PSY6012 Educational Psychology

This course aims to apply psychological theories and research to inform effective learning and teaching. The three key themes in this course are: learners, learning processes, and teaching practices. To know learners, we will discuss developmental theories and individual differences in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, intelligence and special educational needs. To understand the learning processes, we will discuss behavioral and cognitive theories of learning and learning motivation. Different teaching practices, including direct instruction, constructivist approaches and performance assessment will be examined as well. Professional practices of educational psychologists are introduced. Students are encouraged to critically reflect and comment on current local and global educational issues in relation to the three key themes. They are also required to apply psychological theories to intelligently and ethically solve the problems of learning and teaching in school settings.