Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Educational Psychology (Group)
Educational Psychology (Group)
Introduction
that, Cherry (2016) says that educational psychology also contains the study of how
people learn. It covering the topic such as student outcomes, the instructional process,
the educational psychologist spend their time investigate ways to describe and to
This psychology not just only contain childhood and adolescence’s learning
process but includes the social, emotional, and cognitive processes that are involved
Behaviourism Psychology
psychology is a theory of learning in the view of the idea that all behaviours are had
occurring stimulus. Ultimately, the neutral elicit the same response as the normally
occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself.
This classical conditioning is reported in 1927 by Ivan Pavlov, the Russian Nobel-
Prize- wining physiologist (Edward, 2012). Ivan Pavlov was studying the process
between the roles of salivation in dogs’ digestive. He notices the dog began to salivate
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 2
although the food hasn’t actually in its mouth yet. Through this observation he
confirms that the association between the stimulus, for example the sight of food, and
the salivary is the respond must have been learn. Furthermore, he proposed that this
learned relationship was formed via its association with the reflexive, or automatic,
To present of food in his mouth and elicit salivate reflexively – without any
activity where automatically elicit a specific response and the automatic response is
called the unconditional response (US). Before conditioning, when someone tell him
the word sour at the same time there was no any food in his mouth. Therefore, the
word sour didn’t lead to a specific response because the word of sour before he has
not learn before and the reflexive association was not learned. The word sour is called
neutral stimulus (NS) and didn’t lead to a specific response called no conditioned
respond. Because he has learned the name sour therefore salivation is happen, the
learned stimulus (the word sour) is called conditioned stimulus (CS). During
conditioning, the food is given pair with says the word sour and lead to the salivation.
After the conditioning, once he listens the world sour (CS) he will start to salivate
(CR) although the food is not is his mouth. Basically UR and CR are the same
learning process where repeated association with a stimulus until gain the ability to
become classical conditioned. In the other word classical conditioning also can be
As a teacher, we wish that our student able to gain positive attitude toward us
and our subject. Firstly, we and our learning activities will be neutral stimuli, but over
time we and how our teach can become conditioned stimuli that conditioned
responses ( emotions ) of interest joy, elicit approach behaviour for example studying
and asking question, and even stimulate physiological responses of comfort and state
of nature.
environment. Most of the student may facing anxious and nervous when he or she
need to presenting in front of the class, reading out loud or teacher need them to come
out solve the math problem on the whiteboard. Besides that, if teacher always shout or
punish students, they will feel scared to attend the particular teacher’s class. Teachers
should make their students to feel comfort, relaxed and calm by being cheerful,
help teacher become welcoming. At the same time, this also helps the students to
to manage their class. Therefore this may involve a system of reinforcements and
punishments that can increase or decrease student’s behaviour. For example, a teacher
science lesson by rewarding the children who are able to do experiment quietly and
increase child’s behaviour and will allow him to build confident during doing
experiment independently.
teachers also can this theory in classroom routines. This action is usually use by
teacher but without realizing. For example, every time students are walking around
during teacher is not in the class, when the teacher comes back to class and point to
the chair. Eventually, the students will be conditioned and will associate the teacher
pointing the chair with needing them to sit down and students will do it without
thinking. In the first few time, the students will not know what is going on and what
teacher actually need them to do, by giving them few time in practice children will
realize when the teacher pointing to the chair is means need them to sit down.
According to UNICEF (2001) he says that some teachers and parents like to
give physical punishment to the students and makes it easier for teachers to manage
their classrooms. But some people agree that physical punishment is does not helping
children to decrease their bad behaviour opposite will cause them physical and
physical punishment their child. Teacher should be train to use classical conditioning
theory to replace physical punishment. Classical conditioning can help the children to
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 5
be away from anxiety. Moreover, classical conditioning also can help in build-up
Conclusion
Actually some of the teachers are using it to control class routine and shaping
student’s behaviour without realizing. But some of the teachers still using physical
punishment to punish student. Physical punishment can made the children to increase
their aggression, antisocial behaviour, physical injury and mental health problem say
classroom. Classical conditioning theory can allow the children to change their
existing behaviour to good behaviour. Other than that, the students will not feeling
using animals where he placed in a Skinner Box. B.F Skinner (1938) come up with
than internal mind (McLeod, 2013) .He tested his theory by observing the cause of
actions and the consequence that were combined with them. Operant conditioning
creates the theory base on the environmental conditions that shapes behaviours by
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 6
remove. Skinner used his creation the Skinner Box to exhibit the effects of Operant
conditioning on rats and pigeons using levers and electric streams to condition their
B.F. Skinner (1938) finds three types of responses or Operant that can follow
behaviour.
