If you work in a school or educational setting and want to understand the psychology of learning better, this course is ideal for you.

Educators need to understand learning, thinking, motivation and the ability to comprehend and retain knowledge. The Certificate of Educational Psychology is an online professional development course that will introduce you to the theories, principles and practices of education and learning psychology.

You will learn about psychological theory, assessment and intervention, challenges in learning styles, classroom and behaviour management and discipline.

This course will help you to understand how and why people learn and how to apply that understanding to bring about positive change in people of all ages.

 

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking an educational psychology course include:

• Piaget’s Stages of Development
• Assimilation and Accommodation
• Equilibration
• he Evolution of Behavioural Theories of Learning
• Thorndike’s Theory of the Law of Effect
• Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning
• Principles of Behavioural Learning; Reinforcers
• Positive and Negative Reinforcement
• The Premack Principle
• Information Processing Theory
• A Model of Information Processing
• Perception
• Gestalt Psychology
• Remembering and Forgetting
• Interference
• Inhibition and Facilitation
• Effective Instruction
• The QAIT Model
• Quality of Instruction
• Appropriate Levels of Instruction
• Between-Class Ability Grouping
• What is a Constructivist View?
• Top-Down or Bottom-Up Processing
• Motivational Theories
• Behavioural Learning Theory

And more!

Careers That Benefit from Educational Psychology Courses

People who understand learning have the ability to teach proficiently. As such, anyone who wants to teach or train others, in any discipline, can benefit from a professional development course in educational psychology. However, the following professions will benefit most from gaining an understanding of how people learn.

• Music teacher
• Life coach
• Language teacher
• Adult educator
• Youth leader
• Workplace trainer
• Teacher’s Aide
• Rehabilitation worker
• Tour guide
• Product demonstrator
• Marketing professionals
• Fitness instructors
• Supervisors

What Do Educational Psychologists Do?  

Educational psychologists are concerned with the scientific study of human learning. They investigate learning and teaching, develop psychological techniques and improve learning outcomes for individuals and groups.

In today’s complex education sector, educational psychologists are instrumental in assisting educators, administrators, teachers, and students in understanding how to help people learn.

If you’re interested in a career as an educational psychologist, you’ll need a postgraduate degree in psychology and supervised practice in an educational setting.

 

Disciplines of Educational Psychology

Educational psychology involves not just learning processes of early childhood and adolescence but also the social, emotional and cognitive processes involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan.

Development Psychology

Jean Piaget: Father of Developmental Psychology.

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change throughout their life. Initially concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan.

Behavioural Psychology

Behaviourism, also known as behavioural psychology, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviourists believe that responses to environmental stimuli shape actions.

Behaviourism was formally established with the 1913 publication of John B. Watson’s classic paper, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.”

John B Watson often considered the father of behaviourism, sums up his theory in this classic quote:

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (1930)”

Cognitive Psychology  

Cognitive psychology is the study of how we think. It involves the study of internal mental processes—such as perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving, and learning.

 

 5 Famous Figures That Shaped Educational Psychology

Psychology, as a profession has been around for about one hundred and fifty years. In that time, a few key figures have made a significant contribution to the field, including John Locke, Alfred Binet, John Dewey, Jean Piaget and B.F Skinner.

#1  John Locke: An English philosopher who suggested the concept of tabula rasa, which is basically the idea that the mind is a blank canvas at birth and that knowledge is then acquired through experience and learning.

#2 Alfred Binet: A French psychologist who developed the first intelligence tests.

#3  John Dewey: An influential American psychologist and educational reformer who wrote extensively about progressive education and the importance of learning through doing.

#4  Jean Piaget: A Swiss psychologist who is best known for his highly influential theory of cognitive development.

#5  B.F. Skinner: An American behaviourist who introduced the concept of operational conditioning. His research on reinforcement and punishment continues to play an essential role in education today.

 

If you work in education or have skills or knowledge you’d like to share, an educational psychology course like our Certificate of Educational Psychology will make you a better teacher.