Welcomed to EDU204, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 2.

TOPIC 1.

CONCEPT OF LEARNING.

What is learning? Learning is relatively permanent or enduring change in an

individuals potential behavior due to experience.

The definition has four basic components namely:

1. Its relatively permanent

2. It's as a result of experience

3. Change in memory

4. Change in behavior

Learning starts from the point of birth to the point of death.

Definition of Learning

Learning is change in behavior brought about by experience.

According to Smith(1962), learning is the development of a new behavior while in

the process of strengthening or weakening the old behavior as the result of
experience.

Its the progressive change in behavior.

Crow and Crow defined learning as the process of acquiring knowledge, habits
and attitudes.

Characteristics of learning.

1. Learning is growth: this has to do with both the physical and mental
development of the learner. We grow through living and learning which makes
growth and learning to be interrelated.

2. Learning is adjustment: it's through learning that we're able to adjust to all life's
situations. Though the problems and situations we encounter in life learning helps
us to supersede those problems.

4. Learning is purposeful: a Learner is always goal oriented or always has to be

goal oriented in order for learning to take place( trial and error must occur but its
all part of learning). Its also the act to achieve a particular purpose.

4. Learning is experience: we all learn through experiences because our lives are
full of experiences through which we acquire new knowledge, understanding,
skills and attitudes.

5. Learning is intelligent: meaningless efforts don't produce permanent results.

Cramming without understanding is not learning. Don't deceive yourself.

6. Learning is active: without motivation we can't work wholeheartedly and

motivation encourages self-activity and enlightens our self efficacy.

7.learning is both individual and social: an individuals mind is affected by the kinds
of activities he/she engages in. That individual is influence by peers, friends etc
and learns their ideas, feelings and attitudes likewise an individual is socially
influenced by the church, mosque, family etc as well.

8. Learning is the product off the environment: the environment plays an

important role in the growth and development of the Learner. A child has to live
comfortably in a conducive environment for learning to be very effective.
9. Learning affects the conduct of the learner: it affect the learners behavior,
attitude, character and conduct. Attempts should be made for learning
experience to be in the right conduct and habit in learners.

Kinds of learning.

HABIT LEARNING: This occurs when someone becomes accustomed to s stimulus

due to its repetition like the recitation of multiplication table. The individual has
gotten use to certain basic terms and components in any form of learning
through the habit of recitation.

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING: Its the process through which an association between

two stimuli or behavior and a stimulus is learned which leads to two forms
namely: classical and operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning occurs when reinforcement and punishment is used to

curtail our behaviour knowing that there's a probability it may happen again.

Operant conditioning uses reinforcement/ punishment to alter an action in the

making while Pavlovian classical conditioning strengthens the the stimulus in the
process.

TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING: this has to do with being faced with a situation and
lacking the experience to tackle the problem encountered.

SOCIAL LEARNING(IMITATION): It has to doe with observing what others do.

Through observing others we learn a particular type of behavior and perform that
behavior in the process while also being a role model for others to learn from as
well.
INSIGHT LEARNING: This is the sudden expression of joy and excitement when the
learner discovers something or learns something new with expressions like Yes! ,
I've got it.

ROTE LEARNING: This is act of memorizing a content and recalling it exactly the
way it was learnt.

E-LEARNING AND AUGMENTED LEARNING: E-learning refers to computer

enhanced learning. While augmented learning is when a Learner interacts with
the E-LEARNING environment.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY EDU204.

TOPIC 2.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT LEARNING

1. NATURE OF THE LEARNER: The nature of the learner has to do with factors like
intelligence, creativity, emotional factors, age, sex, motivation and memory. All
these factors affect one's ability to learn.

A. Emotional factors: anxiety has a great influence on learning ability off the
learner. A certain degree of anxiety is a useful to learning. Anxiety makes an
individual to be worried about certain tasks given and the person may be
motivated to learn but I'd affected in one way or the other.
B. Fear of failure: it is seen, observed, proven and functions in every individual. As
far as learning is concerned fear of failure also causes anxiety. E.g when writing an
examination its normal when the individual feels anxious due to the fact that the
exam seem a little bit difficult.

