Educational psychology is a field of general psychology dealing with pedagogical methods and techniques that improve the system of education. The complexity of the pedagogy lies in the fact that, although it occupies an important place in a person’s life, it does not provide a tangible result immediately after finishing the educational process (Afriani, 2021; Braat et al., 2020; Duchesne et al., 2021). Therefore, the goal of education is all subsequent behavior, activity, and lifestyle of a person.
It especially concerns children who have just started their educational programs. It was established that kids are susceptible to obtaining new knowledge only if the adult teaching them can build a trustworthy connection with them (Honig et al., 2019; Reeves et al., 2021). There is a dependency between children’s ability to learn and the environment established by an educator. Teaching pupils to read is a teacher’s primary task; however, it is greatly dependent on psychological factors. Whereas some students may be highly susceptible to criticism, others would consider it stimulating.
Sometimes, educators tend to emphasize a specific part of reading, such as morphology, which negatively affects the development of other reading-related skills (Rastle, 2019; Reutzel & Cooter, 2019). Other professionals neglect psychological principles and use only pedagogical methodology, thereby providing pupils with learning materials without focusing on mental comfort (Torok-Gerard & Martin, 2019; Robeck & Wallace, 2019). Thus, there is a need to dwell on why psychological factors matter in acquiring reading abilities. In general, educational psychology in teaching children to read has the function of providing smooth conditions for obtaining knowledge.
Research Question and Hypothesis
One of the most reputable approaches to knowledge acquisition is behaviorism. Its theory is based upon three pillars: stimulus, response, and reinforcement (Muhajirah, 2020; Guercio, 2020). Teaching children to read this strategy can be effective as soon as the educator provides feedback. Therefore, the research question would be the following:
How does a teacher’s feedback impact children’s ability to read, and what role is classical conditioning in teaching how to read?
Considering the influence of behaviorism on pedagogy, it is indispensable to note that it is possible to reach total comprehension under its methods. However, some critics claim it to be an approach for superficial acquisition and incomplete understanding of reading materials (Budiman, 2021). Hence, the research hypothesis is that children aged 5 to 7 acquire reading skills twice efficiently, reaching the level of comprehension as those exposed to other traditional psychological approaches.
Research Design
The chosen sample would be represented by children ages 5 to 7 since this group is mostly exposed to reading skills acquisition. The number of participants is 100; such a sample size would allow for the differentiation of two equal groups to compare the approaches’ effectiveness. It is vital to obtain the consent of the underaged’s parents before conducting a study and inform them about the goals and interventions. The inclusion criteria would be the normal child’s development, a selected age, and the absence of developmental disorders. Children with mental or chronic diseases are not allowed to participate in the study since the results may be distorted. The key demographic details are residence in a selected state, English as a native language; race and ethnicity can be different.
Design
The dependent variable would be a child’s ability to read clearly and concisely, while the independent one is the behavioral techniques applied by an educator. There will be two groups in the framework of the current study – experimental and control ones. The former groups will be exposed to learning to read using behavioristic interventions, whereas the latter will be subjected to traditional methods. Since the research design is experimental, the condition exists between two chosen groups due to the need for contrasting these two.
Materials
Within the framework of this research, it is vital to address qualitative indicators rather than quantitative ones because numbers cannot access the quality of reading. Therefore, for the assessment of reading rate, it is necessary to use EACOL – the scale that enables the measurement of reading competence (Shin et al., 2021). It allows tracing which part of reading competence is developed better, such as speed or reading, morphology, pronunciation, and others. Apart from that, it is necessary to evaluate the level of comprehension using the Skills-Reading Comprehension Narrative (RSAS-RCN) scale. This measure enables a researcher to identify if a person can reproduce a text in summary in oral form (Shapiro et al., 2017). It can be implemented alongside the teacher’s judgments regarding a student’s understanding abilities.
References
Afriani, I. H. (2021). Educational psychology: Understanding child development. BookRix.
Braat, M., Engelen, J., van Gemert, T., & Verhaegh, S. (2020). The rise and fall of behaviorism: The narrative and the numbers. History of Psychology, 23(3), 252-280. Web.
Budiman, A. (2017). Behaviorism and foreign language teaching methodology. English France 1(2), 101-114. Web.
Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., & Mackenzie, E. (2021). Educational psychology for learning and teaching. Cengage Learning Australia.
Guercio, J. M. (2020). The importance of a deeper knowledge of the history and theoretical foundations of behaviorism and behavior therapy: Part 2 – 1960-1985. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 20(3), 174-195. Web.
Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2018). Teaching reading sourcebook. Arena Press.
Muhajirah, M. (2020). Basic of learning theory: (Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism).” International Journal of Asian Education, 1(1), 37-42. Web.
Rastle, K. (2019). The place of morphology in learning to read in English. Cortex: A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, 116, 45-54. Web.
Reeves, S. L., Henderson, M. D., Cohen, G. L., Steingut, R. R., Hirschi, Q., & Yeager, D. S. (2021). Psychological affordances help explain where a self-transcendent purpose intervention improves performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(1), 1-15. Web.
Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2019). Teaching children to read: The teacher makes the difference. Pearson.
Robeck, M. C., & Wallace, R. R. (2019). The psychology of reading: An interdisciplinary approach (2nd Ed.). Taylor & Francis.
Shapiro, E. S., Gebhardt, S., Flatley, K., Guard, K. B., Fu, Q., Leichman, E. S., Calhoon, M. B., & Hojnoski, R. (2017). Development and validity of the Rating Scales of Academic Skills for Reading Comprehension. School Psychology Quarterly: The Official Journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association, 32(4), 509-524. Web.
Shin, L. M., Sommers, S. R., Abdel-Nabi, H. B., Gany, S. Y., Greenebaum, S. L., Leon, S. J., Madarasmi, S., Mathew, K. E., Merker, J. B., Pius, L. K., Sanders, A. S., Spaulding, I. G., & Whitman, E. T. (2021). Can you judge a book by its modality? An experimental comparison of reading and test performance across a print, electronic, or interactive introduction to psychology textbook assignment. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. Web.
Torok-Gerard, S. E., & Martin, J. L. (2019). Educational psychology: History, practice, research, and the future. ABC-CLIO.