Educational psychology

Educational psychology studies how people learn and develop in educational settings, and how teaching, assessment, motivation, and learning environments shape those processes.

Constructivism: A theory of learning in which people actively build knowledge by interpreting experience through existing ideas. It explains why learners interpret instruction through prior knowledge rather than simply absorbing information.
Cognitive development: Changes in thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities across the lifespan. It describes the developmental changes that influence what learners can understand.
Formative assessment: Assessment used during instruction to identify learning needs and guide next steps. It turns evidence of current understanding into adjustments to teaching.
Jean Piaget: A Swiss psychologist known for a stage-based account of children’s cognitive development. His account made developmental change central to theories of how children learn.
School psychology: A professional field applying psychological services to support students’ learning, behavior, and mental health in schools. It focuses more directly on assessment and intervention within school systems.
Cognitive load theory: A theory that explains how working-memory limits affect learning and how instruction can manage those demands. It connects lesson design to the limited capacity of working memory.
Working memory: A limited-capacity system that temporarily holds and manipulates information for ongoing mental tasks. Its constraints help explain why complex instructions can overwhelm learners.
Differentiated instruction: Instruction that adapts content, process, or products to learners’ differing needs and readiness. It applies knowledge of learner variation to classroom planning.
Lev Vygotsky: A Soviet psychologist whose work emphasized the social and cultural origins of higher mental processes. His ideas linked learning to language, social interaction, and guided activity.
Developmental psychology: The study of psychological change and continuity across the human lifespan. It studies development across settings, while educational psychology centers educational contexts.

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