Learning about Educational Psychology
Higher Education Articles August 13, 2013Educational psychology is the study of how people learn. This career path will involve studying student outcomes, how people learn differently, to assess and teach gifted learners, and how to teach individuals with learning disabilities.
What does Educational Psychology Involve?
This aspect of psychology does involve childhood and youthful learning development, but it also goes further into adolescence and beyond. It studies the entire human lifespan, and all accompanying social, emotional and cognitive functions. When you study educational psychology, you also study behavior, development and cognitive function.
Once you set a path, you can further narrow your focus by choosing between educational technologies, special education, organizational education or creating curriculum for students. This is not just a job about helping people overcome their problems. You’re educating children to gain the most from their education. You’re helping them prepare for success and be independent in this world, making responsible decisions.
Educational psychology primarily concerns teaching within the classroom, as in schools and colleges, and not life skills. If you apply for a position in educational psychology, you will focus your efforts on learning academic environments and researching new technologies or techniques to improve the learning experience. You will also analyze teaching styles, and how these styles affect overall classroom comprehension.
More Details on the Educational Psychology Career Path
Educational psychologists are not the same thing as school psychologists, since the latter involves helping students with life skills, health and personal coping. This particular career path is evaluative in nature. Workers will develop treatment plans, create diagnostic assessments and keep attune to the progress of entire classrooms and schools.
If you are interested in this field, then it’s time to pursue higher education. A graduate degree in a related field or in educational psychology will be the starting point. Most universities do offer this program and reward those who have completed the program with a Master’s Degree. If you love science, psychology and assessment, you will find this degree more exciting than perfunctory. You will be learning about how people learn, research methodology, human motivations and how culture affects an individual’s drive, private and public school psychology, and many more similar subjects.
If you want to pursue the highest position within the school system, which is a school psychologist, you will need to obtain an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree, and it is one step up from a master’s degree. An even higher degree would be a doctorate in educational psychology; your choice of a Doctor of Education (Ed.D) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
You will be investing four to six years of your life in this degree, but considering the doors it opens; it will be a worthwhile journey. Since you will have a vast knowledge of behavior issues, educational obstacles, emotional issues, and how people respond to learning, you will have the ability to work in almost any educational facility.
Just starting out in this field can lead you to an annual salary of $35,000 to $50,000, and that can grow as you gain more experience and progress to top-level management. Now is the time to reach your full potential!
