How to use Educational Psychology, 5/E

The chapters in Educational Psychology are arranged in terms of three principal themes: students, learning, and teaching. Each chapter discusses important theories and includes many examples of how these theories apply to classroom teaching.

Educational Psychology emphasizes the intelligent use of theory and research to improve instruction. The chapters on teaching occupy about one-third of the total pages in the book, and the other chapters all relate to the meaning of theories and research practice. Whenever possible, the guides for practice in the book are specific programs or strategies that have been evaluated and found to be effective, not just suggestions for things to try.

The fifth edition has been revised to place a greater emphasis on critical thinking, engaging you with dilemmas, controversial issues, and opportunities for reflection and problem solving. In addition, several of the book's major elements have been integrated into a self-regulated learning program that will help you to succeed in your course and transfer your learning to professional teaching practice.

Self-Regulated Learning features include:

• Chapter outline with main headings framed as questions.

• Teaching/Learning Scenarios begin each chapter. They depict real-life situations that educators encounter. To provide a context (see Ch. 6 of your text to find out why this is important) for the theories and research presented in the book, the issues raised in the scenario are referred to throughout the chapter narrative. In addition, you are given the opportunity to respond to the scenario in several related features, such as the Using Your Experience section that accompanies each scenario. This feature provides critical and creative thinking questions as well as cooperative learning activities that allow you to work with the issues brought up in the opening scenario, affording you the opportunity to activate prior knowledge and to begin thinking about the issues you will be learning about in the chapter.

• Self-Check in which you reinterpret the chapter-opening scenario in terms of chapter contents.

• Self-Check after each main section to determine if you have mastered the objectives and to suggest study strategies that will lead to understanding.

• Photo Captions framed as questions that invite you to apply information and concepts in the chapter to interpret the images.

• Key terms boldfaced in the text and defined in the margins. In addition, the key terms are listed with page references in the chapter's Summary, to provide you with an additional review of key concepts after you've finished the chapter.

• Connections feature at the end of each chapter that points out interrelationships among concepts and topics between one chapter and another.

• Summary that answers the questions posed in the main headings.

• Self-Assessment quiz with multiple-choice, matching, and essay items.

• References, Name Index and Subject Index at the back of the book.

• Student Study Guide that is especially designed to coordinate with and support this self-regulated learning program.

In addition to the Self-Regulated Learning Features, there are a number of other features included to help you apply educational psychology to classroom practice. They are:

Theory into Practice sections appear in each chapter. The goal of these sections is to help you acquire and develop the tools you will need to be a good teacher. These sections present specific strategies for applying information in the text to the classroom.

Teachers on Teaching sections call on practicing master teachers to describe how they faced and met particular teaching challenges. In each chapter, two teachers respond in depth to the same question, relating concepts in educational psychology to classroom practice. The responses show the relevance of educational psychology theory and research to a rich variety of teachers' reflective and problem-solving approaches.

Focus On. The Focus On feature in every chapter presents a balanced discussion of controversial topics in education that are in the news. Critical thinking questions invite you to apply chapter content as you analyze, compare and contrast, and evaluate views that will affect the future of teaching and learning.

Case to Consider. This feature presents a realistic dialogue among teachers and students or between teachers and students, parents, administrators, or specialists. The cases present authentic dilemmas or conflicts for you to discuss and resolve. Problem-solving questions guide you in modeling your proposed solutions by extending the dialogue through writing or role-playing.

Field Observations. Each chapter includes three Field Observations which appear in the text margins. These observations give you the opportunity to transfer your knowledge to real-life situations by conducting the classroom observations recommended.

Talk to the Publisher

Want to take a minute and tell us what you think about Slavin's text? Would you recommend it? Did anything confuse you? Could the text have explained certain topics more clearly? Which features did you like best? Did the Self-Regulated Learning features help you? We like to hear from students and might incorporate your ideas into the next edition.