Educational Psychology: Learning, Observation, and Behavior

Educational Psychology

Introduction
Educational psychology is an important area which helps the people to know about learning
outcomes of students, process of instruction which is given to students, the varied experience and
outcome during learning, gifted and disabled learners, etc. The interest of the psychologists lies
in the learning experience of people and how far they retain their newly learnt information. The
See, Think, Wonder, Connect task had been very helpful for us as through this task the learners
have started making careful and detailed observation. After making the observations and learning
something it is very important to thoughtfully interpret them (Salmon, 2016).
Personal Experience
Through the knowledge that we have acquired from the task of See, Think, Wonder, Connect, I
have learnt how to observe, interpret and introspect. It has spurred curiosity among the learners
and the desire to know and explore has taken the students to the next level. In week 2, we were
taught about human information processing and they process their information from their given
surroundings. Personally I have benefitted a lot from the knowledge of human information
processing as it has helped me to increase my sensation and widened my perception. Every day
we interact with our immediate surroundings, and our senses help us passively to observe and
absorb what the surroundings have to offer us. Based on this passive action, the active process
starts which is known as perception. This enables us to interpret the information which our
senses have provided us. My understanding of concepts and evaluating them has been enhanced
by the task given. Attention is a very important factor which is consistently needed in life. When
we attend to what we see or do, we tend to retain that memory. Any task which is accomplished
with attention is sustained. Focus on a particular task can increase the level of attention. I have

learnt through the See, Think, Wonder, Connect task that when I take interest in a certain task
my attention towards it is automatically increased. I try to be more consistent with my work and
for this I try rehearsing and repeating the same actions. This not only makes me more attentive at
work but also improves my memory power. The three types of memory, sensory, working and
long term memory are important to remember and respond to what we are seeing and what is
happening around us. There are so many things we see, experience and observe but the
information which is sensory is often forgotten as it is not attended to (Pfannkuch, Arnold and
Wild, 2015). On the other hand there is working memory which I have learnt now that it cannot
be transformed into long term memory unless repeated and rehearsed. Similarly when the long
term memory is out of use it fades. Therefore it is important to make the long term memory
working. For instance, I try to revise and remember the concepts which we had been taught in
the previous semester so that the memory is retained (LePeau, et.al, 2016). The concepts which I
have learnt now over these past few weeks I am putting them into practice so that I can register
them in my long term memory.
Behaviorism is an important concept which I have learnt under this course task. Through this I
have known that it takes into account what is observed rather than what is not. For understanding
behaviorism we had been introduced to the experiment of Pavlov’s dog. There were two
simultaneous stimuli which are paired and create a behavioral change. In my daily life when I
start associating with something, that impacts my learning behavior. I know that when it is
cloudy I have to carry an umbrella expecting the rain. This is something which our mind has got
accustomed to. There are few things which we avoid doing, like when at school we avoid telling
lies or skipping or homework as we know that is punishable or at college we submit plagiarism
free assignments as we know we would be penalized. Similarly I avoid bunking any class as I