An Analysis of Educational Psychology and Pedagogical Practice

This report delves into the critical role of educational psychology and pedagogical practices in the development and learning of young children. It emphasizes the significance of early childhood education for brain, social, and emotional growth. The report explores various concepts of learning, including cognitive-constructivist, behaviorist, and socio-constructivist approaches, and discusses different teaching and assessment methods, such as contemporary and pedagogical approaches. It highlights the importance of ethical considerations in teaching and assessment, emphasizing the teacher's role in fostering fair, honest, and uncompromising education. The report also examines structured, open framework, and child-led pedagogical approaches, along with contemporary methods like technology integration, cooperative learning, and play-based learning. It acknowledges both the advantages and potential drawbacks of these approaches, concluding with a focus on the ethical and professional responsibilities of teachers in ensuring student well-being and development.

Educational Psychology and Pedagogical Practice
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Children who start getting an education in the early years are likely to have improved
brain, social and emotional development. Teachers play an important role in the learning and
development of a child that will be discussed in this report. The objective of the report is to
check the significance and role of assessment and teaching in the development and learning of
young children. In the student’ teacher understanding of learning, different concepts of learning
can be found such as cognitive-constructivist, behaviorist and socio-constructivist (Krull, Koni &
Oras, 2013). Different approaches to teaching such as contemporary teaching and assessment
approaches and pedagogical approaches will also be discussed. In addition to this, the
importance of the ethical role of the teacher in assessing and teaching young children will remain
in focus.
Starting the discussion over subjective topic this is to state that teachers pay their
attention to the overall development of children including social, physical, cognitive and
emotional development. They plan and develop activities and lessons according to the interest of
the child and ask them different questions to develop further understanding. By teaching a child
to learn to find a solution for the issues and new vocabulary that makes their mental
development. Teachers collect data relate to child learning that can further be used to inform
parents (ccpre.org, 2020). Children are impressionable and learn from their surroundings. It is
well known that the learning process is instrumental in shaping a child's personality and teaching
works as a medium of knowledge that children are exposed to. It promotes the competence
development of children. The early years of a child are the foundation of his/her future
development that provides a base for lifelong learning abilities. Teaching provides many
advantages to young children that further contribute to their development. Firstly, it improves
their social skills where they get to engage with other children in a better way. Teachers do not

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only need to check what knowledge children require but they also have to pay attention to the
ways in which they can be acquired (Leggett & Ford, 2013). Further, it allows them where they
can discover new experiences and environments. Early childhood teaching and education make
children more curious and confident, also, to make them enable to acquire a long-term interest in
many other things such as singing, dancing, singing, etc.
Apart from the teaching, assessment is also an important tool that gathers critical
information related to the development and growth of children and informs the same to
educators, parents, and families. If to discuss the meaning of assessment, this is to state that the
same refers to a process of collecting information about a child and learning with intention to
inform a continuous cycle of evaluation and planning (Barnes, 2012). The assessment helps in
the development of young children as teachers can treat them in a better way. It provides a record
of their growth in cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and other areas. In addition to this, it
helps to make a personal focus on each student by assessing their individual needs and weak
areas. It is also helpful to check whether a childhood development program has met out to its
objectives or not. Lastly, it is important as it provides a common ground for families and
educators to collaborate on a strategy to support the child (Resourcesforearlylearning.org, 2020).
After the above-mentioned discussion, it is far clear now that teaching and assessment
plays important role in the learning of young children. Now, this is also necessary to know that
different approaches of such teaching and assessment are there that have different believes and
principles. These approaches are for teachers and there is no direct role of children. One such
approach is pedagogy. It is an interactive process between a child and an educator to enable
learning. It is an adverse and different approach from the curriculum. The pedagogy technique
prescribes the manner in which the educator can assist the child to learn. Three types of

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pedagogical practice namely “structured approach”, “open framework approach”, and “child-led
approach”. These are also considered as different pedagogical approaches. The first one i.e.
“structured approach” is a highly adult-directed curriculum. This approach worked on
development theory under which children learn concepts and skills in sequence. This approach
considers the curriculum objective very clearly defined. Another approach i.e. “open framework”
approach offers a broad framework of learning to the educator. Under this approach, curriculum
classification is less structured and therefore the child can make choices between different
learning opportunities. This approach enables the process of active learning that provides
children an opportunity to build their understanding within a physical and social environment. As
mentioned above the third approach is the child-led approach. As the name implies this is a
child-focused approach, where the main focus of children remains centered on the interest and
activities of children. Educator chose project themes or topics as per the interest of the child.
Self-expression, social and emotional growth and independence of children are some of the main
curriculum emphasis of this approach. The discussion of these three services is done only
information about their type and in reality, educators may adopt more than one approach in their
behavior.
Contemporary teaching methods are also an important approach to teaching and
assessment that is certainly popular these days. Before moving towards its criticism, the first
meaning of the same needs to understand. Here to state, that contemporary approach is inquiry-
driven and group focused. It embraces a subset of different teaching styles that also includes
coaching, test preparation via rubrics scaffolding and modeling. These methods encourage the
participation of students (Gill, 2013). These are also known as modern teaching techniques,
which are fully focused on the learner, and it is also considered as activity-based teaching. It is

