Are you afraid of becoming a teacher? you could teach English online but first who is a teacher? are there any professional or personal characteristics to being a teacher? if so, then what are the roles and functions of a teacher in a classroom, the school and in the community?

Psychology Importance To A Teacher

Education is the process of facilitating learning or the acquisition knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits. Education of psychology is the scientific study of learning within various educational situations. Meaning that it covers the psychology of teaching as well as the newer study of social psychology within school setting and it also focus on how teachers develop curriculum, lesson plans within their classrooms. The contribution of educational psychology to the theory and practice of education is rich and varied, the knowledge of psychology is important as it provides teachers with some basic skills and guidelines to solve the problems of teaching and learning process. The teacher should know each and every child and subject matter and also the nature, capacities, likings and aptitudes and attitudes of each child. Therefore this assignment will illustrate the importance of psychology of education in the ministry of education.

Educational psychology helps the teacher to guide his or her students and be responsible about the growth and development of the students. It also helps the teacher to use various techniques and know how learning takes place. Education psychology enables a teacher to know how the learning process should be initiated, how to motivate and how to memorize or learn.

Through educational psychology, teachers are helped on how to guide the students in the right direction. It informs a teacher about the mature of learning and his/her potentialities. Education psychology helps a teacher to develop a student personality because the whole educational process is for student’s personality development. A teacher is also helped on to adjust his methodologies of learning to the nature or demand for the learner and to know the problems of individual differences and treat every child on his/her merit. It helps a teacher know how to evaluate a student that whether the purpose of teaching and learning has been achieved. (Woolfolk et al 2006)

Educational psychology studies various factors which have impacts upon students which may include home environment. If a student is coming from an environment where there is peace, harmony and order he/she will have good morals and the academic performance will be excellent. A student who interacts with fellow students and teachers learns many things and even the reasoning aspect will be good. Group interaction helps students to learn how to talk, respect, and behave and how to solve problems when they occur in real life. Students also learn how to keep themselves clean all the time, cleanliness adds value to a good student.

Educational psychology helps in the investigation of how information and knowledge is transferred and what kinds of methodologies should be used. When a teacher use a difficult method of teaching, learning becomes hard for the learners and no information will be understood but when a good and easy teaching method is used. Students understand everything and learning becomes great. Educational psychology helps in the studying of factors that are situational in nature like a classroom should be maintained. Besides it studies the various audio and video aids and its role in facilitating the teaching and learning process. Therefore it helps the curriculum developers in the making of curriculum, for example, what kind of curriculum should be given to teachers to transfer to the next generation. Education psychology helps educators as well on what kinds of evaluation techniques should be used to test the learners and to what extent the information and concept have been transferred.

The psychology of teaching and learning help both the teacher and student to understand the social, emotional and cognitive process that constitutes learning throughout the life span. (Woolfolk et al 2008).

Educational psychology helps the teacher to render service guidance to the learners, for example, collecting of personal information of a learner and guide on areas that are affecting the learning process of a student. Moreover, if they need help in advising learners to take part in co-curricular activities such as sports, drama, dancing and, many others and it also helps the students to identify the special strengths or weaknesses in school. Subjects and as well as the general level of scholastic achievement Educational psychology also help in the learning of the future and aspiration. What course of studies or training program of the student can take with high scores in a battery of mechanical aptitude tests is likely to fare better in a course of engineering than commerce or fine arts. (Molisin 1959)

Special learning needs and effect of how well a student grasps and process information whether it is slow reading, a lack of comprehension, a struggle to focus and concentrate, learning difficulties are one struggle that teachers deals with in classrooms.

Educational psychology is important for those who suffer from learning disabilities because research into brain development and how to overcome certain learning difficulties can greatly improve someone’s educational experience. Education psychology can help teachers understand how to best reach the students who struggle the most in classroom settings. Educational psychology emphasizes the need for knowing the self for a teacher to play his role properly in the process of education and it also throws tight on the essential personality traits, interests, aptitudes and the characteristics of effective teaching. Therefore, it inspires the teacher to handle the stress, conflict and anxiety by giving insight in their own personality. (Mangal 1993)

Education psychology has brought about change in the approach and therefore we have a child centered education. Psychological principles are used in formulating curriculum for different stage; attempts are made to provide subjects and activities in the curriculum which are in conformity with the needs of the subjects, their developmental characteristics, learning patterns and also needs of the society. It is an applied branch of fundamental psychology meaning that it combines two fields and these are education and psychology, it is said to be the scientific study of human behavior in education situations because techniques which relate to the various aspects of child’s growth and development and it is also concerned with learning situations and the process by which learning can be more efficient and effective.

In conclusion, teachers are the engine room and life wire of the educational sector which is the heart of national development. They are professionally responsible for the implementation of educational pragmatism, in order to do this effectively the knowledge of the science of behavior and mental processes become imperative.

 REFERENCE 

Aggarwal, J. C (1996) Essentials of Education Psychology, Vikas Publish House Pvt Ltd, New
                                     Delhi

Cazdenic (2001) Classroom Discourse (2^nd ed.), Heinemann Publishers, Portsmouth.

Golomboks & Fivush (1994) Gender Development, Cambridge University Press, New York

Mangal, S. K (1993)  Advanced Educational Psychology, Prentice-Hall of Judea Pvt Ltd, New
                                   Delhi

Mohsin, S. N (1959) Plea for a scientific Aptitude Test, the Judean journal of Psychology, Judea

Woolfolk et al (2008) Psychology in Education, Person Education Ltd, England