(A) to help teachers accurately understand the problem
One of the most basic tasks of educational psychology research is to describe and measure the psychological phenomena in the process of learning and teaching qualitatively and quantitatively, and to reveal their internal relations and laws, which not only solves the problems of "what" and "why". For example, when studying middle school students' achievement motivation, it is necessary to determine what qualitative and quantitative characteristics achievement motivation has. The research shows that students' achievement motivation includes the tendency to avoid failure, the tendency to succeed, the tendency to overcome difficulties and the tendency to compete in society, and the combination of these four tendencies shows the qualitative characteristics of achievement motivation; The score indicating the strength of each tendency is characterized by the amount of achievement motivation. Different qualitative and quantitative characteristics will lead to different learning behaviors and effects. The study further shows that students will choose more valuable and challenging tasks when the tendency to succeed is dominant. This knowledge enables teachers to understand the different learning behaviors of different students more accurately. In addition, the situation of students varies widely. Once learning difficulties appear, educational psychology can adopt various methods to help teachers understand the reasons for the difficulties. For example, a fourth-grade pupil has difficulty in reading Chinese, and we can find out the crux of the difficulty by using various test methods such as intelligence test, reading test or physical health examination. Of course, reading difficulties may also be related to personal life experiences, such as parents' divorce, indifference to children or high expectations, which frustrates learning motivation, or disharmony with teachers and improper teaching methods, which makes children lose interest in learning. Teachers can apply the theory and research methods of educational psychology to trace the root of students' learning difficulties or related problems in the process of psychological development, and accurately understand students, so as to adopt targeted methods to promote students' academic progress and mental health development.
Educational psychology is helpful for teachers to form a new scientific understanding of educational phenomena. In particular, the traditional and conventional teaching methods and teaching behaviors are analyzed and studied, and a more scientific point of view is put forward. For example, in primary school Chinese class, what method should teachers use to specify students to recite the text, whether it is random roll call or sequential roll call? Educational psychology research shows that this seemingly non-question answer is not as simple as people think. It is necessary to comprehensively consider the advantages and disadvantages of different grades and different roll-call methods and choose the appropriate roll-call method.
(B) to provide scientific theoretical guidance for practical teaching.
Educational psychology provides general principles or techniques for practical teaching. Teachers can combine the actual teaching content, teaching objects, teaching materials, teaching environment and so on. And turn these principles into specific teaching procedures or activities. For example, according to the study of the law of learning motivation, students' learning motivation can be cultivated and stimulated by creating problem situations, giving positive feedback and properly controlling the level of motivation in classroom teaching. According to the law of learning transfer, measures can be taken to promote the transfer in the selection of teaching content and the arrangement of teaching procedures.
(C) to help teachers predict and interfere with students
Using the principles of educational psychology, teachers can not only correctly analyze and understand students, but also predict students' behavior or development direction, and take corresponding intervention or preventive measures to achieve the expected results. That is to solve the problem of how to do it. Psychologists often predict what a student will do according to the theory and law of educational psychology and his present or past behavior. For example, if a psychologist knows students' general intelligence, learning strategies and learning motivation, he can predict students' academic performance in school more accurately. Behavior prediction is bound to be accompanied by behavior intervention. For example, according to the level of students' intellectual development, providing more substantial environment and teaching content for children with extraordinary intelligence or special talents is more conducive to their full development potential; Provide extra help or effective specific corrective measures for students with mental retardation or learning difficulties, so as to maximize their development.
(d) Help teachers to carry out practical teaching research.
Teachers should not only learn all aspects of research done by educational psychologists in the field of teaching, but also become researchers of modern education. Facing the complicated actual teaching situation, teachers should be able to constantly find problems, put forward problems and choose appropriate methods and procedures to solve them. At the same time, we need to constantly sum up our own experience and solve our own problems through reading, observing and talking. Educational psychology not only provides general theoretical guidance for practical educational activities, but also provides scientific research methods, techniques and rich examples for teachers to participate in teaching research. Effective teaching requires teachers to change from person to person, from thing to thing, from time to time and from place to place. Because students, classes, schools and the corresponding social environment are different, the teaching content, teaching time and teaching methods are also different. There is no one-size-fits-all teaching model. Teachers need to creatively and flexibly apply the basic laws of educational psychology to teaching in combination with teaching practice, otherwise mechanically applying some principles will not help improve teaching efficiency. Educational psychology does not provide teachers with a concrete model to solve all specific problems. On the contrary, it provides teachers with scientific research ideas and research methods, so that teachers can not only understand and apply some basic principles and methods, but also conduct creative research in combination with their own teaching practice to verify these principles and solve specific problems.