COURSE GUIDE W xi

COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

You must read this Course Guide carefully from the beginning to the end. It tells
you briefly what the course is about and how you can work your way through
the course material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to spend in
order to complete the course successfully. Please keep on referring to the Course
Guide as you go through the course material as it will help you to clarify
important study components or points that you might miss or overlook.

INTRODUCTION
HBEF2103 Educational Psychology is one of the courses offered by the Faculty of
Education and Languages at Open University Malaysia (OUM). This course is
worth 3 credit hours and should be covered over 8 to 15 weeks.

COURSE AUDIENCE
This course is offered to all students taking the Bachelor of Education (Education
Administration) and Bachelor of Education (Teaching English as a Second
Language TESL) programmes.

As an open and distance learner, you should be able to learn independently and
optimise the learning modes and environment available to you. Before you begin
this course, please confirm the course material, the course requirements and how
the course is conducted.

STUDY SCHEDULE
It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for every
credit hour As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend 120
study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could be
accumulated.

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Table 1: Estimation of Time Accumulation of Study Hours

Study
Study Activities
Hours
Briefly go through the course content and participate in initial discussion 3
Study the module 60
Attend 3 to 5 tutorial sessions 10
Online participation 12
Revision 15
Assignment(s), Test(s) and Examination(s) 20
TOTAL STUDY HOURS 120

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Explain the theory and principles of psychology in the teaching and
learning process;
2. Discuss the students physical, cognitive, emotional, and personality needs
in school;
3. Apply the learning theories in the planning and practice of teaching and
learning in the classroom;
4. Identify appropriate teaching and learning approaches in solving students
problems; and
5. Explain problems related to individual differences and be able to identify
students with learning problems.

COURSE SYNOPSIS
This course is divided into 10 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented
below:

Topic 1 explains the concepts of psychology in general, which includes a

definition of psychology, the historical development of psychology and
approaches in psychology. Various fields of physiology are also explained with a
focus on the field of educational psychology and its purposes. The unit ends with
a discussion on the importance of educational psychology to teachers.

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Topic 2 explains the concept of human development. The explanation of this

concept begins with a definition of human development, the principles of human
development and factors influencing development. This is followed by an
explanation of six theories of human development which are the psychoanalytic
theory, the cognitive theory, the behaviourism theory, the socio-cognitive theory,
the ethological theory and the ecological theory. Human development is
discussed based on the three levels of development, namely, early childhood
(1 6 years), middle childhood (6 12 years) and adolescence (13 21 years). At
the end of the unit, the implications of the theories of human development for
teachers are discussed.

Topic 3 discusses individual differences. Genetic and environmental factors that

contribute to individual differences are included in the discussion. This is
followed by an explanation of the theories of individual differences. The
implications of individual differences for teachers and how to teach different
individuals are described.

Topic 4 discusses an individuals personality from the aspects of behaviour,

thinking and emotion and how interactions occur between individuals.
Important theories in psychology including the behaviourist and psychoanalytic
theories are introduced. Definitions and concepts of personality as well as the
application of knowledge about personality will also be discussed.

Topic 5 explains the aspects of learning, such as the concepts, characteristics,

types and principles of learning. Factors that influence learning will also be
discussed.

Topic 6 discusses the theories of learning including the behaviourist, cognitive,

social and constructivist learning theories. Classroom teaching and learning
approaches such as direct instruction, mastery learning and cooperative learning
will be described.

Topic 7 introduces the different methods of thinking including creative thinking,

critical thinking and thinking skills in the classroom. Other topics that are
discussed include metacognition and the factors that influence it.

Topic 8 focuses on students with learning problems such as physical and mental
disabilities. The purposes and characteristics of special education will be
discussed. Different examples of special education are described, which includes
the enrichment and remedial programmes.

Topic 9 discusses programmes for students with special needs. These

programmes were developed to assist this group of students to be independent.

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These students need short and long term special guidance through programmes
such as the inclusive, remedial and enrichment programmes.

Topic 10 is a continuation of Topic 9. This topic discusses the preparation of a

conducive class to create an effective teaching and learning environment. Among
the steps that have been taken are the creation of motivated models of teaching
and learning.

TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Before you go through this module, it is important that you note the text
arrangement. Understanding the text arrangement should help you to organise
your study of this course to be more objective and more effective. Generally, the
text arrangement for each topic is as follows:

Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after you
have completely gone through a topic. As you go through each topic, you should
frequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuously
gauge your progress of digesting the topic.

Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locations

throughout the module. It is inserted after you have gone through one sub-
section or sometimes a few sub-sections. It usually comes in the form of a
question that may require you to stop your reading and start thinking. When you
come across this component, try to reflect on what you have already gone
through. When you attempt to answer the question prompted, you should be
able to gauge whether you have understood what you have read (clearly,
vaguely or worse you might find out that you had not comprehended or retained
the sub-section(s) that you had just gone through). Most of the time, the answers
to the questions can be found directly from the module itself.

Activity: Like Self-Check, activities are also placed at various locations or junctures
throughout the module. Compared to Self-Check, Activity can appear in various
forms such as questions, short case studies or it may even ask you to conduct an
observation or research. Activity may also ask your opinion and evaluation on a
given scenario. When you come across an Activity, you should try to widen what
you have gathered from the module and introduce it to real situations. You should
engage yourself in higher order thinking where you might be required to analyse,
synthesise and evaluate instead of just having to recall and define.

Summary: You can find this component at the end of each topic. This component
helps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should
be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points inside
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the summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for you
to revisit the details from the module.

Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should go
through this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargons used
throughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able to
explain, you should look for the terms from the module.

References: References is where a list of relevant and useful textbooks, journals,

articles, electronic contents or sources can be found. This list can appear in a few
locations such as in the Course Guide (at References section), at the end of every
topic or at the back of the module. You are encouraged to read and refer to the
suggested sources to elicit the additional information needed as well as to
enhance your overall understanding of the course.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
No prior knowledge required.

ASSESSMENT METHOD
Please refer to myINSPIRE.

REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive
theory. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Berk, E. L. (1989). Child development. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Kamarudin Hj Husin. (1993). Pedagogi 3: Penggunaan psikologi dalam bilik

darjah. Petaling Jaya: Longman Malaysia.

Mahmood Nazar Mohamed. (1990). Pengantar psikologi: Satu pengenalan asas

kepada jiwa dan tingkah laku manusia. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan
Pustaka.

Slavin, R. E. (1997). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (5th ed.).

Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Sharifah Alwiah Alsagoff. (1987). Psikologi pendidikan 1. Longman Malaysia

Sdn. Bhd.
Copyright Open
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University Malaysia
Malaysia (OUM)
(OUM)
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Mischel, W. (1999). Introduction to personality (6th ed.). Fort Worth, Texas:

Harcourt Brace.

Philips, J. A. (1992). Metacognitive strategies for helping poor readers in the

content areas. Malaysian Journal of Reading (vol 1,PP.11-17).

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