PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION

                             Chapter 2

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION

The Chapter at a Glance

Old and new concepts of education.

The purpose of a course in Educational Psychology.

Some perplexing problems.

Contributions of psychology to education. 

Aim of psychology in teacher’s training.

Necessary qualifications of a teacher.

Failures of educational psychology in the past.

Additional qualifications of a teacher.

Psychology and Education

In pre-modern days the purpose of education was deemed to be the stuffing of child’s mind with as many facts as possible. Consequently the role of the teacher was strictly confined to the teaching of the prescribed text books. The learner had to cram these up willy nilly.

The contemporary age has abandoned this diseased view of education. It has now been replaced by a healthier outlook which emphasizes the development of the personality of the child as a whole. It has now been recognized that education is a dynamic process which is more than mere routine imparting of bookish instruction. The modern teacher now focuses his inherent potentialities of the child. By interesting instruction and stimulating activities he endeavors to turn the learner into a physically, mentally, culturally and socially healthy member of the community. As a result of this changed outlook the emphasis in educational institutions now centers round understanding and affection rather than cramming and punishment. This enlightened approach towards child educations has been mainly brought about by the painstaking efforts of the educational psychologists.

The Purpose of a Course in Educational Psychology

The purpose of a course in educational psychology is to equip prospective teachers with those psychological skills and insights which are essential for the successful guidance of the growth, learning and adjustment of the child. The main task of education, as understood in the modern age, is to promote an all-round development of the child and to assist him in adjusting to school and out of school situations. Educational psychology furnishes the necessary knowledge and insight needed by a modern teacher to perform this task successfully.

Some Perplexing Problem

Some of the complex problems that often baffle a school teacher could perhaps better illustrate the paramount importance of a course in educational psychology in a teachers’ training institution:

 A ‘Naughty’ boy

Bashir is an extremely ‘naughty’ and ‘unruly’ child in a junior school. He is 11 but is still in the first standard. He has been failing in the same class for the last three years for reasons very much beyond the grasp of the puzzled teacher. His behavior in the class room is extremely annoying both for the teacher and for his class mates. Recently, he has developed into a bully and is now the terror of the entire class. The poor teacher is at a loss to understand why the child should be so wildly given to ‘miss-behaving’; she has tried very liberally various kinds of classical punishments but without any desirable effect.

An Introvert Girl

Alya is a sullen withdrawing and extremely shy girl of 9. She has never stood up confidently in the class to answer the school teacher. She is not the least interested in school sports. Never has she felt to mix with her class mates during recess time. Her father is worried about her extremely introvert tendencies. The teacher, however, is not the least bothered about it. Because Alya is a ‘nice’ girl and does her school and home work rather punctiliously, her teacher thinks that she is no problem at all.

 A Backward Child

Yet another case is Hameed –a fine young boy of 16, studying in the tenth class of a high school. He is very much above the average in intelligence. He is a very well behaved person and a fine sportsman. He does very well in all the subjects excepting Mathematics. In this one subject he shows extreme lack of interest during the class work. The poor teacher is simply puzzled to understand the reason of his backwardness.

Innumerable similar cases could be cited which causes immense worry to the school teachers and the parents. Are we to ignore these children and leave them untreated? Surely not! A teacher who refuses to understand and treat such apparently mysterious deviation of behavior in children encourages them to develop into seriously handicapped adults at later stages of life. Yet a poorly trained teacher is usually unable to solve these and similar other problems satisfactorily. Educational psychology enables a teacher to grasp the dynamics of thought and behavior of child. It equips him with the necessary tact and insight to steer the backward, the retarded, the unsocial and the delinquent child through his every day difficulties.

Contributions of Psychology to Education

Psychology therefore plays a very significant role in equipping the teacher with the knowledge and insight which is so badly needed in the teaching profession. The American Committee on Contributions of Psychology to Problems of Preparation for Teaching aptly highlights this fundamental necessity in the following lines:--

“Basic in any program for the preparation of teachers must be a thoroughly scientific, broad and insightful understanding of development in childhood and adolescence…………The teacher should be familiar with present knowledge regarding growth in physique, intellect, interests, emotions, attitudes, character traits, social adjustment and the influences affecting these developments……… The Committee would, therefore stress as essential parts of any teacher preparation program the following: (a) an adequate treatment of psychological development – a treatment including the entire life span: (b) a broad treatment of the psychology of learning, including the forming of appreciations, attitudes, concepts, ideals; (c) some consideration of methods of child study, individual differences and methods of treatment of the individual child”.

Aims of Psychology in Teachers’ Training

Campbell Stewart mentions the following as the main aims of psychology in the training of teachers:

To outline aspects of the learning process:

Teaching methods rest fundamentally upon the psychology of learning. A teacher aims at modifying the experiences and responses of his pupils in many ways. He should, therefore, know the conditions of the learning process thoroughly. Psychology helps him by rendering a most systematic and exhaustive reanalysis of the learning process.

To outline the main phases in psychological growth from infancy to maturity:         

The infant, the boy, the adolescent and the young man have different outlooks and attitudes. A systematic study into the characteristics of each one of these developmental phases will not only be interesting but also rewarding for a teacher who desires to be successful and effective in the class room. Detailed information regarding these stages of growth is furnished by Psychology.

To match subject matter and processes to be learned to levels of development and psychological principles:

This is related to Aim No. 2 above. A practical outcome of the study of development stages in the equipping of the teacher with the skill to match the class instruction with the mental levels of the learners. Educational Psychology also helps in the formulation of the guiding principles which are the bases of this correlation of the curriculum and teaching to the psychological growth level of the learner.

