Educational psychologists involved in teacher education are expected to develop professional teacher dispositions of preservice students. The professional disposition "teacher as change agent" is used to frame actions in service-learning field experiences in a teacher preparation program. Preservice teacher service-learning journals, self-ratings,…

In this study, members (n = 48) of 2 sections of a required educational psychology course conducted 3 service-learning-type field experiences and wrote reflections on the experiences in relationship to the theories and principles addressed in the course. Participants also described their vision for teaching at the beginning and the end of the…

We examined the effects of an educational psychology course on students' beliefs about motivating students. After providing opportunities to engage in systematic intentional inquiry of their beliefs about teaching and learning, we expected that students' beliefs would become more soundly based in theory and research. Following several classes on…

Because of the importance of students' and teachers' implicit beliefs about intelligence, we designed a study to determine: (a) How is intelligence defined--as a malleable or fixed entity--in introductory educational psychology textbooks? and (b) To what extent are classroom applications of intelligence topics included in the textbooks? We…

In this study the feasibility and educational value of students' writing their own textbook was explored for a particular course in which commercial textbooks had become a normal feature. The course itself was about introductory educational psychology--a common requirement for preservice teachers in training. In lieu of buying a commercial text,…

This study evaluates the impact of teaching basic qualitative methodology to preservice teachers enrolled in an educational psychology course in the quality of observation journals. Preservice teachers enrolled in an educational psychology course requiring 45 hr of field experience were given qualitative methodological training as a part of the…

The author describes an action research project given to masters-level preservice teachers in her educational psychology classes to help them connect the theories they are learning with educational problems they have observed or experienced. Students' responses on a six-item survey indicated that they valued the better understanding of how…

Two novel technologies--digitized oral feedback on written work and the Turning Point classroom active response system--were introduced into my undergraduate educational psychology course. The cognitive and motivational academic benefits of each were compared to more traditional pedagogy over the course of one full semester. Students who received…

Although there has been research on "professional learning communities" (PLCs) in schools, little attention has been paid to them in contexts of higher education. This article chronicles the development of a PLC, involving the 18 instructors who teach educational psychology each year to 1,400 preservice teacher candidates. Through questionnaires…

As information becomes available, teachers of educational psychology must be ready to accept or resist change. This is especially true when it comes to the brain because as technologies advance, information about it is seeping into our lives. Deciding if, how much, and when this information fits into educational psychology coursework can be…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which preservice teachers understood and applied motivation concepts personally as learners and professionally for their future classroom practice. An assignment in an educational psychology class required the students to construct a motivational toolbox with five strategies for themselves…

Preservice teachers (PTs) tend to enter teacher education programs with naive understandings of the nature of teaching. In order to enhance their development of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be an effective educator, I designed an innovative Educational Psychology assignment in the practice of teaching. PTs (N=48) formed…

This study evaluates the effects of teacher candidates' having access to expert teachers' modeling analytic thinking as the experts read case studies used in teaching educational psychology. Videos which consisted of selected segments of multiple expert teachers thinking aloud were developed. In the first experiment, one of these videos was viewed…

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the assessment chapters from four popular educational psychology texts. Teacher knowledge about assessment tools and how they support learning is critical to improving student outcomes. The goals of the analysis are to (a) differentiate author "voices" by looking at style and content choices, (b)…