Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology
—John R. M. Lawrence
"This comprehensive, informative, cross-disciplinary, and authoritative encyclopedia supports a holistic approach to preschool to adult education and would make a welcome addition to any undergraduate collection."
—Library Journal
Educational Psychology is a special field of endeavor since it strives to apply what we know about many different disciplines to the broad process of education. In the most general terms, you can expect to find topics in this area that fall into the categories of human learning and development (across the life span), motivation, measurement and statistics, and curriculum and teaching. There are few comprehensive overviews of the field of educational psychology, and the purpose of this two-volume Encyclopedia is to share this information in a way that is, above all, informative without being overly technical or intimidating.
With more than 275 contributions, the Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology opens up the broad discipline of educational psychology to a wide and general audience. Written by experts in each area, the entries in this far-reaching resource provide an overview and an explanation of the major topics in the field of human development. While the Encyclopedia includes some technical topics related to educational psychology, for the most part, it focuses on those topics that evoke the interest of the everyday reader.
Key Features
- Addresses topics that are of particular interest to the general public such as vouchers, Head Start, divorce, learning communities and charter schools
- Shares subjects that are rich, diverse, and deserving of closer inspection with an educated reader who may be uninformed about educational psychology
- Draws from a variety of disciplines including psychology, anthropology, education, sociology, public health, school psychology, counseling, history, and philosophy
- Presents many different topics all tied together by the theme of how the individual can best function in an educational setting, from pre-school through adult education
Key Themes
- Classroom Achievement
- Classroom Management
- Cognitive Development
- Ethnicity, Race, and Culture
- Families
- Gender and Gender Development
- Health and Well-Being
- Human Development
- Intelligence and Intellectual Development
- Language Development
- Learning and Memory
- Organizations
- Peers and Peer Influences
- Public Policy
- Research Methods and Statistics
- Social Development
- Teaching
- Testing, Measurement, and Evaluation
- Theory
"Editor Salkind (psychology & research in education, Univ. of Kansas; Introduction to Theories of Human Development) here synthesizes expert-written contributions centering on the complex field of educational psychology and drawing on a range of disciplines: anthropology, psychology, sociology, education, public health, counseling, history, and philosophy. Advancing Salkind's seminal three-volume Encyclopedia of Human Development (Sage, 2005) and broader in scope than Barry J. Zimmerman and Dale H. Schunk's Educational Psychology: A Century of Contributions (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002), which reads like a who's who in the field, this two-volume set succeeds in its stated aim of opening up the discipline of educational psychology to a wide general audience. The 275 topically organized entries and a reader's guide comprising 19 key themes (e.g., classroom achievement, language development, research methods and statistics) combine with See also references, further readings, and an extensive index to create a framework from which to educate and elucidate fundamental information on this important topic. BOTTOM LINE This comprehensive, informative, cross-disciplinary, and authoritative encyclopedia supports a holistic approach to preschool to adult education and would make a welcome addition to any undergraduate collection."
—Library Journal
“SAGE Reference has carved a niche for itself by identifying new areas of professional or academic endeavor and producing well-written guides that help to define the fields for students or new professionals. Typically, these encyclopedias introduce the concepts and issues essential to the developing field of learning. Experts explore and explain both theory and practice. The history of the discipline and the development of professional standards also are surveyed. Biographical entries highlight the work of key contributors to that process. Other entries focus on the training necessary for professional participation and the specialties possible within the field. In this case, SAGE has applied its well-tested method to educational psychology. On some levels, educational psychology has been around for years, as both a career path and field of study. For decades academic and career counselors have guided students in making choices about their future. Researchers of language, learning and cognitive development have long studied peer influences, memory, creativity and other factors in relation to school children. Recently, this disparate areas of activity are increasingly viewed both as intergrally related and as an important specialty within the field of education. Many related areas of research involve this nexus of education and psychology. Individual academic achievement, classroom management, gender differences in learning, intelligence, social development, as well as testing and measurement all fall within the scope of this encyclopedia. Public polices have also impacted the role of psychology with a host of mandated educational directives on everything from standardized testing to drug prevention and sex education. Professional standards are addressed in discussions of national organizations, research methods and reaching. Such social factors as family, ethnicity and culture are all explored. From applied behavior analysis to vicarious reinforcement, overviews of theories outline concepts basic to the field of educational psychology. Each of the 275 scholarly articles give sample suggestions for further research. All told, the set provides a useful instruction to a bourgeoning area of study and is highly recommended for academic libraries.”
—John R. M. Lawrence
