Educational Psychology

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education
• 5. Gender equality
• 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Objectives

Educational Psychology is a basic training subject that aims to provide students with knowledge about the teaching-learning processes, focusing on the psychological variables that influence these processes in order to understand and improve them.

Objectives

• To acquire a meaningful and functional representation of psychological knowledge in order to promote its use in educational practice.
• To achieve an integrative psychological framework based on constructivist theories of sociocultural orientation, which allows a well-founded approach to the analysis of educational practice, in general, and to the analysis of the school teaching-learning process, in particular.
• To conceptualise individual differences based on the psychological theories of reference and explain the factors involved in adjusting teaching to the individual characteristics of students.
• To apply psychoeducational knowledge to analyse and understand teaching-learning processes in specific school contexts.
• To acquire and practice a methodology of work and study typical of a meaningful, progressively self-regulated and autonomous learning.
• To acquire skills to analyse cases and solve problems which are common in educational practice in schools.
• To acquire skills to work collaboratively. 
• To show attitudes in favour of an autonomous regulation of learning, a responsible collaboration between classmates and a improvement of personal and team learning.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes for Early Childhood Education (MEI)

• Identifies the fundamental cognitive processes applied in human learning. (LO1)
• Applies psychological strategies and techniques in learning processes and classroom management. (LO23)
• Analyzes learning contexts from the constructivist approach of learning. (LO4)
• Proposes improvement processes for learning and assessment. (LO5)
• Demonstrates critical reflection skills in processes linked to professional practice. (LO8)

Learning outcomes for Primary School Teaching (MEP)

• Identifies the fundamental cognitive processes applied in human learning. (LO1)
• Applies psychological strategies and techniques in learning processes and classroom management. (LO3)
• Analyzes learning contexts from the constructivist approach of learning. (LO4)
• Proposes improvement processes for learning and assessment. (LO3)
• Demonstrates critical reflection skills in processes linked to professional practice. (LO8)

Competencies

Specific skills

• Carry out effective comprehensive tutorial supervision with school children and families in order to promote comprehensive skills training.
• Design and plan learning environments and sequences that enable development of the curriculum through adaptation of materials and promotion of play.
• Develop processes for assessment of learning, individually and in groups, through techniques and strategies of teaching observation and documentation.
• Identify general and specific characteristics of development and developmental psychology in the 6-12 years age group to promote all-round development of school children.
• Integrate and promote overall practices based on the principles of educational psychology, methodology and education and on a positive relationship with adults and peers in a way that is consistent with theories of learning at this stage.
• Master the skills and strategies of communication and interpersonal relationships with school children, families and other professionals in interactions characteristic of the profession.
• Understand how to organise and participate in schools in order to improve educational quality through innovation and research projects with impact in and out of school.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.
• Exercise active citizenship and individual responsibility with a commitment to the values of democracy, sustainability and universal design, through practice based on learning, service and social inclusion.

Content

Module 1. Teaching and learning processes in the classroom

• Educational psychology and the study of educational practices in school
• Social and constructivist approach to the teaching and learning processes
• Joint activity between teachers and students as basic unit of analysis to understand the educational processes in the classroom
• Characteristics of educational practices in school

Module 2. Cognitive components in school learning and educational influence

• Process of knowledge construction in school
• Prior knowledge: organization and functionality
• Attribution of meaning to learning and conditions to promote meaningful learning at school
• Learning strategies as specific content: learning to learn

Module 3. Affective, motivational and relational components in school learning and educational influence

• Self-concept and self-esteem in school learning
• Motivation and goals in school learning
• Representations, attributions and mutual expectations in school learning
• Educational intervention in affective, motivational and relational components of school learning

Module 4. Educational influence as a pedagogical aid in the construction of meanings and sensemaking

• Teacher-student interaction and mechanisms of educational influence: gradual release of responsibility and progressive construction of shared meanings
• Interaction between students: cooperative organization of learning activities and interpsychological mechanisms responsible for peer learning

Evaluation

The evaluation sistem includes:

• Teamwork tasks: 35%
• Individual tasks: 15%
• Individual exam: 50%

Considerations:

• Attendance and active participation in all classe sessions and in tutorials (individual and/or group) are required to follow-up the subject.
• In order to calculate the final qualification of the subject, it is compulsory to submit all the evaluation activities within the period established by the teaching staff, as well as to pass the teamwork tasks and the indiviual exam with a minimum score of 5. Then, the final qualification will be calculated according to the percentatge indicated above for the teamwork and the individual tasks, and the exam. 
• Only activities previously submitted within the established deadline and provided that the percentage of failed activities does not exceed 50% of the final grade of the subject can be retaken. The grade obtained in the retake is the score with which the final grade of the subject is calculated. The subject will be suspended, if after the retake the teamwork tasks or the individual exam have not been passed. 

Methodology

The methodology used in the course is based on the principles of active and student-centered learning and on the educational valuue of cooperative teamwork. The development of the subject is structured around the contents of the four modules presented in the content section and the activities organized around each one.

The activities of each module are aimed at: to strengthen the relationship between theory and practice; to facilitate the application of constructivist-based psychopedagogical knowledge to the analysis of cases and the solutiions of common problems in specific teaching and learning contexts; and to promote the mastery of an individual and team learning process that is progressively autonomous and self-regulated.

The development of each of the modules of the subject includes face-to-face work sessions in the ordinary classroom with the entire class group, directed work sessions, individual and small group tutorials. The modules of the subject include the work of the students organized in seminars under the direction of the professor responsible for the subject, in cases and in the resolutions of prototypical problems of educational practice. Among the learning situations and activities that the subject plans to develop to help the student acquire the educational objectives we can highlight the following: reading documents of different characteristics with the help of reading guidelines; small group discussions; lectures by teachers in class; case analysis; problem solving; preparation of individual and group documents in different formats (learning progress reports, summaries of worked contents, concept maps, questionnaires, written tests,...) and scheduled tutorials.

Bibliography

Key references

• Cerdán, R., & Salmerón, L. (2018). Claves para la práctica de la psicología educativa. Paraninfo.
• Coll, C., Palacios, J., & Marchesi, A. (2001). Desarrollo psicológico y educación: 2. Psicología de la educación escolar. Alianza Editorial.
• Mercer, N. (2000). Words and minds: How we use language to think together. Routledge (available in Spanish at UVic library).
• Pozo, J. L. (2016). Aprender en tiempos revueltos: La nueva ciencia del aprendizaje. Alianza Editorial.
• Santrock, J. (2021). Educational psychology (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill (available in Spanish at UVic library).

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.