Teaching educational psychology: Texts in context

Abstract

Writing a textbook in educational psychology is for me an act of teaching. In this article, I discuss my beliefs about the educational psychology course, the students who take it, their prior knowledge and expectations, and the processes of teaching and learning. Given this context, I consider the roles of textbooks for students, professors, and the field in general. To fulfill these roles, what should be the content and organization of textbooks? How should the contents of textbooks be tied to practice and how can textbooks be used most productively to support learning? Because assessment shapes much of what students learn with textbooks, I consider ways to link texts, assessment, and learning. I end by speculating about the future of textbooks and teaching preparation.