenomenon and the mechanism of its occurrence while trying to predict the time and the reason that leads to its emergence in the future, then trying to subject it to control. 

The same situation is found in educational psychology, as it seeks to understand behavioral phenomena related to the educational process, to predict the occurrence of educational situations, and ultimately to control and try to control them.

General Goals of Educational Psychology

Understanding

A deep understanding of the educational phenomenon is one of the goals of educational psychology. 
A good understanding of educational phenomena and the study of available variables and the search for relationships among them, in addition to the causes, motives, and motivations that result from this phenomenon, all of this contributes to the continuity of the success of the educational process and its harmonization of different educational situations. 

Understanding students' behavior and meeting their interim, mental, and psychological needs, understanding the reasons behind each behavior issued in the educational environment, classifying them according to common mental factors and providing instructional methods for each group according to their capabilities, all these are the basic objectives of educational psychology.

Forecasting

Forecasting is the expectation of a specific phenomenon occurring at a specific time, based on the variables available before they occur, and thus studying the relationship between the variables, and making assumptions on their basis, in addition to predicting their occurrence and their results, such as predicting specializations that will be available to students according to their academic achievement in high school.

Also, the prediction in the field of educational psychology may not be inevitable results, but it is an important process in this field, it can contribute to solving many educational and vocational problems that occur in its different circumstances, when the gifted students are classified from ordinary students from underachieving students.

It is possible to predict student's needs, for example, talented students need enrichment programs that satisfy their mental abilities, as attaching them to educational programs provides many behavioral problems resulting from the inadequacy of the educational material for this group of students.

Controlling 

Controlling is some of the actions that the organizer of the educational process takes towards some causal variables, studying the relationships between them, trying to control them, adjusting educational outputs and outcomes according to the requirements as much as possible, and being able to complete the educational process successfully.
 However, due to a large number of variables, their interactions, and their circumstances, it is possible that the adjustment process becomes somewhat impossible in some cases, such as the appearance of some surprising variables, which cannot be controlled, such as different weather conditions, or sudden illness.

Special Goals of Educational Psychology

As for the sub-goals or special ones, they are concerned with the important elements in the educational process, and all the variables affecting them, the causes that contributed to the emergence of a phenomenon, or an understanding of educational and vocational problems, and thus finding appropriate ways to solve them. 
They are two main goals, as follows:

1. Theoretical knowledge of the interpretation of human behavior, through the study of theories of behavioral psychology, and its views on the interpretation of individual behavior in educational situations, the foundations, principles and theoretical frameworks for them.

2. Applying this knowledge in a practical way, and training people in charge of the educational process to use it in educational and classroom situations, thus achieving an effective learning process more efficiently, and with the least possible number of problems.

What is the Main Focus of Educational Psychology?

Educational psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with many of the main topics related to the education of different age groups during childhood and adolescence, which helps to enhance students' educational and cognitive abilities. 
The most important topics around educational psychology include:

⇨Designing educational programs, curriculum development, special education, and formal education.

⇨Thinking about how to teach children and provide the appropriate educational environment for them.

⇨Providing opportunities for gifted and talented learners in educational institutions to develop their abilities.

⇨Evaluating student results, individual differences, and various learning difficulties.

⇨Educational technologies used in various educational institutions.

⇨Creating effective teaching and learning strategies for the classroom.

⇨Promoting cognitive development in students.

⇨Improving student's decision-making abilities.

⇨Looking for competency assessment methods.

Educational Psychology Perspectives

Educational psychology has a wide range of psychological perspectives, which are used to enhance the child's various abilities, including:

Behavioral Perspective: The behavioral perspective relies on increasing the child's adaptation in the classroom environment and improving the student's behavior by rewarding him for good behavior.

Developmental Perspective: The developmental perspective includes developing the child's intellectual skills and enhancing his cognitive development.

Cognitive Perspective: This is called cognitive psychology, which explains ways of learning and thinking for the child and helps him to find appropriate solutions to all his problems, in addition to helping him to remember the things they learn and thus motivate the child to learn.

Constructivist Perspective: The constructivist perspective is based on various learning theories, which help to build the child's cognitive activities, and calculate social and cultural influences and the extent of their impact on his scientific and cognitive awareness.

Teacher's Role and Responsibilities in the Field of Educational Psychology

Teachers should familiarize themselves with the information and research related to educational psychology in order to develop their educational abilities and teaching skills, in addition to enhancing their capabilities through participating in distinguished teacher preparation programs, thus achieving great results in the long run.

Educational psychology is able to change the old concept of education and to prepare teachers and give them the ability to take into account individual differences and interact with students according to their individual mental and cognitive abilities.

Hot Topics Covered in Educational Psychology

The most important topics covered in educational psychology may include:

• Academic learning time (ALT)
• Affective Development
• Adaptive Educational Technologies
• Basic skills achievement
• Becoming a professional educator
• Becoming A Brilliant Star
• Behavioral objectives
• Behavioral learning theories
• Brain & biology
• Computer-assisted instruction
• Character development
• Classroom management
• Cognitive development
• Cognitive learning theories
• Community involvement
• Content overlap
• Constructivism
• Scientific Modeling
• Civic Engagement
• Complex Thinking
• Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
• Scaffolding/Distributed Scaffolding
• Critical thinking
• Conation/volition
• Design Thinking
• Design-Based Research
• Direct/explicit instruction
• Desired student outcomes
• Effective teaching practices
• Educational research
• Educational reform
• Engaged time
• Embodied Cognition
• Embedded Assessment
• Empathetic listening
• Educational Data Mining
• Family/home environment
• Grouping methods
• Global/international conditions
• Georgia Teacher Observation Instrument (GTOI)
• Grouping methods
• Grading policies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Humanistic learning theories
• Information processing
• Instructional models
• Instructional methods
• Information age and Conceptual age
• Individual differences
• Informal Learning
• Interest Development
• Integrated STEM Education
• Intelligence
• Instructional planning
• Learning styles
• Moral/character development
• Measurement and evaluation
• Multi-cultural education
• Marriage and family
• Mastery learning
• Metacognition
• Motivation
• Mathematical Cognition
• Neuroanalytics and Educational Neuroscience 
• Operant conditioning
• Optimism
• Problem-solving/decision making
• Parent involvement
• Prior knowledge
• Paradigms
• Pedagogical Authoring
• Professional Development
• Place-Based Learning
• Practice-Based Learning
• Performance Assessments
• Real-World Problem Solving
• Representational Fluency
• Research methods
• Reliability and Validity
• Science and religion
• Socioemotional development
• Social learning theory
• Social and Personal Skills
• Service-learning
• School processes
• Self-concept/Self-esteem
• Student characteristics
• Spiritual development
• Social cognition
• Systems philosophy
• Teacher Knowledge and Beliefs
• Teacher efficacy/expectations
• Teachers Use of Games and Simulations
• Teacher characteristics
• Visualizations
• 4MAT system of instruction

I hope you liked this article about educational psychology goals and objectives, perspectives on educational psychology and interesting topics related to educational psychology interactive.

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By: Mahtab Alam Quddusi