C. Self esteem: they have self-efficacy and confidence in their own abilities and
are prone to consistently performing better than those with low self esteem. They
are goal setters with enthusiasm to get things.

D. Extrovert are more exposed to the external world of people and experiences
and they as well in enjoy change. While:

An introvert is concerned with the stability and the inner world of feeling and
thought.

E. Motivation is the force that energises and directs behaviors of the learner to
achieve a certain goal.

F. Age: children learn in accordance and respect to their age.

G. Socioeconomic factors: a scholar Davie (1972), analysed that children from

poor social background lack behind than those from a more suitable, convenient
and comfortable environment.

NATURE OF THE MATERIAL TO BE LEARNED.

 Many of us already know this aspect of learning. This has to do with the
Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy which are the Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor
domain.

As we know Cognitive has has to do with recalling, calculating, discussing,

analyzing and problem solving.

Psychomotor deals with the physical ability of movement like driving, Dancing,
walking, running etc.

Affective deals with our affection towards people or anything, to love, appreciate,
fear etc.

COGNITIVE: It covers all learning activities in the classroom and deals with
manipulating symbols, figures and requires some form of abstraction. Learning
here is relatively precise and objective. It helps us to think reasonably.

AFFECTIVE: We are to possess values, attitudes, feelings and interests in a school

setting as members of the school.

PSYCHOMOTOR: It has to with the physical aspect of the body most especially
with movement or physiological movement like writing, running, walking, sitting
etc. It simply has to do with movement of the body from one place to another.

THE LEARNING PROCESS.

* The quality of the teacher.

* the availability of instructional resources

* adequacy, standard and comfortability of infrastructural materials.

Good teachers ensure the use of relevant teaching methods and frequently
evaluate the learner to make there's effective progress.

Instructional resources are used to ensure utilization of maximum number of

senses.

The right methodology to use in teaching learning experience by linking topics

together to see the connection and touching different or many areas of study.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. EDU204

TOPIC 3.

THEORIES OF LEARNING

Various learning theories have been developed by psychologists. Each theory as a

systematic body of knowledge, explains the nature and process of learning.

THORNDIKES CONNECTIONISM

Edward Thorndike (1874-1949) in USA investigated learning. In his experiment

he came up with some summary which are learning the task, motive and effort
and arriving at the solution.
 Edward called this method trial and error learning. He said that learning is the
installment of correct responses through trial and error.

There's also learning by selecting and connecting. Its called connectionism

because room us provided for selection of proper response to connect with
adequate stimuli. We also have BOND OF CONNECTION.

THORNDIKE'S LAW OF LEARNING AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

LAW OF EFFECT

Effect is the utility or dissatisfaction which is derived from performing the task
or making response. This means that when we gain pleasure and satisfaction from
a particular task/result/activity learning has taken place.

Punishment is less effective in producing learning. Classroom experience

should satisfy and be pleasing to students. Positive progress comes from the
satisfaction of a learnt experience while the same goes for negative progress.

A certain and much more effective behavior will be repeated if its backed up by
rewards and success.

LAW OF EXERCISE

Two parts occur in this aspect, the use and disuse. Satisfactory of consistency
encourages productivity of activity and result. This law simply emphasizes that the
learner should more be consistent with practice to acquired the strength of
connection because lack of practice weakens the connection. Repetition and
practice are needed here.

For learning to be effective practice must be consistent. Connection here

simply means day to day consistent act of that activity or task.
LAW OF READINESS

How ready is the child to learn at any given point in time, be it was effective
and satisfactory. This can be called "preparation for action". Its the state at which
the learner is ready to participate in the learning process.

Readiness in this aspect has to do with the state of the mind. The attitude,
character, behavior, interest and mental preparation of the child is very
important. Also motivation and physiological of the learner.

