What?

It is clear that the psychology of education has an impact on many things when considering a person's teaching practice, including helping inform the teacher of students learning styles, emphasising a growth mindset, as proposed by Carole Dweck, applying constructivist theories like those of Piaget, utilising some behaviourist techniques such as positive reinforcement and the social learning theory which includes modeling positive reinforcements (Bates, 2023).

Clearly from my own teaching practices to date I have seen the impact of things such as modeling, positive reinforcement and making use of constructivist theories in my practice. An example of this would be when I would give time at the end of my lessons for students to begin homework so I can take time to ensure each student is well aware of what is expected of them. Also positive reinforcement ensures students are feeling encouraged and seen.

So what?

The use of modelling in the language classroom is particularly beneficial, especially when we look at useful technologies such as foclóir.ie or Linguee. Online dictionaries like this inform students of things such as pronunciation and translations. In my previous teaching practices I have incorporated things such as "montrer-moi" which is were students may show me objects which they have which mean the word I am saying in the target language or else I will show an item or object and it is up to students to tell me what it is in the target language. This activity clearly incorporates techniques such as modelling. Another activity I like to make use of is 'Think Pair Share' and this incorporates Socrates thinking of encouraging students to participate in meaningful discussions and summarise their learning and share it. This in turn allows for students to share knowledge which leads to furthering their own learning in turn (Bates, 2023).

Now what?

In my future teaching practice I will make use of and incorporate the thoughts of Locke and Descartes when they say that you need to adopt and adapt your position to suit any circumstance and also to constantly revise and reflect on your practice. I think in turn this can be true for both the teacher and the students (Bates, 2023).

Through use of carefully scaffolded questions and peer tutoring with activities such as think pair share, Vygotsky's ideas can be supported and encourage students learning. Making use of the zone of proximal development will encourage and challenge students. In the second level classroom you can achieve this in many different ways, including making use of peer assessment in activities with students (Walsh, 2011).

Personally I think that Bruner's approach to teaching is very useful in the second level classroom, in particular when recalling a learner's previous knowledge on a subject. For example, during my placements I often like to begin the class by asking students a 'starter question' relating to the topic at hand which plays on their previous knowledge but links directly to the topic. For example, when taking the topic of 'le sport' in French, I draw a mind-map diagram on the whiteboard for students to fill in with any information they know relating to sport in France, in the middle I write 'le sport'. In the past students have written things such as famous French sports people, the olympics or les jeux olympiques and even the names of sports in French. When assessing Bruner's approach I now see that it is also essential to ask them how they would like to expand on this knowledge and also to assess whether they have absorbed new knowledge. This reflective practice aligns with Bruner's emphasis on discovery and helps deepen their understanding (Bates, 2023).

The three elements highlighted by Rogers which he felt where essential for facilitation to take place were congruence, empathy and respect. Good facilitation requires having a range of learning resources available, and also becoming an active participant while also finding out what students learned from the session (Bates, 2023). I believe this is vital in good teaching as student feedback is crucial when learning where to improve, how to improve, what is needed to help facilitate further and also how students are progressing.

Walsh, B. (2011). Education Studies in Ireland. Gill & Macmillan Ltd.

Banyard, P., Mark, Norman, C., & Winder, B. (2010). Essential Psychology. SAGE.‌

Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., Wegner, D. M., & Hood, B. M. (2016). Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan.

Woolfolk, A. E., Hughes, M., & Walkup, V. (2013). Psychology in Education (2nd ed.). Pearson Education UK.

Syarif, E., Syamsunardi, S., & Saputro, A. (2020). Implementation of Discovery Learning to Improve Scientific and Cognitive Attitude of Students. Journal of Educational Science and Technology (EST), 6(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.26858/est.v6i1.11975