Neutral Operants: Effects from the environment that increase or decrease the
Reinforces: Effects from the environment that increase the possibility of the attitude
Punishers: Effects from the environment that decrease the probability of the attitude
Positive Reinforcement
desirable stimulus after receiving the reward. For example, if the student complete
school homework or get good exam results, the student will received reward or
appreciation from the teacher. So, the next time the student will repeat the behaviour
in the future, in such a way strengthening the behaviour of completing the task given
by the teacher.
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 7
Negative Reinforcement
removes an unpleasant experience. For example, good student who works diligently
on her coursework as consequences the teacher will remove some of her work such as
dropping the quiz or removing homework assignment. In the example stimulus was
Punishment
eliminate a response rather than increase it. Positive punishment is directly applying
an unpleasant stimulus. For example, a student fall asleep during class as consequence
the teacher upset and verbally scold the student to wake him up. The misbehave of
sleeping in the class will stop and the student start focusing in the class.
example, the student playing with smart phone while teacher is teaching, the teacher
will confiscate the student smart phone this action is to strengthening the behaviour to
Operant Conditioning methods work for the students with issues. An easy way
assertion and encouragement. By praising the student, the student will learn the with
more enthusiasm and response well in the new task and continue putting in the hard
work till they success. For example, if a teacher wanted to encourage students to
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 8
answer questions in class the teacher should complement the student .Gradually the
teacher will only praise the students when their answer is correct, and over time only
dominating class discussion can be eliminate through being ignored by the teacher.
However, it is important to vary the type of reinforcement given so that the behaviour
is maintained. This is not an easy task, as the teacher may appear insincere if he/she
and easily to be carry out into the teaching environment (Topix.teachpsych.org, 2014).
Although Operant Conditioning has many advantages but there are some
challenges as well. Focusing on good or bad behaviour may not work for some of
individual needs but at the same time difficult to implement in a large group of
students. If the student are targeted rather than the actual specific behaviour itself
through punishment it can cause more problems with future behaviour or put and end
to the behaviour until the stimulus its not a threat (Kazepides, 1976)
Critical Evaluation
However, the Operant conditioning does not take into account the role of inherited
factors and cognitive learning, and thus is a incomplete description of the learning
process in humans and animals (McLeod, 2015) .For example, Kohler (1924) found
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 9
that primates often seem to solve problems in a flash of insight rather than be trial and
error learning. Also social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) suggests that humans can
moreover using animal research in Operant conditioning studies also raises the issue
A critique of Behaviourism
telling that critiques of behaviourism that initially come up from axenic positivist
correlation between an external stimulus and an internal response. This puts Myers
which focuses on internal processes such as perception and learning from reflection,
which has an important role to play in facilitating the understanding of learning. This
approach to the correlation between learning and the development of language. This
led Chomsky (1959) to subject behaviourism to one of its most disrespectful critical
review, based on the capability of humans to create never before expressed sentences.
