Educational Psychology: What Do Teachers Value in Its Content?

Abstract

Findings from this survey reinforce the previous article (p. 22)—that is, educational psychologists "should continue to treat those topics that are seen as most directly applicable to teaching ... [and] should strive to convey a genuine interest in the application of topics such as child development, learning theory, and measurement principles to solve actual educational problems." Attempts to demonstrate that training in the psychology of education leads to effective teacher performance have yielded discouraging results (Aspy, 1972;Silverman & Kimmel, 1972). The difficulty of demonstrating a clear-cut effect of training on teacher performance is illustrated best in a study by Popham (1971). In a comparison of experienced, certified teachers with persons who had neither taught nor taken any formal training in education, no significant performance differences were found among students taught by the two groups. Despite the obvious need for self-analysis within a discipline, there is a surprising lack of research to establish the usefulness of educational psychology. Rather than study usefulness, most research has sought to determine the scope and content of educational psychology. A major thrust of this kind of research has centered around an analysis of textbooks within the field, as typified by Remmers and Knight (1922), Blair (1949), andNunney (1964). In their review, Mathis, Menges, and McMillan (1977) concluded that this Isakson and Ellsworth both are assistant professors of educational psychology, College of Education, Wichita State Ur1iversity, Wichita, Kan. research has succeeded only in documenting a lack of agreement on topics to be included in the study of educational psychology. However, this research has not advanced our knowledge about the impact of the discipline on educational practice.A logical source of information about what should be included and emphasized in an educational psychology course is the classroom teacher. However, we found only one study that has sought teachers' opinions. Frey and Ellis (1966) asked a sample of elementary and secondary teachers for their views on the general importance and helpfulness of educational psychology to teaching effectiveness. The teachers also gave major criticisms of undergraduate educational psychology courses and their rankings of importance of nine general areas of educational psychology. Although the Frey and Ellis findings provide interesting general information about teachers' opinions of educational psychology, the dated study does not provide detailed information about teachers' perceived value of specific topics traditionally covered in undergraduate educational psychology courses.The purpose of our study was to obtain information from teachers that would provide the educational psychology instructor with a clearer idea of content areas that may have the greatest impact on the subsequent teaching behavior of his or her students. We sought experienced teachers to respond to the following questions related to specific topics traditional...