Module 1

Module 1 required the class to read through chapters one, two and three of our textbook, Educational Psychology, which was was written by Anita Woolfolk. This book is written in a manner that feels like the author is talking directly to the reader in a conversation rather than a textbook that is just filled to the brim with as much information as possible. I really like this style of writing because it feels more personal and is good at keeping my attention between the multitude of facts that are thrown at the reader.

Chapter one is composed of information about psychology and how it ties in with teaching. It starts off by giving some background information on psychology in teaching. For example, the book mentions how government regulations have changed in the past couple of years since the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act was put into place by the Bush administration and the impact that it left on not only students, but the teachers who had to adhere to these new rules as well. After background information was given, the chapter went on to describe what makes a good teacher and what makes a poor teacher. Another big focus of this chapter was helping the reader to understand that correlation does not always mean causation. In general, this chapter can be seen as a stepping stone that will be required to understand what educational psychology truly is.

Chapter two was focused on the topic of cognitive development. One of the biggest things that stood out to me in this chapter was the discussion of either/or distinctions. The book describes the human mind and the development of the human mind to be far too complex to be categorized by either/or distinctions. This is a logical fallacy that I see many people fall into today with things like politics. Sometimes the correct answer to a political problem does not lie on either extreme of the political spectrum, but right in the middle. People can be too quick to fall to these fallacies. Something that the book points out and makes very clear to the reader is that they need to be aware that these fallacies exist and being aware of them can help a person not fall victim to them. Another concept that was brought up in this chapter was how neuro-researchers have observed how children learn new skills. The process of skill learning can be broken down into three distinctive parts, acting out the skill, representations of the skill, and finally abstractions of the skill. It is within this chapter that Anita points out to the reader that a person’s culture can affect how a person sees certain actions like divorce and death. Overall this chapter was a good overview of different educational psychology practices and frameworks of development.

Chapter three covers different types of developments that a person goes through during their life. Three developments that are discussed are self, social, and moral development. The chapter categorizes certain periods in a humans natural life span where certain physical developments should be taking place. For example, in a person’s younger years, their gross motor skills should be an area that is being developed. When a person gets to around middle school age they should be going through puberty which leads to many different changes in a person’s body. The chapter also goes through different factors that can determine how a person acts in social situations. Moral development is another main focus of this chapter. A person gains their morals from a slew of things. When it comes down to my own morals, I inherited most of mine from my father. It is normal for a family to share certain morals, even if they do not see eye to eye every topic. All in all, these chapters have really opened my eyes to different factors of psychology and how it relates to teaching. I can not wait to read more chapters and discover all the different things this book has to offer.