The
objectives of education are of great concern to students, parents, teacher,
society and other stakeholders. In order to organize students experiences
education social psychology plays a crucial role considering that increasingly
better instructional materials are being developed and new media especially the
internet are being adapted and being
refined for instructional purposes. Nevertheless, provisions for differences
among students in rate and style of learning are still not adequate. Teachers
and others are well aware of present inadequacies and probably education social
psychology will offer solutions for better management of institutions. Teaching
and learning are fundamentally social enterprises. Teachers' roles in the classroom are equally
social. Explaining concepts, keeping students on task, and communicating with
fellow faculty members and parents are obviously social. Although less obvious,
planning classes and grading papers are anticipatory social acts in that these
activities require teachers to forecast how students will react to lesson plans
and comments, respectively.
The
discipline of social psychology has great untapped potential to help teachers
understand and manage many of these social aspects of the classroom. Although
some concepts from this discipline (e.g., self-efficacy, stereotype threat,
etc.) are already known in education circles, many are not. Realizing the
potential of these lesser known concepts will pay off in important ways. There are
various advantages that once recognized can help manage education institutions.
Gehlbach
(2004) says that firstly because social processes are fundamental to so
many aspects of learning and teaching, intervening at this level often produces
multiple desirable outcomes (i.e., one intervention might have an array of
benefits). Furthermore, by drawing on fundamental principles, applications of
these ideas may be generalized across many facets of teachers' jobs (i.e., one
principle may have multiple applications). Second, the effects of interventions
that successfully modify basic social processes can be disproportionately
large. In other words, by changing social processes that occur repeatedly,
small interventions can have big effects. Third, because social processes often
set cycles in motion, interventions that establish positive patterns of
interaction can be long lasting.
The
core construct of social psychology entails discerning the thoughts and
feelings of others with particular attention to how others perceive the
situation. According to this formulation, social education psychology is a
complex aptitude consisting of an ability dimension as well as a motivational
dimension (Gehlbach 2004).
Though
we have to be open to naive realism which is the belief that we see objective
reality; those that agree with our point of view also see objective reality;
but those who disagree must be (a) subject to different (presumably lesser)
information, (b) too lazy to process the information fully, or (c) biased (Ross
and Ward 1996). Mitigating these biases will help teachers more accurately
perceive their students which, in turn, will enhance their pedagogy. To
understand how, it is helpful to illustrate how these biases can unfold in
classrooms. Among their multiple roles, teachers must monitor students'
academic progress—are students' grades, homework completion rates, and conceptual
understandings improving or not? When a student's rate of progress declines
abruptly, teachers need to understand why. In other words, this is a critical
moment for teachers to be motivated and accurate in taking the student's
perspective if they are to help remediate the situation. The more accurately
teachers infer their students' thought patterns, the more readily they can
identify conceptual misunderstanding.
Education
psychology is the science that studies student behaviors in educational
settings; that is, student behaviors and education set the boundaries of the
content and methodology of science. The content focuses on the nature of
learning, the development of student’s abilities, focuses on the nature of
learning, the development of students’ abilities, types of learning outcomes
acquired by students, conditions within the student and within the school
setting associated with efficient learning, and measurement of the outcomes of
learning. Education social psychology does emphasize the theories, principles
and related applications that appear to be the most relevant in actual
modifying of student behaviors which is the practical function of the school.
The
responsibility of educating children is the work of teachers and parents.
Typically students spend more time with their teachers hence the need to know
how to respond to their needs. Even under optimal conditions, most children and
youths will experience some problems in school hence upon teachers to mitigate
this in order to have better institutions. The role educational social
psychology is to improve and understand the teaching and learning processes. The
teacher’s perception of what takes place in class is substantially different
from the perception of students. Psychologists have discovered many things
about human behavior, and they have established principles and theories that
summarize and clarify insights. Objectives, materials, student characteristics,
teacher characteristics and interactions are important components of a
schooling system. A teacher influences whether a student is able to understand
concepts based by his ability to gain the students attention and maintain it.
The mentioned factors have to be arraigned in a certain way to achieve learning.
Motivation
is a general term referring to goal seeking or need satisfying behavior. The
level or strength of motivation of an individual in connection to a task is
judged by attending and persisting behaviors.
A student who attends closely to instruction and persists until the task
is completed is obviously highly motivated. The level of motivation is inferred
from an individual’s behavior, but this doesn’t mean the level cannot be
influenced. A teacher can arrange environmental conditions to secure a student’s
attention initially and to maintain persistent effort. Motivation must always
be taken into account as one attempts to make instructional system work
smoothly.