According Mennell (1980, p 8) argues that since "language is indivisible from social
activities and also Chomsky's theory of language itself telling that the case against the
conceptualize the nature of the relationship as one way when the fact not applies.
behaviourism can developed through the work of Piaget (1926) and Vygotsky (1962)
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 10
and known as constructivism. Although Derry (1996) pointed out that there is little
some common themes and issues covering the spectrum in different from the concept
emphasizes external behaviour that can be observed and avoid reference to meaning,
consists of the knowledge and skills acquired to the relationship between students and
transfer of knowledge. Thus, as Wilson and Cole (1991) argues, constructivism must
place students in active control of their learning through trying to solve the
that the focus should be given to the concept development and develop a deep
This also means that educators and trainers are challenged with the need to build a
conceptual model of the student because, argues by Von Glaserfeld (1996), this can
be very different from what teachers are meant. Constructivism also believes that
evidenced in the work, Jonassen (1994) who showed that there are a variety of
features for learning principles that should be followed. Constructivism itself has been
criticised for expecting too much from students and take the risk of critical gaps in
INTRODUCTION
Working memory is a cognitive system with the ability to process and retain
temporary information for further processing (Miyake & Shah, 1999). It plays a
fundamental role in complex cognition and is highly involved in our daily routines,
such as reading newspaper, computing the amount of the price, comparing various
capabilities are strongly allied with working memory to guide for appropriate
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
memory. Initially, Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) provided multi-store model to define
short-term memory as an inadequate capacity memory store that was easily loss due
to decay. However, some theorists were of the opinion that there are two forms of
memory dissimilarity, assuming that working memory is able to manipulate the stored
information, whereas short-term memory only allows for the short-term storage of
information (Cowen, 2008). As reflected by the fact that short-term memory is the
capability to sustain information over a short period (in the order of seconds).
Meanwhile, working memory is not only referring to mere maintenance, but also
The capacity of working memory is overall limited. Miller (1956) claimed that
the information –processing capacity of young adults is about seven elements, which
is considered as a ‘chunk’. The elements are not limited to digits, letters, words, or
other units. Nonetheless, Service (1998) was of the opinion that it is difficult to draw
other factors may affect the memory span. For example, ability of memory span is
better for shorter than longer words. Lexical of the content will also affect the
(Hazeltine, Ruthruff & Remington, 2006). People can perform simultaneously after
training if the given task is using auditory stimuli and vocal response was paired with
another task using visual stimuli and manual response. In contrast, people are less
able to perform although training was given when a given task is using auditory
stimuli and manual response was paired with other task using visual stimuli and vocal
responses. Moreover, the earlier stage of practice and level of task difficulty also
central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuo-spatial sketchpad (Figure 2).
There are four basic capabilities were postulated in central executive: the ability to
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 13
switch attention, and the ability to relate the content of working memory to long-term
systems’ generally play the roles to maintain the short-term information received from
central executive.
phonological store, which holds phonological form that fade within seconds, 2)
refreshing the information and avoid the information decay. For example, long
number of telephone number can be remembered as long as one who had listened
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 14
keep on re-articulate the telephone number to self again and again during the
and spatial information. Logie (1995) suggested that this slave system can be
fractionated into visual cache and inner scribe. Visual cache stores information of the
phenomena perception and visual imagery such as shape, colour and texture, whereas
inner scribe is always focus on the spatial attention and movement control. Inner
scribe will also rehearse information in the visual cache and transfer to the central
executive. Thus, visual working memory task plays important role in top-down and
In 2000, Baddeley revised and extended the model by introducing the fourth
representations that integrate phonological, visual and spatial information with other
create integrated episodic (Weiten, 2013). It is then create a mental modelling space
important to serve as a basis for planning future action. Yet, empirical exploration is
COMMENTS
prevalent. For example, people talk and drive simultaneously, student listen to music
better realistic reference than multi-store model to help people nowadays to improve
the quality of the result whenever they need to perform two things at the same time.
subsystems, processes and mechanisms, people can try to control their attention
abilities. The model also helps to make sense of verbal reasoning, comprehension,
problem-solving, navigation, etc. On top of that, new predictions and hypotheses can
independently. Both visual and spatial are distinct subcomponents by arguing the
example of a blind man is good in spatial awareness although he is not seeing. The
roles of central executive and episodic buffer are also remained unclear and have
support.
