CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY  

Right from the very start of education psychology, there have been teaching and learning.  

Teaching and learning take effect from birth to death.

It is impotent to now that educational psychology with enhances greater output in teaching – learning process.

There are some contributions made by educational psychology towards teaching – learning process examples are:

1)                  Educational psychology with its study attempts to develop the theories of teaching.

2)                  Educational psychology also with its study helps to improve teaching methods and materials.

3)                  The study of educational psychology attempts to solve learning problems, and to measure learning abilities.

4)                  The study of educational psychology helps to improve teaching practice in all components of the basic teaching model.

5)                  The study of educational psychology attempts to measures educational progress and how individuals learn at different ages.  

  With the knowledge of that, the teacher is better placed to understand his students. He will be able to diagnose when an individuals child is having some problem because learn ability is negatively affect.

He will try to find out the sources of the problems whether it is physical, emotional, social to mention but a few.

The teacher will find a way to see that the problems are solve if possible or controlled.

When a proper attention is given to a child, such a child will have a sense of belongings.

As a result of the care, there is the tendency that the child will come back from abnormality to normalcy

1.2       PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to investigate into the relevance of educational psychology the teaching –learning process in secondary schools, in Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The researcher being aware of this will dwell more on the relevance of educational psychology the teaching-learning process in some secondary schools in Enugu South.

The purpose of this study is to look closely at certain problems and how they hinder effective teaching and learning.

The objectives of educational psychology as summarized by S. S. Challhan (1987) are:

·         To provide teachers with some basic skills related to teaching.

·         To give teachers guidelines to solve problems associated with teaching – learning process.

·         To help teachers to understand the scientific knowledge and to instill in them a spirit of inquiry for their professional growth.

In conclusion, the researcher will no doubt unfold the possible solutions, which should of course be a welcome relief not only to teachers and students in secondary schools in Enugu South but to the school system in general.

FORMULATED QUESTIONS

            To achieve these objectives stated above, the following questions were formulated;

1.                  What is the relevance of Educational psychology?

2.                  How will the educational psychology help students adapt to teaching-learning situations?

3.                  Is there any way of identifying hindrances to learning and bridging the gap?

4.                  What should be done in the case of exceptional students?

5.                  How does Educational psychology take care of the students in Adolescent stage?

1.3       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The high rate of learning problems and distractions in our schools cannot be over emphasized. The issue of how to enhance adequate learning has been the concern of every right thinking teacher. There is no doubt; the problems of teaching learning process have to be taken care of.

This study is geared towards x-raying certain problems that hinder adequate learning and how to tackle them in order to enhance greater productivity as regards teaching-learning situations.

The researcher therefore hopes that this project will enable teachers and students alike appreciate the role of educational psychology in bridging the gap created by distractions and problems of teaching learning process. 

Furthermore, this will help teachers in this age to rectify the mistakes made before like tagging a pupil a dullard or “good for nothing even when a pupil’s intelligent quotient is above average ordinarily but he has learning problems.

Root causes of the pupil’s performance should be looked into and handled better.

The study of educational psychology provided information, ideas and practices, which facilitate learning in the classroom. It will be to the relevance of educational psychology with regards to teaching – learning theories of teaching, an aspect of human growth and development, motivation, remembering and forgetting and others.

The study of educational psychology has its significances thus:

1)                  Educational psychology with its study attempts to develop the theories of teaching

2)                  Educational psychology also with its study helps to improve teaching methods and materials.

3)                  The study of educational psychology attempts to solve learning problems, and to measure learning abilities.

4)                  The study of educational psychology helps to improve teaching practice in all components of the basic teaching model.

5)                  The study of educational psychology attempts to measures educational progress and how individuals learn at different ages. 

1.4       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

There are some problems, which eventually comes up from stumbling block to learning. But can it be said that a teacher has taught when the pupils have not learnt? No. Therefore the primary concern of the classroom teacher is to make learning possible. How does he do that?

He will ask himself whether the pupils understand his teaching.

-                      To what degree dot hey understand?

-                      What happens to retention of what have been naught?

Then the teacher will find out the possible causes of he learning and retention problems.

1.5       RESEARCH QUESTIONS 

In this study, the researcher formulated and answered the following questions:

1)                  What is the relevance of educational psychology to teaching-learning process?

2)                  How will the educational psychology help students adapt to teaching – learning situations.

3)                  Is there any way of identifying hindrances to learning and bridging the gap?

4)                  What should be done in the case of exceptional students?

5)                  How does educational psychology take care of the in adolescent stage?

1.6       ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY

The knowledge of educational psychology is a strong weapon for the enhancement of effective teaching and learning. It is assumed that this project will help teachers know and apply certain principles on diagnosis of learning problems. When the problems are diagnosed, the teacher with the knowledge of educational psychology will put in various schedules of reinforcement. He will also include motivational principles.

Educational psychology therefore provides the teaching with the clues and tools to ensure that its work is well done unlike the teacher who does not have the knowledge of or that who does not want to acknowledge the course.

It is assumed that the teacher will help the students overcome their problems, be it physical, social, emotional and others. He will tackle the ones he can and refer t eh ones he cannot solve to specialists

1.8       DEFINITION OF TERMS

Maturation:                             The ripening of a physiological feature

Absentmindedness:                  A type of forgetting due to the fact that there is no cue and the individual is also occupied with some task.

Motivation:                              The energization, sustenance and direction of behaviour towards a goal, which normally restores equilibrium.

(S.R) Stimulus Response Learning:     A mechanistic learning where specific stimuli call forth conditioned response.

Diagnosis:       A statement which is the result

Mental Retardation: A condition where the individual shows a remarkable slow rate of learning and lack of intelligent behaviour.

Exception Students: Includes handicapped cases as the blind, deaf, mentally retarded and also gifted students who cannot benefit much from normal class activities.

Incongruent:                When an individual is not in harmony with his environment.

Adolescence:               The period of development between puberty and adulthood.

Reinforcement: This is any stimulus that increases the probability that a certain desired behaviour or response will occur.

Defense Mechanism: Putting up some behaviours to cover faults.

Neuroticism:  A condition f disorder of the mind.

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