Educational Psychology

Course Description

EDP2002 – Educational Psychology is a 3-credit sophomore-level course applying psychological principles and research to teaching and learning. It is a standard requirement in Florida teacher preparation programs and a common component of the A.A. education pathway.

The course addresses a question teachers face constantly and rarely get systematic help with: why do students learn what they learn, and what can a teacher actually do about it? The answers come from research rather than from intuition, and a substantial part of the course's value is correcting widely held beliefs about learning that the evidence does not support.

Content covers development — cognitive, social, emotional, and moral — and what developmental stage implies for instruction; learning theories including behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and social cognitive perspectives, and what each explains well; memory and information processing, including the evidence on spacing, retrieval practice, and why re-reading feels effective and largely is not; motivation — intrinsic and extrinsic, goal orientation, self-efficacy, attribution, and mindset; individual differences including intelligence, exceptionality, and language background; classroom management as an application of behavioral and social principles; and assessment — reliability, validity, formative versus summative, and interpreting standardized results.

Florida context includes ESE and multi-tiered systems of support, the state's standardized assessment framework, and the connection to Florida's Educator Accomplished Practices, which teacher preparation programs are evaluated against.

Offered at approximately 15 Florida institutions, including UCF and FAMU and state colleges with education pathways.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development and their instructional implications.
• Compare behaviorist, cognitive, constructivist, and social cognitive learning theories.
• Apply learning theory to explain classroom situations and select instructional approaches.
• Describe information processing, working memory limits, and their instructional consequences.
• Apply evidence-based learning strategies including spacing, retrieval practice, and interleaving.
• Evaluate common beliefs about learning against the research evidence.
• Describe motivation theories and apply them to support student engagement.
• Describe self-efficacy, attribution, and goal orientation and their effects on achievement.
• Describe individual differences including intelligence, exceptionality, and language background.
• Describe how development and individual differences inform differentiated instruction.
• Apply behavioral and social principles to classroom management.
• Distinguish formative from summative assessment and describe the purpose of each.
• Evaluate assessments for reliability, validity, and fairness.
• Interpret standardized test results appropriately and describe their limits.
• Relate course content to the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe multi-tiered systems of support and data-based decision making.
• Describe trauma-informed practice and adverse childhood experiences.
• Describe culturally responsive teaching.
• Describe technology and learning, including the evidence for and against common practices.
• Complete a field observation and analyze it using course concepts.
• Describe teacher stress, efficacy, and retention.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Cognitive development — Piaget, Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development, and scaffolding.
• Social and emotional development — Erikson, peer relationships, and identity.
• Moral development — and its relevance to classroom community.
• Behavioral learning theory — reinforcement, punishment, and applied behavior analysis.
• Cognitive learning theory — information processing, encoding, and retrieval.
• Memory and cognitive load — working memory limits and instructional design implications.
• Evidence-based study and instruction — spacing, retrieval practice, interleaving, and elaboration.
• Constructivism — inquiry, discovery, and their appropriate scope.
• Social cognitive theory — modeling, observational learning, and self-regulation.
• Motivation — intrinsic and extrinsic, self-determination, goal orientation, and mindset.
• Self-efficacy and attribution — belief, effort, and persistence.
• Individual differences — intelligence, giftedness, disability, and language background.
• Classroom management — prevention, procedures, and responding to behavior.
• Assessment — reliability, validity, formative and summative, and grading.
• Standardized testing — interpretation, score types, and limits.

Optional Topics

• Multi-tiered systems of support.
• Trauma-informed practice.
• Culturally responsive teaching.
• Technology and learning.
• Field observation and analysis.
• Teacher efficacy and retention.

Resources & Tools

• Educational Psychology (Woolfolk), Pearson — the most widely adopted text in the field.
• Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (Ormrod), Pearson — a common alternative.
• Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (Slavin), Pearson.
• Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Brown, Roediger & McDaniel) — frequently assigned as accessible coverage of the learning-science evidence.
• Florida Educator Accomplished Practices — Rule 6A-5.065, F.A.C.; the standards teacher preparation is evaluated against.
• FLDOE — Florida standards, assessment framework, and ESE resources.
• What Works Clearinghouse — evidence ratings for instructional practices.
• Field observation placements, where the course includes them.

Career Pathways

• Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Teacher (SOC 25-2021, 25-2022, 25-2031) — the primary destination.
• Special Education Teacher (SOC 25-2050 series) — a persistent Florida shortage area.
• School Counselor (SOC 21-1012) — requiring a master's degree.
• School Psychologist — requiring a specialist or doctoral degree.
• Instructional Coach and Curriculum Specialist — district roles.
• Corporate Training and Instructional Design — where learning science transfers directly.
• Educational Research and Assessment — with graduate study.

Special Information

Prerequisites and title variation

Prerequisites vary; verify locally. Florida A&M requires PSY1012 (General Psychology), which is the common pattern. Some institutions require admission to an education program or an introductory education course. Titles include Educational Psychology and Introduction to Educational Psychology (Seminole State); under SCNS the same number at the same level is equivalent regardless of title.

Position in the curriculum and transfer

EDP2002 is typically a sophomore course in an A.A. education pathway, taken before upper-division methods coursework. It transfers among Florida public institutions under SCNS. Students should confirm whether their target teacher preparation program requires this number specifically, since some programs require an upper-division educational psychology course instead.

Much of what people believe about learning is wrong, and this is the course that says so

The most valuable thing this course does is confront widely held beliefs with evidence. Learning styles — the idea that matching instruction to a student's visual, auditory, or kinesthetic preference improves learning — is not supported by the research, despite near-universal belief among educators. Re-reading and highlighting, the study methods students use most, are among the least effective. Massed practice feels more productive than spaced practice and produces worse retention. A teacher who knows this teaches differently and advises students differently, and prospective teachers should expect some of their prior assumptions to be dismantled.

Florida Educator Accomplished Practices

Florida evaluates teacher preparation against the Educator Accomplished Practices (Rule 6A-5.065, F.A.C.), and educational psychology content maps to several of them — particularly instructional design, the learning environment, and assessment. Students in approved programs should expect assignments explicitly aligned to these, and keeping that work is useful for portfolio purposes.

Certification requires more than coursework

Florida teacher certification requires a qualifying degree or approved program, plus the relevant FTCE examinations — the General Knowledge Test, the Professional Education Test, and a subject area examination. The Professional Education Test draws substantially on educational psychology content. Students should plan for these examinations early, since they gate certification independently of coursework.