Question- Define the scope of educational psychology and show how this science affects educational practice.

Or
Define the province of educational psychology. In what sense is educational psychology an applied hranc of psychology.
Or
Point out the scope of Educational Psychology.

Answer-

Scope of Educational Psychology

Though educational psychology is an independent science, the limits of its field operation have not yet been determined as the history of development extends back only forty or fifty years. Nevertheless, the subject matter of educational psychology can be studied in three different aspects-educand, process of learning and conditions of learning.

1. Educand : The term educand applies to students who individually or collectively participate in the educational programmes. These students taken collectively constitute the class, and in fact the behaviour of the class is none other than the behaviour of these students. Modern psychology gives the teacher an opportunity of improving the behaviour of students whence they can progress in the class. In order to provide proper education the teacher should possess as much knowledge of the educand as is possible for him for example, the teacher should be aware of the various stages of the various stages of the educand’s maturity since different subjects can be taught more fruitfully than others in different definite stages of maturity. The possession of such extensive knowledge makes it indispensable for the teacher to study the various aspects and stages in the child’s development from birth to adulthood. In this way, while he makes a psychological study of the child progress through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, he also makes a study of the child’s progress in physical, mental, emotional, moral and aesthetic aspects, and in the process takes notes of the changes that have taken place constantly in this development. The teacher should also be aware of the individual differences of the child. And for a knowledge of his individual differences, the teacher must also have some knowledge If the relative influences of heredity and environment upon the developing child. And to gain this essential knowledge of individual quirks and peculiarities the modern educational psychologists makes use of many kinds of measurements and tests. Of the many kinds of tests in use in present day psychology, the main ones are concerned with intelligence, character, personality and vocational abilities. The results of these tests form the basis of the child’s education and later on his vocation regarding which he is guided. In using these methods of measurement, the data has to be tabulated, following which informative conclusions are drawn that help in teaching. This is the statistical aspect of educational psychology. Knowledge of the child’s intelligence, personality and abilities is essential for the teacher. The measurement of all such factors falls within the scope of educational psychology.

2. Process of Learning : The process of learning means the process in evidence at the time when teaching and learning is in progress. The question is what happens within the child when he is learning ? All children learn something either through themselves or through the teacher’s teaching. Many of the thing that a child learns are often not taught in the class, neither are they comprehended under the curriculum, yet the child grasps them. The educational psychologist tries to discover exactly what occurs within the child during his learning, why or how they learn things that the teacher would prevent them from knowing. The constant effort has led the educational psychologists to the discovery of many a principles and concepts that may be a considerable value to the teacher. One of them concerns the difficulty in solving its problems. Hence, modern educational psychology is concerned with the psychological problem of learning various subject’s progress in learning them eduaation of the progress, obstacles that hinder it and ways and means of removing such obstacles.

3. Conditions of Learning : The phrase implies the factors or conditions that influence the process of learning. Some of these factors may concern the class-room, being purely physical such as the quantity and direction of light, normal air and humidity, acoustic conditions, etc. All these apparently minor consideration influence the child’s learning but the most important factor among the conditions of learning is the teacher himself. Besides these rather obvious factors, there are many other influential factors that are neither visible nor readily apparent but are nonetheless effective and important. One is the attitude of the child’s parents to a collective education or learning a group. Yet such a condition is not generally apparent. If they do not hold the work of the school and education in any very high regard, then this inimical attitude may be harmful to school study. It is even more potent an influence in its effect upon the enthusiasm and interest of the teacher which it may adversely effect. Although this condition does not invade the classroom and as a rule is existing only outside it, yet the teacher has to face it and battle against it within the four walls of the classroom.

Generally speaking, it is this third aspect of educational psychology that is commonly identified with education. Most of the people are in the habit of confusing education with a condition of learning within the class room and the school in which the teacher is understood to be creator and manipulator of the conditions of learning. It is true that of the three aspects of educational psychology described above, it is only the third that can at all adequately be controlled by the teacher, and yet it can never be regulated to the extent to which people normally believe it to be amenable to control. Nevertheless, by confusing education exclusively with this third aspect, people overlook the significance of the other two aspects. Such an attitude tends to make education mechanical and even to over-simplify it. It overlooks and violates the actual dynamic aspect of education in which learning is a conscious process and the educand a progressive and changeable being. While educational psychology has helped both the teacher and the taught, it has also acquainted the general masses with the real meaning of education so that they may contribute their little mite to the process of education by helping the teacher and the students.

Expanding scope of educational psychology : It was only is 1920 that educational psychology attained a definite form. Since the its scope has been changing continually as the discovery of new concepts and new instruments in educational psychology has coincided with the introduction of new objectives of Arnold gessel (1929) wrote : "Growth is function of the organism rather than that of the environment such. the environment furnishes the foil and the milieu for the manifestation of development, but these manifestations come from inner compulsion and are primarily organized by inherent iner mechanics and by an intrinsic physiology fo development. The very plasticity of growth requires that there be a limiting and regulatory mechanism. Growth is a process so intricate and so sensitive that there must be powerful stabilizing factors, intrinsic rather than extrinsic, which preserve the balance of the total pattern and direction of the growth trend. Maturation is, in a sense, a name for this regulatory mechanism."

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