When
students come to school and encounter teaching –learning situations, they have
interests and needs that may at times, divert their attention from the
instructional objectives. Some students experience deprivation of physiological
and safety need during school hours. We can then be concerned with their needs
for love and belonging, esteem, self actualization and the desires to know and
understand. Helping students to satisfy these needs is a primary means of
developing high motivation. The need to attain success is related to social
needs of students and is present in most students. Students who experience a
diminished sense of belonging at school are less likely to remain motivated and
engaged in school; consequently, they are more likely to drop out ( Juvonen
2006).
Punishment
and threat of punishment are still widely used by teachers all too often,
improperly and ineffectively. A reward
is something given to one person by another person or group which brings
pleasure or satisfaction to the recipient. When a student is rewarded immediately,
after some behavior and knows that the reward is given for the behavior, there
is tendency for the behavior to be strengthened. If a reward is promised a
student will produce the desired behavior. Punishment brings pain or
dissatisfaction to the recipient.
Attitudes
and values are among the most vital outcomes learned in school, for they are
important in determining how the individual reacts to situations and also what
he seeks in life. Thus attitudes and values serve both as mediators of
responses and motivational forces. An attitude is a system of three
interrelated components- cognitive (information), affective (feelings) and
action-tendency (behavior). There is a difference between attitude and concept
in that concept influences an individual’s acceptance or rejection of attitudes
objects like persons, ideas, things, situations etc. The attributes of individuals and of groups
they belong to are important determiners of attitude acquisition and
development. Of interests to education social psychology is the primary group
and reference groups which the individual uses as standard against which he
compares the adequacy of his behavior.
Pleasant
feelings, success, and rewards produce favorable and lasting attitudes; while
unpleasant feelings, failure and punishments lead to unfavorable attitudes and
also in some cases, to the extinction of previously favorable attitudes. A
teacher and other administrators can work on developing a program of instruction
once it has been established what attitudes will lead to efficient learning.
The learning of attitudes can be facilitated through:
·
Providing exemplary models
·
Providing pleasant emotional experiences
·
Using group techniques
·
Arranging of appropriate practice and
encouraging independent attitude cultivation.
As
Reynolds et al. (2008) emphasize, students must feel safe before learning can
occur. Furthermore, the complex mechanisms underlying the problems of
achievement, dropping out, and safety can easily feed off of one another to
form destructive cycles.
Though
home background does influence attitudes and values, some students do diverge
markedly from the value system of their parents. It is important for teachers
to recognize their own attitudes and values and those of their students so that
they may accept, rather than discriminate inadvently against, a student who
attitudes and values are different from their own. Accepting students does not
mean accepting antisocial behavior or permitting highly withdrawn student to
remain unattended. Regardless of a student’s values and attitudes certain
behavior cannot be permitted for example fist fighting, cursing, stealing,
vulgar language, destruction of property and open rebellion against the rules
and regulations needed to operate a school or classroom. According to Ross
(1977), the fundamental attribution error consists of people's pervasive
tendency to explain the social behavior of others by overweighting the causal
role of an individual's personality traits and undervaluing situational causes.
Confirmation bias refers to the tendency of people to seek out and value
information that corroborates their pet hypothesis, often while ignoring or
devaluing contradictory information (Wason 1960).
The
teacher interacts with students by speaking, writing, and making actual
physical motions. Students also have some of the same means of interacting with
the teacher as the teacher does with them. The teacher usually, however,
controls the kind and amount of interactions. Thus when a teacher decides to
lecture or to have the students study independently, there is no verbal
interaction among the students or between the teacher and students. On the
other hand a teacher who understands social psychology will inculcate classroom
discussions, panel discussions, small group discussions, question and answer
sessions to call for much interaction.
Group cohesiveness
A
cohesive group is one in which all the members wish to stay I that group: in
other words, the members are sufficiently attracted to one another or to the
group activity so that they wish to stay in that particular classroom or group.
Education social psychology enables teachers to identify and know how to manage
cliques and majority-minority patterns that emerge in their classes. If not well
managed, it will lead to isolation hence affecting group activities like
classroom discussions.
