Educational psychology can be defined as the study of how people learn, including teaching methods, instructional processes, and individual differences in learning.
There are certain methods of educational psychology used by researchers to collect data and conduct research studies. They are as follows:
- Introspection – This is one of the oldest methods, which was previously used in psychology. It means looking within or into the working of our minds and reporting what we find there.
- Observation – This method involves looking outside one’s own self. There are different types of observation such as natural or artificial, scheduled or unscheduled, participant and non-participant, and direct or indirect.
- The Experimental Method – This method has focused on different ways of memorization. It shows the effects of different factors on learning, mental fatigue, imagination, duration of attention, and the role of maturation in their lives and in learning.
- The Clinical Study – This method is used to collect detailed information on the causes and sources of people’s fears, anxieties, worries, obsessions, their maladjusted and deviant cases.
- The Genetic or Developmental Method – This method shows how a simple behaviour pattern in one’s childhood can become complex gradually with age and become a major behaviour pattern as the person grows up.
- The Testing Methods – This method comprises psychological tests, educational measurements, rating scales, checklists, Admission Management and questionnaires. Rating scales and checklists are the two most important elements that help in observing and evaluating one’s personality and traits.
