ABSTRACT
Teaching an undergraduate course in educational psychology generally involves two central goals: assisting students in becoming better learners and preparing them to apply the science of learning as teachers. Two additional goals can benefit student learning: teaching students to privilege empirical research as the basis of knowledge about learning and teaching, and tactically challenging the deep misconceptions students hold about educational psychology (from learning styles to various claims about brain-based education), actively applying educational psychology research to do so. Instructors can employ knowledge from both conceptual change and epistemic cognition to address such misconceptions.
In order to teach in ways that are congruent with educational psychology research and theory, instructors can actively model and apply the basic knowledge of the field, building a repertoire of techniques. Such practices might include supporting student autonomy to foster intrinsic motivation by offering choices on assignments and due dates, using low-stakes and high return retrieval practice to enhance learning, and using criterion-referenced rather than norm-referenced grading to promote mastery goals rather than performance goals. This will be further enhanced by teaching transparently, making instructional choices evident to students, and modeling desirable intellectual values.