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known to everyone that teaching and assessment approaches have been changed over the period.
Integrated technology is one such approach. To teach children more effectively it becomes
important for the teachers to speak their language and to learn the use of technology. Here they
use technology such as the internet to teach kids. Another contemporary teaching method is a
cooperative learning structure. Here the main focus of teachers remains on students. Teachers do
not call individual students but allow them to discuss in groups with their friends. Students put
the same effort as a teacher. Participatory learning is one of such kind of teaching approaches.
Facilitating participation and children right are some issues due to that child participation seem
important (Kangas, Venninen, & Ojala, 2016). Play-based learning is also one of the important
approaches of early childhood teaching where the teacher find themselves more engaged. This
approach provides the children with opportunities to develop a sense of the world around them. It
takes children wherever they want to go or what they want to be (Thomas, Warren & DeVries,
2011). Where on one side these teaching and assessment method seems important in the current
era they also have some negative side. For instance, using technology in education increase the
risk of obesity in children as it reduces the level of their physical activity. Secondly using
technology in the classroom puts the identity of children at risk. Using activity-based learning
also contains some disadvantages. Every child has a different ability of learning and in such a
situation; they all cannot expect to learn or to be engaged in a particular activity all in an equal
manner. In such a situation, children who do not feel themselves involved in activity much
remain weak in their studies. In other words, this would not be wrong to state that activity-based
learning does not ensure equal learning and development of all students.
Every professional must commit ethical behavior. Morality is nothing but a sense of right
and wrong that guide a person's behavior. Further ethics may refer to critical and explicit

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reflection of moral beliefs. While teaching and assessing young children, it becomes necessary
for teachers to pursue ethics in their behavior as the same makes them more responsible.
Teachers have to pay additional attention to assess the need for those young children. The ethical
and professional role of teachers has significance as the same ensures that students are getting
uncompromising, fair and honest education. This role makes teachers fair, lawful and responsible
in their behavior. Childhood and young age is the very sensitive duration of a person's life where
the same feel affected by a range of factor including the behavior of the teacher. In such a
situation, the teacher needs to develop strong character traits. The importance of an ethical role
can be measured by the fact that it makes teachers treat every student with respect and quality
without showing partiality, favoritism, and prejudice. Professionalism and ethics make them
realized that they can bring desirable changes in the behavior of young children. Generally, the
teachers who play their ethical and professional roles efficiently are likely to treat their learners
with affection, care, love and commitment (Sherpa, 2018). All these aspects are crucial to young
children and therefore the ethical role of teachers is important in the context of them. In their
professional and ethical capacity, teacher protects the right of young students and consider the
safety of them as one of their responsibility. It gives them a sense of family. To conclude the
discussion over the topic this is to state that when teachers are ethical and professional, they are
likely to provide more satisfactory and efficient results to the students.

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References
Barnes, S. (2012). Provocations on Assessment in Early Childhood Education. Children's
Services Central.
ccpre.org. (2020) The Role of the Educator. Retrieved From:
http://www.ccpre.org/basicinfo/role-of-the-educator/
Gill, E. (2013) What is Your Teaching Style? 5 Effective Teaching Methods for Your
Classroom. Retrieved From: https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-
resources/5-types-of-classroom-teaching-styles/
Kangas, J., Venninen, T., & Ojala, M. (2016). Educators' perceptions of facilitating children's
participation in early childhood education. Australasian Journal of Early
Childhood, 41(2), 85-94.
Krull, E., Koni, I., & Oras, K. (2013). Impact on student teachers' conception of learning and
teaching from studying a course in educational psychology. Asia-Pacific Journal of
Teacher Education, 41(2), 218-231.
Leggett, N., & Ford, M. (2013). A fine balance: Understanding the roles educators and children
play as intentional teachers and intentional learners within the Early Years Learning
Framework. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(4), 42-50.
Resourcesforearlylearning.org. (2020) Early Childhood Assessment. Retrieved From:
http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/

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Sherpa, K. (2018) Importance Of Professional Ethics For Teachers. Importance Of Professional
Ethics For Teachers 3 (4).
Thomas, L., Warren, E., & DeVries, E. (2011). Play-based learning and intentional teaching in
early childhood contexts. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(4), 69-75.