Educational psychology

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY I. What is Educational Psychology? Educational psychology involves the study of how people learn, including topics such as student outcomes, the instructional process, individual differences in learning, gifted learners and learning disabilities. This branch of psychology involves not just the learning process of early childhood and adolescence, but includes the social, emotional and cognitive processes that are involved in learning throughout the entire lifespan. The field of educational psychology incorporates a number of other disciplines, including developmental psychology, behavioral psychology and cognitive psychology. (What Is Educational Psychology? Cherry, K.) Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing on subgroups such as gifted children and those subject to specific disabilities. Researchers and theorists are likely to be identified in the US and Canada as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. This distinction is however not made in the UK, where the generic term for practitioners is ” educational psychologist.” II. What is the significance of Educational Psychology to Physical Therapy? Educational Psychology is essential to physical therapy because it helps develop ideas on how to create new and innovative therapies. Since educational therapy is concerned with how children act and grow in a certain environment, physical therapists can use this to their advantage by learning how a systematic environment can affect the child’s therapy. For example, if the surrounding area a child was receiving treatment in was dark and gloomy, then would the child still be encouraged to continue his/her therapy? Educational Psychology would also be a key part in the interaction of a physical therapist and his/her patient. A patient diagnosed with a physical disability would not be able to heal efficiently if he/she is not comfortable with the assigned physical therapist. Studies and theories involving educational psychology would aid physical therapists in understanding the intricacies of the mind of a child or adolescent diagnosed with a mental disability; such as, autism, down’s syndrome and much more. REFERENCES http://psychology. about. com/od/educationalpsychology/f/educational-psychology. htm What Is Educational Psychology? Cherry, K. Retrived: July 8, 2012 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Educational_psychology Educational Psychology. Retrieved: July 8, 2012