If the child is ready to learn, it will be quicker, very effective and he/she will
attain high level of understanding and utility. Teachers also have to make sure
that students are ready to learn. It may not be always.

PAVLOV'S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian psychologist due to his experiments

formulated the theory " learning by conditioning".

He considered learning as a habit formation based on principle of association

and substitution.

Classical conditioning is a process in which a neutral stimulus acquires all the

characteristics of a natural stimulus.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

* there's fear, love and hatred towards different subjects which can be created
through conditioning.

* through conditioning, the sympathy of a teacher, his interesting and effective

method of teaching can make a great impact on students.
* using audiovisual in teaching learning process creates imagination, helps
students understand what is being taught more effectively and they learn so
many things.

* parents and teachers can as well benefit from conditioning through the
observation of change in habits, interests, attitudes and the NSE of gratitude
through the learning process.

* proper behavior are developed whereas bad habits are dropped..

SKINNER'S OPERANT CONDITIONING

B.F. Skinner an American psychologist (1904) developed the operant

conditioning. In classical conditioning behavior is explained based on response to
o stimulus. The organism in classical conditioning is passive and must wait for
something to happen before taking action. Behavior is initiated by the
environment and the organism simply responds.

Operant conditioning opposes the stimulus-response mechanism in the

behavioral process. The tendency to actively initiate behavior is described as
OPERANT.

How the environment will respond to the activity, whether though cheers or
stones, will determine to an extent if the behavior will be avoided, maintained or
repeated.

TYPES OF RESPONSES

# Respondent behavior which occurs by known stimuli. The stimulus preceding

the response is responsible for causing the behavior. while;

Operant behavior is one which occurs by unknown stimuli. The stimulus causing
the behavior is unknown and it's not important to know the cause of the
behavior.
 Note: the consequence of a behavior is seen as more valuable than the stimuli
causing it.

THE CONCEPT OF REINFORCEMENT

Operant conditioning is a kind of learning process whereby a response we is

made probably or frequently by reinforcement. It's a behavior that's not
necessarily associated with known stimuli.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

* While learning we should be initiated to respond in such a way as to produce

the reinforcing stimulus. We should note that behavior depends upon its
consequences.

Proper reinforcement should be provided for desired learning and a good

learning environment for maximum satisfaction

* rewards encourage and enhances the right performance and this makes an
individual to learn the desired behavior.

* according to Skinner, we are what we have been rewarded for being. This has to
do with human personality development of a consistent behavioral pattern.

* behavior as a a source of motivation is taken for granted to posses more of that

behavior

* it advocates the avoidance of punishment for misbehavior a d shaping the

desirable behavior. Operant conditioning says rewards should be given for
appropriate behavior and the inappropriate ones should be ignored for its gradual
extinction.

* it has contributed a lot towards the development of teaching machines and

programmed learning.
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

EDU204

TOPIC 4

LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIES

We are all different in every aspect of life as well as with dealing with different
problems. Each person has his/her own characteristics. We are to understand
how individuals approach problems to solve.

We possess great differences while solving problems. Some take more time
than others to understand the problem and try to find solutions while others rush
into it and come out unsuccessfully.

According to psychologists: a LEARNING STRATEGY is a more specific, particular

approach in tackling a range of problems. While;

The LEARNING STYLE of an individual remain more or less a permanent way of

thinking( critically and intellectually).

LEARNING STRATEGIES

There are three strategies by Brunner namely:

1. CONSERVATIVE FOCUSSING: Its a method used to continue checking from the

first investigation of subsequent contradicting and confirming evidence, till the
concept reaches an end zone. For example purposes, this strategy is used by
highly skillful expertised age ts, detectives and FBI agents.

But our focus here is based on learning experiences in school. This strategy
entails step by step process with lots of trial and error and confirmed evidence
until the final destination.
2. SCANNING: This set of people duffer in thinking strategy. They are not as good
as the focuser when it comes to holding on to an experimenta for a long time.
Their experiment can be altered at any point with nothing to refer to and no
feedback which makes them to start all over because there's no fixed pattern.