Humans demonstrate the capability to hold and manipulate ideas in mind. However,
the small capacity of working memory seemed like restricted humans to maximize
performance. On the contrary, someone is of the opinion that humans need this
(Daneman & Merikle, 1996). Alloway & Alloway (2010) conducted a longitudinal
study and come out with the result that a child’s working memory at 5 years old is
able to predict the level of academic achievement in future. Good working memory
mathematical problem solving (Swanson & Beebe-Frankenberger, 2004). Last but not
Daneman & Merikle (1996) also reported that working memory is a strong predictor
manipulation of words and sentences. Therefore, the children who have below age-
issue. As previously described, working memory impairments are allied with poor
learning abilities.
(i) Stress
Arnsten et al. (1998) found out that exposure to acute and chronic
psychological stress will lead to more profound working memory deficits. fMRI
research supported that acute stress increase levels of catecholamines and reduce the
functional connectivity in prefrontal cortex (Qin et al., 2009). The more stress
perceived by a person in his life, the lower the efficiency of his working memory
ability in performing cognitive tasks. After that, it will affect the higher-order thinking
abilities, which lead to far-reaching problems for a person and his social environment.
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 17
(ii) Alcohol
regions of brain (i.e., basal ganglia, thalamus) when performing a working memory
alcoholic drinks were taken. This is because there is a significant decrease in BOLD
response for those who start the drinking habit since adolescents (Weiland et al.,
2012). In the long run, binge drinking also reported to affect one’s cognitive
performance (Crego et al., 2009). Those youngster who indulge in binge drinking
(iii) Gender
hormonal fluctuations. For example, female pubertal stage is 1-2 year earlier and
Therefore, it is not surprise to found out that different gender gives certain results on
Besides that, females were reported to perform better on verbal working memory
tasks after consuming alcohol. In contrast, their spatial working memory tasks were
(iv) Aging
Boissoneault et al. (2014) reported that older age group is at the higher risk to
show poor working memory performance after consuming alcoholic drinks. This can
be explained that overall cognitive functions are significant deteriorating in older age
(Hertzog et al., 2003). Working memory contents decay easily due to slow processing
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 18
that the working memory performance is highly depends on the pre-frontal cortex.
Pre-frontal cortex deteriorates more than other brain regions as humans grow old.
There are evidences showed that children with learning disabilities constitute
Hyeractivity Disorder (ADHD) were relatively weak in working memory and other
specific executive function domains. Some authors have even proposed that
symptoms of ADHD arise from a general weakness in executive control including the
poor working memory ability (Willcutt et al., 2005). Yet, it is still unclear that
other possible connection (Clark et al., 2007). Working memory impairment among
children with dyslexia and developmental coordination disorder also supported by the
research conducted in 2006 (Wagner, 2006; Alloway et al., 2009). Other neurological
showed signs of less working memory functions when the diseases become more
abilities. For this strategy to succeed, a person must learn to string and code received
Several such chunks can be combined into a higher-order chunk and form a hierarchy
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 19
of chunks, whereby the capacity of working memory abilities increase. The chunks
will then be unpacked layer by layer during the retrieval process (Gobet, 2000).
Jaeggi et al. (2008) established the dual n-back working memory training task
and reported that the training task was correlated with improvement on working
memory and other aspects of cognitive performance such as fluid intelligence. The
training task requires trainees to react when visual and/or auditory stimuli match
stimuli from n steps earlier in the sequence. The load factor n can be regulated
according to different level of difficulty. Yet, there were researchers doubt about the
durable effect of this dual n-back working memory training due to deficiency of the
evidence.
Other activities that can train a larger area of the brain map will also help to
develop a person’s working memory capacity. For instance, music training enhanced
central executive control processes in working memory and achieved the therapeutic
effects among patients who suffered from neurological disorders (Vandervert, 2015).
