PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING

Psychological principles cover classroom environment, student motivation, reinforcement and feedback. Principles based on the psychology of teaching are statements based on psychological principles. Hence, the teacher should change his subject matter, environment and methods of teaching from time to time, so that the students remain interested in the teaching-learning process. The teacher should introduce some recreation in the process of teaching in order to maintain the interest of the students.

1. The Principle of Feedback and Reinforcement:

Principle of feedback and reinforcement plays a significant role in teaching learning process. A child learns quickly if he gets feed-back and reinforcement in the form of appreciation at every step. He should also get reinforcement in the form of some prize or certificate of merit for his good effects in the learning process. In this way, the child feels great joy and satisfaction at his success at a particular step and he tries to achieve success at all further steps in the teaching-learning process.

2. The Principle of Providing Training to Senses:

Many senses are utilized to gain knowledge, such as senses of hearing, sight, taste and smell, very good results are obtained in the process of teaching and learning. For this purpose, proper training of these senses is very essential. Trained senses are very helpful in observation, differentiation, recognition and utilization of knowledge. Hence, the teacher should try to pay full attention to the training and utilization of all the senses of his students.

3. The Principle of Utilising Group Dynamics:

The teacher of the group creates a special kind of environment through the interactions of the group and interactions between the various members of the group. He also pays attention to the effect of outside groups upon his group. The behavior of every member of a group is changed according to the behavior of other members of the group. Hence the teacher should observe all those principles of group behavior which are based on psychology, in the process of his teaching.

4. The Principle of Encouraging Self-Learning:

A teacher should try to encourage among his student, habits of self-study, self-learning and working through self efforts. Knowledge acquired by self effort is the best kind of knowledge because it is very effective and long lasting. Hence, a teacher should give training to his students in acquiring knowledge through self efforts so that they may be able to adjust themselves to all situations in life and play their full role in the overall development of society.

5. The Principle of Fostering Creativity and Self Expression:

Moreover, by introducing new materials and by suggesting methods of procedure, good teaching opens up fields of investigation and enables the pupils to make original contribution to the existing store of knowledge. In other words, good teaching trains the original thinking of the learner, thus enabling him to try his hands on various new materials to discover new experience which may quicken the pace of human progress.

6. The Principle of Remecial Teaching:

The teacher should try to know the real cause of his failure in achieving the aims and objectives of teaching. He should then try to remove that cause through remedial process. He should also try to know the difficulties of students and try to remove these difficulties through remedial teaching. In short, the teacher should follow the principle of remedial teaching in the overall process of teaching.

To sum up:

Good teaching is kindly and sympathetic, is well planned, cooperative, suggestive, democratic, stimulating, progressive, diagnostic, remedial, full of guided activity linked with real life, and liberates the learner to do without the teacher. Whatever be the nature of the lesson, the teacher should never lose sight of these principles.