3. GAMBLING: They are inconsistent in thinking strategically. The usually fall

victim of unsuccessful achievement especially in classroom settings. Its an entirely
different sort of thinking by using a haphazard method of approach to solve
problems.

LEARNING STYLES

They are called cognitive styles and not abilities because they analyse how
people process information and solve them, but not how well.

These are described as different ways people process information when

perceived and the strategies used in responding to any task.

TYPED OF LEARNING STYLES

1. REFLECTIVITY VS IMPULSIVITY: its also called conceptual tempo. It refers to the

degree to which people are cognitively impulsive or reflective in deciding upon a
response when two or more alternative are presence.

A reflective child usually analysis and observes the causes and effects of the
problem before taking action, while that of the impulsive child is simply to act first
without examining the issue coherently.

Reflective children give more correct answers than impulsive children because
they take more time to respond to a given task.
 Also, taking time to give an answer doesn't necessarily mean it would be
correct. He may be unsure of the answer at that moment.

Cognitive impulsive persons respond by inspecting the options and quickly

select the one they believe to be correct. They don't take time to compare
carefully. While reflective persons deliberate before responding by carefully
investigating or considering each alternative. Longer response with fewer errors.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF REFLECTIVITY AND IMPULSIVITY

1. Its more convenient and fruitful for teachers to have more reflective learners
than impulsive ones.

2. A lot of school tasks require careful distinction of similar yet different stimuli.

3. An unreflective child who isn't prone to reflecting upon the probable validity of
alternative solution might fail while those who find solution, reflect and evaluate
are more prone to succeed.

4. Due to failure, an impulsive child will possess a high level of anxiety and
withdraw out of self pity and develop apathy.

5. Reflection and analysis are required for cognition in maths and physics while
that of arts, humanities and social science requires, impulsive behavior.

6. A teacher has to carry along and manage both cognitive traits.

CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE

A convergent thinker or converged is one who does well in school and

examinations, who scores high on intelligence test loves maths and science,
performs averagely in arts and humanities and has a very good behavior in school
and at home and obeys the laws of the society. They perform better on
intelligence test than on open-ended test.

A divergent thinker or diverger does excellently well in arts subjects, they love
music and creative works in artsz perform better on open-ended test than
intelligence test, they are freedom loving and their inquisitive nature is seen as
disturbing from the teachers view.

An intelligence test has only one possible answer for every question while an
open-ended test has many possible answers for every question given.

IMPLICATIONS

* Only one particular style of learning is more suitable than another in bringing
out school success, more attention should be given to help those with that
particular learning style, and there's hope of its achievement by training.

* the school has to change the environmental atmosphere to help those children
rather than asking them to conform to the acceptable norms that prevail in the
school

* informal approaches in teaching keeps the divergers in schools interested in

learning while some schools favour the convergers development even if they're
unaware of this issue.

FIELD INDEPENDENCE VS FIELD DEPENDENCE

Its also known as analytic vs global perceptual styles. People who are low in
psychological differentiation have difficulty differentiating stimuli from the
context in which they're embedded so their s are easily affected by manipulations
of the surrounding context ( field dependent or global).

People who are high in psychological differentiation perceive more analytically.

They separate stimuli from background or context so they're less susceptible to
changing their perception when changes in the context are introduced (field
independent or analytic).

FACTIRS THAT AFFECT LEARNING STYLES

1. ANTECEDENTS: a psychologist Kagan said that since the impulsive child begins
his life as a very active one it may be due to some sort if brain damage at birth. A
psychologist Witkin thinks that the learning styles of a child develops out of an
interaction between his origins and environments impact.

2. DEVELOPMENT FACTORS: Both Kagan and Witkin found that with age, the
individuals become more independent and reflective. They display signs of
matured thinking.

