Deconstructing What Teachers Can Learn From Studying Psychology

Background/purpose – Courses on psychology form a constituent part of teacher education programs, both at the preservice and inservice levels. With certain variations, these courses tend to focus on the theories of learning, development, and diversity. As teacher education programs in India prepare to undergo changes in accordance with the 2020 National Education Policy, this paper explores the rationale of including the subject of psychology in the education of teachers.

Materials/methods – This study is a review article; presenting a literature review on the rationale of including the topic of psychology in the education of teachers.

Results – The paper is presented in four sections. The first section discusses the recommendation of the curriculum framework on teacher education in order to establish an outline for psychological studies in teacher education. The second section explores the insights that can be drawn from an understanding of psychology. Today’s multicultural student body brings diverse needs, thoughts, and ideas to the classroom, which makes it imperative for teachers to understand learning spaces and processes from a sociocultural perspective. The third section expands the focus of studying psychology from understanding learners to understanding teachers. This shift in focus is required as teachers work under immense stress and existing preservice teacher education programs are inadequate in building the requisite capacities to deal with personal and professional stress. The fourth section explores the role of teachers in today’s fast-changing world. It is through an understanding of their self that teachers develop better awareness of their role in relation to their students.

Conclusion – The need to reinvent pedagogical strategies to suit the needs of learners and to explore new ways of conceptualizing content in the classroom will be highlighted. The paper concludes with a brief discussion on the need to reconceptualize courses in psychology by understanding theories in psychology in their sociohistorical embeddedness.

Keywords: Psychology, learning, teacher preparation, psychology in education

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