A
major domain in which social psychologists have substantially enhanced our
understanding of the social world is that of interpersonal and intergroup
relations. One of the more intriguing phenomena to emerge from this domain is
the research on intergroup bias (Devine 1995). One obvious classroom
application of this work is to guide teachers' organization of group work and
to improve intergroup relations between students from different backgrounds or
cliques. Personal attraction, performance of tasks and maintenance of group prestige
have been identified as the basis of cohesiveness. Cohesive groups tend to
communicate more effectively with one another and also conform more readily to the
dominant group opinion that less cohesive groups. To establish cohesiveness within smaller groups,
teachers may put students together who have an interest in the same activity or
common goal or put friends together in the same group. Also, the task or
activity can be arranged so that the members experience success feelings or
secure praise through doing the job well. In working with individuals and
smaller groups, within the class so that each member experiences a feeling of
success in an excellent means of encouraging cohesiveness and securing high
student achievement.
Environment
In
interactions, teacher leadership, the instructional procedures used by the
teacher, student achievement and emotional security are all closely related. A
balance is achieved between student-initiated and teacher-initiated talk as the
teacher responds to student suggestions concerning activities, listens to
students attentively, accepts student feelings, asks questions, and praises and
encourages. A warm and effective environment can be maintained in an
organizational or structural context characterized by businesslike approach to
instruction, orderliness, flexibility and fairness. This kind of emotional
climate and structure, combined with a variety of instructional methods, each
to attain particular objectives, produces high student achievement, emotional
security and zest for learning.
The
social conditions are increasingly changing and the teachers cannot afford to
be averse to these changes. The caliber of students keeps on changing in that
we get students who are highly hooked to technology, lots of expectations from
parents and society. What can teachers do to weather such a storm? The recourse
is in education social psychology which has remained timeless in preparing and
offering practical solutions for management of better institutions. Many youths of today feel alienated from adult
society, including their parents and their teachers. They feel they are not
understood. Many don’t identify with the value systems of their parents or
teachers. Not finding satisfaction in the world
as it is and becoming disillusioned about being able to change it for better, many youth turn to drugs, open
rebellion against adults, rejection of much of the curriculum content and code
of conduct of the schools. With such a scenario the teacher’s task appears
daunting but it presents opportunities of meeting the challenge. Skills and
understanding of social psychology can help a teacher know how to help students
solve their daily problems of living and eventually become a well-integrated
person. A teacher should be concerned with personality integration of student’s
life for the betterment of the institution.
Motivational,
discipline and personality integration are integrally related. Every social
system, including the school and classroom as a system, requires some
regulation of its members to enable it to function effectively. In school
settings, discipline refers to control of procedures in order to facilitate the
attainment of educational objectives. Discipline procedures in the schools
historically have moved from the use of force to self-discipline. Current
trends as informed educational social psychological informs that discipline
should be self-control as a result of learning sense of responsibility of self,
other classmates, and the school. Good discipline is a function of good
teaching. The teacher’s best efforts are directed at creating a classroom
environment supportive of healthy personality integration and rich with
learning experiences that capitalize on the enthusiasm of youth.
Feelings
of acceptance and belonging are important in achieving an emotionally secure
classroom or school. Such an environment is characterized by : a feeling of
general warmth, encouraging moderate expressions of emotion and feeling by
students; democratic group decisions, use of non-punitive control techniques.
By the time the student finishes high school, he should have fairly realistic appraisal
of himself, his motor skills, his knowledge and intellectual abilities, his
interests and his emotional make up. Very few institutions do give an
understanding of students of students strengths and weaknesses hence needing up
graduating students who don’t know who they are. Educational social psychology
then becomes a mediator in such instances to help students find acceptance and
appreciate their special individual selves.
In
addition to motivating students to expend more effort on homework, cognitive
dissonance could be used to help students persist on their academic goals for
the semester. Teachers might facilitate this process by assigning students to
write down their goals through a regular classroom assignment. This relatively
common exercise could be strengthened by having students then try to convince a
peer to adopt at least one of their goals.
To
strengthen the intervention further, teachers could assign students to inform
their parents of their list of goals and the reasons why they want to pursue
them over the course of the year. As Cialdini (2009) notes, by trying to
convince their classmates of the merits of their goals, they will likely
convince themselves; by describing their goals and the reasons for their goals
to audiences like their parents, they will bolster their commitment to their
goals; and by posting the goals in class, the goals will remain salient for
students.
We can conclude that,
social psychological principles need to be adapted into actual classroom
practices. Social interactions lie at the heart of classroom learning. As a
result, thoughtful, new applications of social psychological principles may
have multiple, large, lasting benefits for teachers and students.
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