Muller-Townsend (2009) also found out that there was a positive relationship between
the memory for dance movement and the general abilities of memory span. Last but
not least, short-term maximal treadmill exercise was also reported to have a good
outcome in improving the working memory capacity after recovery from exercise
Environment support is equally important for those who suffer from poor
least lessen emotion burden and motivate those who are suffering from working
empathize and will look for necessary guideline to assist the child. Teacher can
modify the classroom activities and reduce the amount of given information so that
the child can learn better. Repetition is important to strengthen the child’s working
memory ability. Memory aids (such as flash cards, diagrams, pictures etc.) will serve
as reminders to help the child to complete the task more independent rather than
desirable behaviour. Parents are encouraged to have regular discussion with teacher
CONCLUSION
cognitive systems. Working memory was also found to develop into an increasingly
complex structure of higher order thinking skills in adolescence and onwards life
(Greiff et al., 2015). Multi-component model of working memory from Baddeley and
Hitch (1974) has served as a basic reference for us to understand better about working
memory. Although there are limitations in the proposed model, we can’t denied that it
really guide educators to help students perform better in their academic. Different
factors that will affect working memory performance were listed. Meanwhile,
Supportive environment is evenly essential to help those who suffer from poor
working memory. More specific research can be carried out to target more specific
area of either auditory working memory or visual working memory. The more details
of the research will definitely benefit the particular needs of minority groups who are
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brendan L. Smith. (2012). The case against spanking. Physical discipline is slowly
declining as some studies reveal lasting harms for children. Retrieve from:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx
https://www.verywell.com/behavioral-psychology-4013681
Fosnot, C. (1996). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives and Practice. New York, NY:
Kolb, D.A. (1988). Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. London:
www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditioned Reflexes. Anrep, S.V., London: Oxford University
Press.
Piaget, J. (1926). The Language and Thought of the Child. Translated by Worden, M.
Sarafino, E.P. (2012). Applied behaviour analysis. United States of America: Wiley
York: Appleton-Century.
Erlbaum Associates.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Alloway, T.P., & Alloway, R.G. (2010). Investigating the predictive roles of
Alloway, T.P., Gathercole, S.E., & Pickering, S.J. (2006). Verbal and visuo-
Alloway, T.P., Rajendran, G., & Archibald, L.M.D. (2009). Working memory in
42(4), 372-382.
1712.
Atkinson, R.C., & Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system
Erlbaum Associates.
Boissoneault, J., Sklar, A., Prather, R., & Nixon, S.J. (2014). Acute effects of
Christine, L., Bue-Estes, Willer, B., Burton, H., & Horvath, P.J. (2009). Short-
Clark, L., Blackwell, A.D., Aron, A.R., et al. (2007). Association between
Cowen, N. (2008). What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and
Crego, A., Holguin, S.R., Parada, M., Mota, N., Corral, M., & Cadaveira, F.
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P.M. (1996). Working memory and language
433.
Gilakjani, A.P. (2012). Analysis of working memory and its capacity limit in
2(2), 393-397.
Greiff, S., Wustenberg, S., Goetz, T., Vainikainen, M-P., Hautamaki, J. &
Hazeltine, E., Ruthruff, E., & Remington, R.W. (2006). The role of input and
291-345.
Hertzog, C., Dixon, R.A., Hultsch, D.F., & MacDonald, S.W. (2003). Latent
Jaeggi, S.M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W.J. (2008). Improving fluid
Parkinson’s disease are due to both reduced storage capacity and impaired
Lenroot, R.K. & Giedd, J.N. (2010). Sex differences in the adolescent brain.
981-991.
Erlbaum Associates.
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits
http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1209
Oh, S. & Kim, M. (2004). The role of spatial working memory in visual search
Qin, S., Hermans, E.J., van Marle, H.J., Luo, J., & Fernandez, G. (2009). Acute
Salthouse, T.A. (1996). The processing speed theory of adult age differences in
Service, E. (1998). The effect of word length on immediate serial recall depends
Squeglia, L.M., Schweinsburg, A.D., Pulido, C., & Tapert, S.F. (2011).
96(3), 471-491.
Ataxias,2(11).
Psychology Press.
PPGS6111 Psikologi Pendidikan (Educational Psychology) 27
Weiland, B.J., Nigg, J.T., Welsh, R.C., Yau, W.Y., Zubieta, J.K. et al. (2012).
adaptation via subthalamic nucleus and linkage to drinking and drug use in
1364.
Willcutt, E.G., Doyle, A.E., Nigg, J.T., Faraone, S.V., & Pennington, B.F. (2005).