New inventions that take the world to new dimensions are created daily based on human thoughts. Sometimes these same human thoughts cause the existence of society and the end of humankind. Often the turning point in this sector is education.
Therefore, a teacher’s responsibility is immense in empowering a man with practical skills rich in the well-being and information that has evolved in the school. It is the role of the teacher to identify the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social-behavioural characteristics of students in infancy, childhood, adolescence, etc., and to identify and manipulate the various aesthetic and environmental factors of each student. Educational psychology helps teachers create successful learning and teaching opportunities for personalities who are subject to many interactions inside and outside the school.
For the teacher to gain an understanding of himself
The teacher plays a vital role in the teacher-student activities. The adult teacher always draws the students ‘ attention in terms of education, age, and appearance. How the teacher behaves, how he speaks, and how he maintains the students’ imitate relationships. Students in the elementary years have the idea that the teacher is the best model to follow the example of knowing everything and doing the right thing. Therefore, the teacher should always be interested in identifying himself and behaving at the desired level. Psychological knowledge in this task makes it easier for the teacher to balance his personality.
To gain an understanding of the students.
The student is an essential factor in the learning-teaching process. Every student is unique. They are identical, unequal behaviours and traits that seem to be shared among children of the same age or grade. Every teacher should be able to identify these generalities and specialities accurately. When children reach the exact age of development, they have standard levels of development. These differences can be discussed to some extent, albeit physically, intellectually, socially and morally. Those traits are combined with other external influences and bring out the unique features on the whole. These phenomena can be understood only when there is an understanding of educational psychology, child psychology and social psychology. Although the teaching process should be designed in a general pattern, a teaching method specific to each child should be designed with that generality in mind. Education should be student-centred. Each student must go from what he knows to what he does not know. Must go from simple to complex. For this, the teacher should know the theory of intellectual development put forward by Piaget, the idea of moral evolution put forward by Kolberg, and the concept of personality development put forward by Freud and Erickson. For the teacher’s work to be meaningful and fair to the child, the teacher must be someone who practices educational psychology accordingly.
For consulting work
The role of the teacher today is not limited to the teaching-learning process. Today’s teacher requires a psychotherapist, a religious priest, a guide, a protector of the law, a dispensator of justice, and more duties. Students meet in every classroom, distorted by communication such as complex, urbanized, industrialized, broken families and crime-free, artificial, barren, social values that are shattering, blue film television. These are the helpless people who have fallen victim to society’s fault. They need love, warmth, security, guidance and kindness. All this is what children expect from teachers. The teacher can perform this role correctly only if he has studied educational psychology and child psychology. It is the professional part of the teacher to prepare tests to measure each student’s level of intellectual development, personality development, preferences and attitudes, direct them, interpret the results and prepare the appropriate remedies. The teacher should be able to conduct social interactions, teach moral behaviour, work with peer groups, and guide the student. None of these tasks that we mentioned can be accomplished without the knowledge of educational psychology.
To maintain discipline
The school reflects the society in which it is located. The children of the members of the society are in school. Every discipline problem encountered in society can be seen at school and in the classroom. The teacher is expected to analyze these correctly, understand the child’s mental state, and successfully address disciplinary issues. Is punishment necessary? If so, how and in what manner? The attitudes of children of different ages towards punishment rules and their reactions are different. Piaget, Kohlberg, Norman J. Bull, Peck, and Howrahhurst have all expressed differing views. The teacher can act successfully as a disciplinary controller when he understands these views.
To complete the evaluation task.
Teaching, learning and evaluation are three activities that go together. The teacher must evaluate whether the teaching was successful and whether the learning was successful. Educational psychology provides an insight into the preparation and evaluation of intelligence tests, the writing of multiple choice question papers, the preparation of oral and written question papers, and the interpretation of marks obtained in examinations conducted. The teacher who does not know that understanding does not have a correct understanding of the work he is doing. Therefore, it is essential to have learned educational psychology and measurement methods to conduct evaluation work equally valuable as teaching successfully.
To be a good teacher, one must be a successful psychologist. Therefore, knowledge of educational psychology helps a teacher build a more prosperous and influential teaching role.