3. THINKING FACTORS: With training its possible for an impulsive child to become
reflective. Training may produce certain changes in the child's learning styles.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

EDU204

TOPIC 5

MOTIVATIONAL ASPECTS OF BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING

 We learn because we are motivated to learn. We act because we are persuaded
to act in order to satisfy our basic needs and attain the desired goals. Motivation
is something that just energizes us to act and behave in specific ways.

Motivation came from a Latin word " moveere" meaning "to action".

Eggen and Kauchak (1992) said its a force that energizes behavior.

Its simply the force that spurs, arouses and sustains behavior until the goal s
achieved.

PRIMARY MOTIVES: They are linked with the basic primary needs associated with
biological wellbeing of an individual. They are universal motives that each person
is always in need of. They are inborn and innate and are found in all living
organisms. Their most important role is to ensure the preservation of life e.g.
sleep, hunger, thirst etc.

SECONDARY MOTIVES: This has to do with one's socio- psychological needs. They
are acquired like other forms of learned behavior while seeking satisfaction to our
socio psychological needs. E.g achievement, self a actualization, security etc.

COMPONENTS OF MOTIVATION

ACTIVATION: is the decision to initiate behavior like

taking a class.
PERSISTENCE: is the continued effort towards a goal even though obstacles exist
which involves taking more classes to earn a degree which requires time, energy
and resources.

INTENSITY: has to do with focus and concentration with pursing a goal.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION

EXTRINSIC: There are external drives that motivate an individual which arise from
the outside and often involve rewards like praise, recognition, trophies etc. They
can be referred to as external incentives for a person to perform a given task. This
motive can also prevent hard work.

INTRINSIC: Its the motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than any
external rewards. They activate from within the individual. It comes from pleasure
in a task, and a sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on a task.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTIVATION

1. It needs to be renewed continuously: new means need to be developed to keep

the individuals interest in achieving the organizations goals.

2. Motivation is an act of inner needs and external forces: an individual is driven

by his own desire to achieve the goals of the organization if he likes and gains
satisfaction from it. Inducements, rewards, incentives are given to motivate
people to perform better.

3. It brings about satisfaction: it helps individual achieve satisfaction in their work.

Motivators inspire us to bring out or give our best because we are naturally with
unlimited needs.

4. It can be for monetary and nonmonetary rewards: an individual is motivated to

work harder and perform better which is backed up with a reward of more
income.

The overall performance of the individuals work is looked into not the hours of
work.

5. It produces goal-directed behavior: it doesn't always lead to satisfaction but is

directed towards something on the individuals part. The person is simply
motivated to achieve a goal.

6. Motivation and satisfaction are related but not synonymous concepts:

motivation is the drive to satisfy or achieve a goal. Its concerned with goal
directed behavior. Satisfaction is the contentment experiences when a want is
satisfied. It's a consequence of rewards and punishment associated with past
experiences.

7. Can be either positive or negative: positive offers something precious to the

person through praise and more money etc. for satisfactory performance.
Negative emphasizes penalties while controlling performances.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

INSTINCT: We are motivated to behave in certain ways because we are

evolutionarily programmed to do so. Its problem is that it describes behavior but
doesn't explain it. E.g. love, shyness, fear, anger, shame, modesty etc.

PSYCHOANALYTIC: According to Sigmund Freud we have two basic human drives.

EROS & THANATOS. Eros is the life drive and THANATOS is the death drive. Freud
said everything we do, think and experience emotionally helps us to survive and
prevent our death. He believed they are buried in our unconscious mind.

INCENTIVE: We are motivated to work harder, put a lot of effort in desiring a

reward by any means necessary.

DRIVE: People are motivated to take certain action in order to reduce the internal
tension that is caused by unmet needs. It has to do with the physiological needs
of the individual like hunger and thirst.

TECHNIQUES FOR MOTIVATING IN CLASSROOM TEACHING LEARNING

SITUATION

1. USE THE PRINCIPLE OF PAIN AND PLEASURE: teachers must provide pleasant
and satisfying experiences to students. It can be done in the form of rewards and
punishment. Pleasant experiences are sought while painful experiences are
avoided.
2. ASPIRATION: Its the level of performance that one aspires for the future.
Classroom goals should be attainable to encourage student participation which is
essential to uplift their interest in learning.

