Interesting indictment of educational psychology textbooks
Interesting commentary, which I’ll think about in more detail later. It is worth noting that this is a problem in all professional domains (e.g., medicine). Finding ways to both provide a theoretical background to people who often think they don’t need it and to ensure that that knowledge is a) tempered so as not to be doctrinaire and b) accessible in the moments where it could be applied, is a huge challenge.
Probably not something that a book can solve, but this is one case where, I hope, new technology can really make a difference. So that one can see examples of issues and problems in something approximating “real” contexts.
More later…
The Source and Nature of Best Practice in Teaching
Am I really saying that there is presently no theory of school learning and that the reason for this is that we limit ourselves to the constructs of psychology for developing such a theory? Exactly! I recently examined the four most widely used texts sold to faculty in schools of education to teach “learning” to future teachers. The courses these texts are used in are well known to teacher educators. They carry titles such as “Principles of Learning for Teachers,” or “Introduction to Educational Psychology,” or “Learning in Classrooms.” There is no accredited teacher preparation program in the country that does not require at least one such course. There is no state department of education that does not require such courses before they will accredit a college or university as having an approved program of teacher education. No other academic discipline has any where near such total control and influence over the “knowledge” required of future teachers.
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