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Education Philosophy

Shelby Alward

Educational Psychology

Educational Philosophy Paper

April 30, 2007

My Educational Philosophy

Educational psychology is the application of psychology to understand learners, learning

and teaching. Not only is psychology for learning, it’s used in human development, behavior,

and motivation. There are many stages a person has to go thru, not just physical, but

psychological. In order for children to be able to learn and move through levels of school, they

have to complete Piaget’s stages of development. Not only are there physical developments, but

also mental and moral developments I child must go thru, including Vygotsky’s zone of

proximal development and Kohlberg’s stages of moral development.

Throughout the course, we learned from how to be a good teacher to knowing how to set

up the classroom and how to use the right discipline. Out of all the material, I have four main

topics that interest me the most, and I would most likely think about the most when I hopefully

become a teacher someday. They are motivation, techniques, learners with exceptionalities

/disabilities, and the elements of good teaching. I chose these four because they could be the four

main topics I could really focus on if I was a teacher. Knowing the elements of a good teacher

and how to motivate your students is the most important aspect of a teacher. Good teaching

consists of eight essential steps. These include content knowledge, teaching skills, decision-

making, reflection, critical thinking, self-awareness, self-regulation, and application of

educational research. Knowing and using these steps in a classroom will not only help you as a

teacher, but make it more easier for the students to learn. I chose techniques because there are

many different techniques or ways you as a teacher could use while teaching your students. The...