3. USE OF COMPETITION AND COOPERATION: both motivating students to

compete and cooperate with one another should be done in a healthy manner.
The teacher should encourage friendly relationship and not rivalry which creates
envy and jealousy among his students. Cooperation while doing group work is
used in classroom learning to gain high scores.

4. KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESULT(FEEDBACK): Learning is faster and effective when

the learners are provided with the knowledge of their progress. It facilitates
motivation and improves content mastery of the learners. That's the learners are
able to mastery the content of the subject or topic being studied easily.

5. NOVELTY: It creates interest in the individual. For it to be understood better,

the teacher should explain the relationship and connection between the new and
already known.

6. PROVIDE REAL LIFE AND SYMBOLIC MODELS: We mostly learn through

observation and imitation.

TOPIC 6

ATTITUDES

Educations main aim is to modify the behavior of a child in accordance to the

needs and expectations of the society. Behavior is composed of many attributes,
one of which is ATTITUDE.
 To a great extent our behavior depends on our attitude towards things like
ideas, people and the environment. Learning a subject and acquiring a habit and
interest are all affected by our attitudes.

An attitude is a psychological tendency we express when we evaluate something

or someone( Early & Chaiken 1993).

Our attitude towards something could be positive, neutral or negative.

Its acquired through experiences that have an affective component.

Its a form of learning that is transmitted through the process of imitation.

However, Attitude simply means one's feelings , thoughts predispositions to

behave in some motivate manner towards some aspects of one's environment.

TEACHER RELATED FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR FORMATION AND

DEVELOPMENT OF ATTITUDES.

Attitudes once formed are hard to change due to one's feelings, needs and self
concept.

1. CREDIBILITY OF THE COMMUNICATOR: It depends on trust and field of

expertise. The same information is passed by two different people, but the person
with status will create a change in behaviour in the audience.

2. NATURE OF APPEALS: It may be done emotionally or rationally. An emotional

speech may carry the respondents along. Rationally is based on the reason of that
message.
3. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNICATION: Its vital to the way its received. The
most effective sequence of presentation of the entire communication is to
present the need arousing element first and then the information to satisfy the
need of respondents.

4. RELATIVE COMMITMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN HIS ATTITUDE:/the individual

manifests his attitudes whenever the situations calls for it.

TOPIC 7

TRANSFER OF LEARNING

We learn too many things and perform many tasks in our lives. Sometimes when
we learn or perform a new task, we find that it has been influenced by some of
our previous learning.

The ultimate goal of teaching or educational experiences both in and out of

school is to enable the individual to meet new situations of various degree of
relatedness and similarities. Learning isn't effective if the learner at school doesn't
transfer to other aspects or areas of life.

What is Transfer of Learning? According to Crow and Crow (1973), its the carry
over of habits of thinking, feeling or working, of Knowledge or skills from one
learning area to another.

Its the effect of prior learning on present learning or the effect of prior learning
on subsequent performance of different tasks.

TYPES OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING

1. POSITIVE TRANSFER: It occurs if the learning of a new a task is facilitated by an
old experience.

2. NEGATIVE TRANSFER: It occurs if previous experience retards or interferes in

performance of a task in a new situation.

3. ZERO TRANSFER: This occurs when training on one activity seems in no way to
influence training on another. No noticeable effect of performance on one task
over another.

HOW TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM POSITIVE TRANSFER

1. The leaner should avoid rote learning.

2. The learner should try to learn through his own efforts.

3. While learning the learner should try to integrate theoretical studies with the
practical experiences.

4. The past and present learning should be linked together.

5. The learner should always keep in mind the principle of correlated learning.

6. The learner should concentrate on learning the principles, rules and

generalization rather than just discrete and isolated facts.
7. Multimedia devices and sensory aids should be used for proper understanding
of concepts.