Abstract: educational psychology is an applied branch of psychology, which plays an important role in promoting the reform of school education. To strengthen the correct understanding of the importance of educational psychology research, to clarify the main problems in the development of educational psychology in our country, and to explore effective strategies to solve the existing problems of contemporary educational psychology are important issues that need to be solved urgently in the development and evolution of educational psychology.
Key words: educational psychology problems Strategies
Educational psychology is a branch of psychology, which studies the operation mechanism and basic law of various psychological activities and their interaction in the situation of «teaching» and «learning». Educational psychology aims to reveal the objective law of the occurrence and development of students’ psychological phenomenon and guide teachers to carry out teaching practice. The special function of educational psychology is to transform the theory and method of psychological research on human nature into Teachers’ wisdom, which can be used in school teaching and reflect the purpose and ideal of education in the process of students’ physical and mental development.
E.1.thorndike, a great learning theorist and educational psychologist, published his book educational psychology in 1903, marking the birth of educational psychology. Since the early 1920s, western educational psychology began to be introduced into China. After the reform and opening up, domestic scholars have carried out some independent research on the basis of learning and introducing western research results, combined with China’s reality.
1、 The main problems in the development of contemporary educational psychology in China
(1) In the development of contemporary educational psychology, there is a lack of systematicness in the construction of this content body, and the theoretical guidance is relatively insufficient. The content construction mainly combines general psychology, subject psychology and personality psychology, resulting in the lack of theoretical system of the subject itself. There are not only memory experiment and cognitive psychology research, but also learning thinking and teaching technology research. The research topics cover a wide range, but lack of systematicness. The first mock exam is lack of unified mode and lack of stability.
(2) The research methods are lack of innovation.
In the research of modern educational psychology, there is always the problem of lack of innovation. First of all, positivism methodology has been dominant for a long time, which originated in Germany in the 19th century and mainly focused on psychological experiments. However, the behaviorist researchers, represented by Watson, use the methods of experiment and quantitative analysis. At present, educational psychology in China mainly adopts this method, which is single in form and lack of innovation.
(3) The connection between theory and practice lacks effectiveness.
In the research of contemporary educational psychology, the problem of disconnection between theory and application has always existed. Many researchers have focused their research scope on the theoretical level, so their research results are lack of guidance. Although some educators realize the importance of educational psychology, they pay too much attention to the exploration and accumulation of experience in teaching because they don’t know how to apply it.
(4) Scientific research lacks localization. Although the application of educational psychology in China can be traced back to more than 2000 years ago, the application of educational psychology is the introduction of foreign educational theory. From the current domestic research situation of educational psychology, the localization research is very few, the main theoretical basis comes from western society, and the research methods and time means are mainly transplanted from abroad, so the degree of localization is seriously insufficient.
2、 Cause analysis
In the final analysis, the reasons for the above problems in the textbooks of educational psychology in China are that the subject object of educational psychology is not clear and the opinions differ greatly. What is the subject object of educational psychology
Is that right? Researchers have had many different definitions and put forward many different definitions. If these definitions are sorted out, they can be roughly divided into two types. One type is too general and too broad. The extreme practice of educational psychology and behaviorism, which excludes psychological consciousness and confines itself to behavioral research, clearly distinguishes itself from the objects of general psychology and pedagogy,
From the perspective of dialectical materialism, it is undoubtedly correct. The other type is the confusion of expression, emphasizing that the subject object of educational psychology is the psychological law of «teaching» and «learning», Learning and teaching are both a kind of activity and a process, and they are a kind of behavior displayed by the subject human in the process of activities. Only on the basis of studying the psychological phenomena of students and teachers can we reveal their psychological laws.
3、 Strategies for the development and perfection of contemporary educational psychology
(1) Establishing a holistic view of scientific research
The research and development of educational psychology needs to highlight the integrity, integrate the knowledge, emotion, intention and behavior of individual psychology, and have an objective understanding of their mutual promotion and influence. The application goal of educational psychology is to cultivate the healthy physical and mental quality of the educated, to have a systematic and holistic understanding of their psychological phenomena, rather than to study some of them in isolation. For example, in the research of educational psychology, we need to study not only the learning behavior from the perspective of cognition, but also the factors such as emotion, psychological motivation and personality, so as to grasp its psychological essence. In the systematic research, we analyze the influence of knowledge skills, order and self-control ability on psychological changes in different learning situations.
(2) Innovating scientific research methods
Quantitative research is combined with qualitative research, and cross-sectional research is combined with longitudinal research. Quantitative research can make the research objective and accurate, but the phenomenon of educational psychology is not only incompatible, but more compatible. Therefore, the use of quantitative methods alone can not effectively solve the educational psychological problems. Qualitative research method emphasizes the research method that the observer participates in the experience in the natural situation, and finally obtains and explains the depth information about the research object. Qualitative research can make researchers produce more new ideas and hypotheses, but qualitative research requires too much of the quality of observers and strong subjectivity. Therefore, we should try our best to combine quantitative research with qualitative research and create some new methods, such as interval estimation and fuzzy mathematics.
(3) Pay equal attention to theory and Application Research
In the research of educational psychology, we need to highlight the relationship between theory and practice, and keep a relative balance between them. Perfect theory can provide effective guidance for practical work. Without theoretical support, the blindness of practice will increase greatly. The coordinated development and application of the two requires researchers to build a research concept of double emphasis and establish a research system of educational psychology combining theory with practice. Theoretical research focuses on solving the psychological basis of educational theory, while applied research focuses on solving the psychological problems in specific educational situations.
(4) Construction of discipline system with local characteristics
The localization research of educational psychology first needs to abandon the «take» doctrine and combine with the reality of China, especially with the domestic education status and educational demands. In the construction of research team, we need to highlight the characteristics of localization, establish a nationwide coordinated research team across regions and cultures, and through the application of educational psychology, it is conducive to the formation of teachers’ unique teaching characteristics, en rich their teaching wisdom, so as to achieve a good educational pattern of physical and mental education.
References
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