A teacher who does not know anything in psychology of learning is an educational liability

Psychology is a scientific study of behaviour and mental state in human beings and animals.
While learning ids permanent, behaviour change which takes place as a result of studying,
experience and reinforcement is temporal. A teacher who has not done psychology in learning
cannot understand the individual differences in a class. In a group of students, there are different
characteristics, one has to understand these differences at various levels of growth and
development to create a conducive learning environment.

He/she cannot identify problems in a given classroom and find solutions for example students
can become over dependent on their teacher. The students can hijack lesson and the teacher is
not able to take the lesson where he/she wanted and so on. A teacher who has done psychology
will be able to understand the behaviour of the learners and take back the class to where he/she
wants and prevent the same from happening because he/she can predict that behavior and take
control in advance.

A teacher who has not studied psychology of learning will not understand his role in the
classroom. A teacher is meant to be a facilitator in the class, guide the students on what they are
expected on the best materials to use, give questions that will help the learners think creatively
and critically. By so doing the students will not be over dependent on the teacher and will end up
learning more.

This teacher does not understand why creating a conducive learning environment in the
classroom is important because good understanding of the classroom used in the learning process
helps a teacher to deliver materials to students effectively. A conducive environment must be
created by the teacher so that the learning process can run effectively. A teacher must know the
correct principles in teaching and learning and at times use a different approach in teaching to the
learning process. Psychology helps a teacher to create a socio-emotional environment that is
conducive in the classroom, so that the process of learning in the classroom can be effective.

Psychology helps a teacher to understand some of the psychological issues encountered by

learners in class. Without psychology as a teacher, one cannot be able to help her students,
because he/she is expected to play different roles in the school not only in the implementation of
learning but also act as a mentor for students. He/she can guide the students to solve problems
they encounter. This is because knowledge of psychology of learning allows a teacher to provide
educational and vocational guidance necessary for students at different stages.

A teacher with no knowledge in psychology of learning cannot diagnose learning difficulties of

learners. This will result in not being able to give the learner the help he/she needs. Once these
learning difficulties are diagnosed, a student might go through his/her education and this
difficulty may be discovered at work place or not be discovered at all. This creates a gap between
the individual’s potential for achievement and ability to achieve.

Lack of psychology of learning will result to poor evaluation in learning outcomes. A teacher
must teach and evaluate his/her students. The evaluation helps in measuring students’ learning
outcomes. Psychology of learning can help teachers in developing the evaluation of students
learning that technical evaluation, compliant with the principles of evaluation and determine the
results of evaluations.

With no knowledge in psychology, a teacher cannot be able to prepare a lesson schedule because
a timetable should be drafted on the psychology of the learner. For instance a subject like
mathematics which is considered difficult should be placed at the beginning of class, where the
conditions and spirit of the students are still fresh in receiving course materials. This can be
concluded that psychology of learning is important in the role of planning, organizing and
evaluating in teaching and learning activities in schools.