When I talk
about the Teaching
Educational Psychology SIG to other members of AERA,
the
most
frequent response that
I get is “There’s a
whole SIG about that?” People are surprised to learn that
there
is a cohesive research community engaged
in something that seems
so
specialized
as the teaching of one college course.
My
response is generally that
not only is there
a whole SIG about that, but we make a vital contribution
to AERA’s larger endeavor to promote research that will
improve education.
The
scholars in Division C investigate the teaching-learning
process, and those of us in Division G are working to understand how that
process interacts with the social
context in which it occurs. The
researchers in Division K
investigate how most effectively to prepare
teachers
to engage in the teaching-learning process. But the TEP SIG is where all this comes
together – our work
offers insights about how
to teach teachers to understand
the
teaching- learning process,
given its context.
Many readers may recall the now-classic
research by Spillane and Zeuli
(1999) that found that unless teachers understood constructivist
learning theory deeply and accurately, even the
most well-trained and dedicated
among
them were unsuccessful
in implementing constructiv- ist-based
instructional reform.
In fact, there have been innumerable
studies that reveal that teachers’ conceptions
of the teaching-learning
process shape their instruction
in subtle but powerful
ways (e.g., Bryan, 2003; Warfield, Wood
, & Lehman, 2005; Webb,
Nemer, and Ing,
2006;
Yerrick, Parke, and Nugent, 1997). It’s not enough
just
to teach teachers how to teach;
they must
have robust and deeply-held
understandings of the teaching-learning
process to undergird their
moment-to-moment decision making. But
research has also established that conceptions of teaching
and learning are difficult to change (Wideen, Mayer-Smith,
and Moon,
1998). Educational psychology instruction
must
therefore be
potent and transformative, and
it must infuse
teacher preparation
programs from start to finish.
In the TEP
SIG
we investigate how educational psychology instruction can effectively allow teachers to develop deep, robust understandings
of how people learn and how learning and teaching interact
with context. Far more than “a SIG about teaching
one little college course,”
the
TEP
SIG is a site for the discussion, development, and dissemination
of research
that provides a crucial
ingredient in
the
educational endeavor.
We invite you to submit your
research, on any aspect of
teaching educational psychology, to the SIG for presentation
at the next annual meeting. This year,
with
our annual meeting
theme, “Education and Poverty: Theory, Research, Policy and Praxis,” we are especially inter- ested in work that examines
how best to help our students understand
the ways poverty shapes the teaching-learning process.
At the same time, we welcome submissions
on any topic
that has implications for the
teaching of educational psychology.
Stacy DeZutter
TEP SIG Chair 2012-2013
