What is Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology is the study of practices and behaviors of people in a learning process. It usually deals with students in class rooms. Educational psychology studies the mental activities of students in the light of psychological principles.

Students face different psychological problems during their learning process, which affects their learning progress. When guidance is taken from psychology to solve the educational problems of students then this process is called educational psychology. In other words, application of principles of psychology to educational activities is called educational psychology.

Educational psychology is the branch of applied psychology, which observes the educational activities in schools and learning centers and presents the solutions for problems, faced during learning process. It has helped in improving learning process.

Although, schools and learning centers are the biggest practitioners of educational psychology but we cannot limit this science to just class rooms, it has all applications related to learning process of an individual. Therefore, Lester D. Crow defined educational psychology as;

“Educational Psychology is an applied science which describes and explains the learning experiences of an individual from birth to an old age.”

Similarly, Thomas Good defined educational psychology as;

“Educational Psychology provides a framework for looking at students, the learning process and learning situation.”

Educational Psychology not only helps in improving the performance of students but it also helps teachers and educational planners, in their way to achieve best education system, healthy learning atmosphere and healthy learning growth of students.