Education and Psychology

Definition of Education

Etymologically, the term education was derived from some Latin words and the meaning of these words is given below:

• Educatum means the act of teaching.
• Educere means to lead out or to draw out.
• Educare means to bring up or to raise or to nourish.
• Educo means to lead forth or to extract out.

Education is a ‘pouring out’ and not a ‘pouring in’ process.  The word ‘e’ means ‘I lead’. In other words, education means leading out the inborn powers and potentialities and enabling the child to become what he is capable of becoming. According to Gandhiji “Education is an all-round drawing of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit”. Philosophers and Psychologists defined education in different ways.  Some of their views are:

• Aristotle - Creation of a sound mind in a sound body.
• Dewey - Increasing social efficiency.
• Nunn - Complete development of individuality.
• Tagore - Making life in harmony with existence.
• Vivekananda - Manifestation of the perfection already in man.

Definition of Psychology

In order to define Psychology let us first trace its origin.  It stems from the most mysterious and Philosophical concept and the soul.  Etymologically the word Psychology means the study of soul on account of its derivation from the two Greek words - Psyche (soul) and logos (Science of or study of).  What is soul? How can it be studied?  The inability to answer such questions leads some ancient Greek philosophers to define Psychology as a ‘study of mind’.  Although the word mind was loss mysterious and vague than soul, it also faced the same question such as: what is mind? How can it be studied? etc., and consequently this definitions was also rejected.  Failure to define the term soul and mind persuaded the Philosophers and Psychologists to search for some other suitable definition.  William James defined Psychology as the description and explanation of state of consciousness as such.  By consciousness, the psychologist meant awareness of wakefulness.  There were several interpretations of consciousness and this concept was rejected.  The latest and modern concept of Psychology is in terms of behaviour.  Psychologists define Psychology in various ways.  The nature of Psychology is understood from the following definitions:

·    Crow and Crow - ‘Psychology is the study of human behaviour and human relationships’.

·         J.B.Weston–‘Psychology is the science of behaviour.’

·         Dewey - ‘Psychology is the science of the facts or phenomena of self.’

·         Feldman - ‘Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental process’.

·         Koffka - ‘Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour of living creatures in their contact with the outer world.’

·         McDougall - Psychology is the science which aims to give us better understanding and control of the behaviour of the organism as whole.’

·         Skinner - ‘Psychology is the science of behaviour and experience.’

·      Woodworth - ‘Psychology undertakes to make a scientific study of the individual considered as a unit as he really is in his dealings with other individuals and with the word.’

Relationship between Psychology and Education

The relationship between psychology and education is very intimate.

Psychology has been defined as the science of behaviour. It seeks to understand and explain behaviour in terms of mental and bodily activities. Its chief problem is how and why we behave, how we think, know, feel and act and why we think, know, feel and act in the way in which we do. The science of psychology must be basic to such an attempt, for any influence on behaviour, to be effective, must be planned and worked according to the principles of psychology.

Education, therefore, must be based on psychology and from the very first step which he takes to educate the child, the educator must depend upon psychological knowledge. Education deals with young people and the conditions that promote or retard growth and development; it selects and strengthens those influences which promote healthy growth and tries to eliminate and weaken those which retard it. As a result of this study it formulates certain principles on which organization and administration in schools should be based; it has to study the needs and interests of children and provide for their healthy satisfaction and expression; it has to devise effective methods of teaching so that children may learn more quickly and better.

All this is not possible without a knowledge of psychology which explains how young people grow, what dominant interests mark the several stages of their growth, how they differ from one another and grow at different rates, how they learn new skills or acquire new knowledge, how they react to the influence of teachers and class-mates. Psychology is expanding rapidly and our growing knowledge of the minds and behaviour of young people promises to be an effective guide in the solution of our educational problems.

The Education and Psychology are complementary to each other. Psychology is an essential element to education. Without its help problems of education cannot be solved. Both education and psychology are concerned with behaviour. Modern education is based and founded on psychology. The child is imparted education only after making a thorough study of his interests, aptitudes, intelligence and personality both is two distinct branches of knowledge but they are closely related.

·         According to Jha, “The process of education is entirely at the mercy of psychology.”

·         According to Davis, “Psychology has made a distinct contribution to education through its analysis of pupils’ potentialities and differences.”

·         According to Skinner, “The entire range of behaviour and personality is related to educational psychology.”

Psychology is the science of behaviour and education in its narrower sense is the modification of behaviour. The modification in behaviour cannot be easily brought unless we know the science of behaviour.

The teacher must know about the developmental stages, personality development and emotions of the students in order to be successful teacher. Unless the teacher is fully aware of psychological characteristics of the child, he may not be successful in bringing the desirable changes in the behaviour of students. This leads us to believe that education and psychology are intimately related to each other. Below are some points which show how far education and psychology are related to each other:

1.    Education is concerned with aims, ideals and standards of life and psychology determines whether these aims are attainable or not.

2.    Education demands the teacher to know the child as well as the subject matter of instruction, where the psychology helps to know about the child.

3.    Psychology also helps the teacher to teach effectively undertaking effective and appropriate teaching techniques.

On the basis of the following points the relationship between Psychology and education can easily be seen:

·         Psychology and Aims of Education: Psychology helps the educator in the realization of educational aims by helping him to bring out improvement in the quality of instruction by providing him ability and insight into the child’s attitudes, ideas, aptitudes, interests and emotions etc.

·         Psychology and Teacher: Psychology helps the teacher to understand the learner, learning process and the learning situations. Psychology states that teacher should have sympathetic and affectionate attitude towards the learner. They should have genuine interest in the teaching profession.

·         Psychology and Curriculum: Psychology suggests that the curriculum should be integrated, flexible, co-related and child-centred. There should be different co-curricular activities in the school. Co- curricular activities are considered as an important part of education because they are important media for sublimation of instincts and for the development of personality.

·         Psychology and Methods of Teaching: Various methods of teaching like Project method, Heuristic method, Montessori Method, Play-way method are based on sound psychological principles.

·         Psychology and Text Books: Psychology tells the teachers and the students that text books should be attractive, well-illustrated and according to the mental level of the pupils. These may act as good aids to the learners.

·         Psychology and Innovations: Psychology has made significant contribution by introducing innovative ideas for improving the process of teaching and learning such as Activity-centred teaching, Micro-teaching, Programmed instruction, Interaction analysis.

·         Psychology and Audio-visual Aids: Psychology states that to develop interest among students, teacher should properly use audio­visual aids. Use of audio-visual aids makes the learning easy, interesting and effective.

·         Psychology and Time Table: Time table is prepared according to the psychological principles. While preparing it, the teacher should keep in mind the relative importance of different subjects and their toughness and the fatigue of students.

·         Psychology and School Administration: Psychology helps in solving problems of administration by mutual discussion among various agencies of school. It provides a scientific basis for the supervision of instruction.

·         Psychology and Discipline: Psychology tells us the ways of dealing with problems of delinquent, backward, handicapped and gifted children and helps in maintaining discipline. It states that discipline should be self-discipline, dynamic and constructive through participation in purposeful activity.

·         Psychology and Evaluation: Psychological tools help the teacher to evaluate the achievement of the pupils and suggest improvements in examination. Teacher can control, direct and predict the behaviour of students on the basis of research studies in class-room teaching. Thus, education and psychology are closely and intimately related.