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 It has now been replaced by a healthier outlook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.