To give some training in assessing and making allowance for the social matrix beyond the school in which the child and the teacher live:   

As the child leaves the school he is exposed to many social influences, a large number of which are only too often adverse, nullifying the healthy socio-cultural effect of the education received at the school. Streets, cinemas, cafes, etc. are few instances of the sources of these undesirable influences in the beyond-the-school social matrix. In order to assess their pernicious or non pernicious effect and in order to counteract their undesirable influence on the child, Educational Psychology aims at training the teacher in adopting suitable remedial measures. Some of these measures are: organization of sports and games, conducting of psychological tests, guidance of the students and their parents etc.

To give the teacher insight into his own psychological processes and his own role as a teacher:

One of the most valuable services that psychology does to a teacher is that it reveals him to himself.  Says Anna Freud @: “I hold ……...that the teacher…….... should have learnt to know and control his own conflicts before he begins his educational work. If this is not so, the pupils merely serve as more or less suitable material on which to abreact his unconscious and unsolved difficulties.”

 @ Freud, A. : Introduction to Psycho-analysis for Teachers, Allen & Unwin, London, 1931, p.107.  

Some of the factors that often force our teachers to adopt an undesirable attitude towards school children are poverty, insecurity of service, professional intrigues, incompetence to do the allotted work, ill health, handicaps such as a sense of personal ugliness or deformity, inability to get on amicably with neighbors and colleagues, emotional tensions, domestic tangles, etc. These and a host of other unfortunate factors become responsible for intensifying the unhappiness and frustration which is found so abundantly in the life of the teacher. Needless to say, this affects his teaching exceedingly adversely.

Furthermore, the society is already unfavorably disposed towards the teaching profession. Teaching, they say, is a ‘failure belt’. It is the ‘refuge of the unproductive men and unmarriageable women’. When such and similar other gibes are in vogue, no teacher can possibly feel proud of his profession. If this is reinforced by an already existing unhealthy trend or painful tension in the mind of the teacher, his plight becomes all the more miserable because of this additional inner enemy. This usually results in sadism in punishments, craze for an ‘iron discipline’ in the class and adoption of stereotyped teaching techniques that are not only boring but also ineffective.

Psychology enables a teacher to get a glimpse into his own inner nature. He understands the mechanism of the factors leading to his failure as a teacher. By this insight into his own self and his profession he improves considerably both as a person as well as a teacher.

Necessary Qualifications of a Teacher

On the basis of a psychological insight into his personal and professional self a teacher is able to realize that to be a really successful teacher he must possess the following qualifications:---

(1)               Ability to understand human nature and behavior.

(2)               Ability to grasp, direct or guide the learning process.

(3)               Ability to motivate the pupils to learn.

(4)               Ability to help them to develop desirable attitudes in thought and behavior.

(5)               Ability to analyze his own teaching and learning procedures and to improve them thereby.

(6)               Ability to recognize and achieve those personal emotional and social qualities that are conducive to a successful and dynamic teaching.

Failure of Education Psychology in the Past

A course of study which proves so tremendously helpful to a teacher in the matters of improving his own self as well as his profession must play a vital role in education. Traditional courses and textbooks on Educational Psychology, however, have failed to play this expected role. Educational psychology has been figuring as a compulsory subject in the syllabi of teachers’ training institutions now for several years. Its influence on the personality of the teacher and the teaching profession has, however, either been nil or very meager.

Several factors are responsible for this ineffectiveness. Firstly, the topics included in the text books on educational psychology have been mostly unconnected with actual educational problems. Secondly, the teaching of the subject in the past has usually been done in predominantly academic and bookish manner. Thirdly, very little attention has been devoted to introducing into the textbooks the element of research, experiment, practical observation and statistical treatment of the data. The collective effect of all these factors has been that instead of appearing as a functional and practical subject, Educational Psychology has frequently figured as yet another bookish subject of study having substantially nothing to contribute towards the understanding of the child, the improvement of the curriculum, teaching techniques and administration of the schools.

A Healthy Change

With the introduction of a practical bias into the subject and the frequent use of interesting experiments and elaborate statistical procedures Educational Psychology has now become an exceedingly practical, useful and integral course of study at the teachers’ training institution. Teaches have now begun to realize that a study of this dynamic subject is both stimulating as well as rewarding.

The majority of the teachers engaged in teaching all over the world when asked to evaluate the various education courses they took during their training now tend to rate Educational psychology very high. In O’Brien’s investigation, for instance, Educational psychology was ranked as the most valuable of all the courses in the curriculum of the teachers’ training institution. Similarly in Peik’s study Education psychology was considered to be the top most subject by the teachers.

Additional Qualifications of a Teacher

A course in Educational psychology is bound, no doubt, to be extremely helpful to a teacher. A mere knowledge of this subject alone, however, won’t cut much ice. In order to be really useful a teacher must possess other qualifications and virtues as well. Some of these essential qualifications are:

·         Proficiency in the subject.

·         Moral health.

·         Physical fitness.

Proficiency in the Subject:

If a teacher does not have mastery over the contents of the subject that he teaches in a school no amount of knowledge of Education psychology will help him become a good teacher.

Moral Health:

Similarly a morally unhealthy teacher is not only a danger for the entire school but a serious nuisance for the whole of the society.

Physical Fitness:

 A chronic patient, a valetudinarian, a weakling or a physically seriously handicapped teacher cannot derive much benefit merely from the knowledge of Educational Psychology.

Educational Psychology we might, therefore, say is an extremely useful and an indispensable subject of study for a prospective teacher. It cannot, however, be regarded as an absolute panacea for all educational problems. To be of real service to the teaching profession a teacher must also acquire other qualifications besides a mere insight into Educational Psychology.