Table of Contents

1. The changing teaching profession and you.

• The joys of teaching
• Are there also challenges to teaching?
• Teaching is different from in the past
• How educational psychology can help

2. The learning process

• Teachers’ perspectives on learning
• Major theories and models of learning

3. Student development.

• Why development matters.
• Physical development during the school years
• Cognitive development: the theory of Jean Piaget
• Social development: relationships,personal motives, and morality
• Moral development: forming a sense of rights and responsibilities
• Understanding “the typical student” versus understanding students.

4. Student diversity

• Individual styles of learning and thinking.
• Multiple intelligences.
• Gifted and talented students
• Gender differences in the classroom
• Differences in cultural expectations and styles
• Oppositional cultural identity.
• Accommodating cultural diversity in practice.

5. Students with special educational needs

• Look at these three people from the past. All were assigned marginal status in society because of beliefs about disabilities:.
• Growing support for people with disabilities: legislation and its effects
• Responsibilities of teachers for students with disabilities.
• Categories of disabilities—and their ambiguities
• Learning disabilities.
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Intellectual disabilities.
• Behavioral disorders.
• Physical disabilities and sensory impairments
• The value of including students with special needs

6. Student motivation

• Motives as behavior
• Motives as goals.
• Motives as interests.
• Motives related to attributions
• Motivation as self-efficacy.
• Motivation as self-determination
• Expectancy x value: effects on students’ motivation
• TARGET: a model for integrating ideas about motivation.

7. Classroom management and the learning environment

• Why classroom management matters
• Preventing management problems by focusing students on learning.
• Responding to student misbehavior.
• Keeping management issues in perspective.

8. The nature of classroom communication

• Communication in classrooms vs communication elsewhere.
• Effective verbal communication.
• Effective nonverbal communication.
• Structures of participation: effects on communication
• Communication styles in the classroom.
• Using classroom talk to stimulate students’ thinking
• The bottom line: messages sent, messages reconstructed

9. Facilitating complex thinking

• Forms of thinking associated with classroom learning
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Problem-solving
• Broad instructional strategies that stimulate complex thinking
• Teacher-directed instruction
• Student-centered models of learning.
• Inquiry learning
• Cooperative learning.
• Examples of cooperative and collaborative learning
• Instructional strategies: an abundance of choices.

10. Planning instruction

• Selecting general learning goals.
• Formulating learning objectives
• Differentiated instruction and response to intervention.
• Students as a source of instructional goals.
• Enhancing student learning through a variety of resources.
• Creating bridges among curriculum goals and students’ prior experiences.
• Planning for instruction as well as for learning.

11. Teacher-made assessment strategies.

• Basic concepts.
• Assessment for learning: an overview of the process
• Selecting appropriate assessment techniques I: high quality assessments
• Reliability
• Absence of bias
• Selecting appropriate assessment techniques II: types of teacher-made assessmentsSelected response items
• Constructed response items
• Portfolios.
• Assessment that enhances motivation and student confidence
• Teachers’ purposes and beliefs
• Choosing assessments
• Providing feedback
• Self and peer assessment
• Adjusting instruction based on assessment.
• Communication with parents and guardians.
• Action research: studying yourself and your students.
• Grading and reporting

12. Standardized and other formal assessments

• Basic concepts.
• High-stakes testing by states
• International testing.
• International comparisons
• Understanding test results.
• Issues with standardized tests

Appendices and Resources

• Appendix A: Preparing for licensure.
• Appendix B: Deciding for yourself about the research
• Appendix C: The reflective practitioner.
• Resources for professional development and learning
• Reading and understanding professional articles
• Action research: hearing from teachers about improving practice.
• The challenges of action research.
• Benefiting from all kinds of research