Educational Psychology Program

Program Description

The educational psychology program incorporates the disciplines of test and measurement (with emphasis on psychometrics) cognitive science, human development, learning and instruction, assessment of mental abilities (including tests and measurement), and program evaluation. An integral part the program's academic work is research design and statistical methodology. The program offers students the opportunity to gain academic knowledge and practical experience in the broadest possible range of inquiry within the field, building to the doctoral degree. Students select one of two emphasis areas: learning and cognition, or statistics and measurement . Students receive training in the relevant content areas, with special direction toward conducting psychological research in school settings, institutions of higher education, and non-school settings. The study of educational psychology is relevant for professionals in the fields of education, medicine, and social services; people who use educational psychology include teachers, nurses, counselors, software developers, trainers, social workers, program evaluators, and administrators.

Educational Psychologists attempt to understand how:

• to measure human learning and behavior
• to improve learning and motivation
• human development influences learning and well-being
• society influences learning and behavior
• what happens in school affects students’ development in other settings

Relevant questions include:

• What are the attributes of effective instruction
• • in classrooms?
  • in out-of-school settings?
  • on computers?

• How can one measure
• • individual learning?
  • group learning?
  • attitudes?
  • institutional improvement?
  • school culture?

• What statistical techniques are relevant for
• • investigating change across time?
  • describing the attributes of test items?
  • showing how groups differ?

In recent years, faculty and students have investigated the following:

•  High school achievement of students of color
• Achievement goals
• Predictor importance in multiple regression
• Cross-validation indices to select among competing covariance structure models
• Fear of acting white
• The relationship between adolescents' experiences in school and their experiences with peers, families, and the community
• Psychosocial development of African American adolescents
• Problem behavior and schooling
• Preservice teacher beliefs
• Social contexts of motivation
• Academic classroom community
• Cooperative learning
• Faculty development
• Setting cut scores for standardized tests
• Coping styles and depression
• Interest and its effect on text processing
• Concept mapping as an assessment tool
• Epistemological beliefs and their relation to writing skill
• Cross-cultural models for Koreans and Americans
• Generalizability analysis of test scores
• Out-of-school learning
• Motivation orientation of youth hockey players
• Gentic influence on individual differences in mental chronometric reaction times

Opportunities for educational psychologists include:

• College and university professor
• Director of research and evaluation in the public schools, state agencies, regional laboratories, or universities
• Consultant to the public and private sectors (systems analysis, training, evaluation)
• Professional work in test development, evaluation, and assessment
• Text publishing

The Master's Program (masters planner)

The master's program focuses on applications of educational psychology principles to applied settings. Students select one of two emphasis areas: (1) cognition and development, or (2) measurement and statistics. The master's program requires a minimum of 33 semester hours. The MA is the preferred degree for those intending to pursue the Ph.D. Those pursuing the MA must complete a course in research methods and either a thesis or research manuscript. Those completing a M.Ed. take written comprehensive exams.
 

The Doctoral Program (doctoral planner)

The Ph.D. program focuses on generating original research regarding statistics, measurement, cognition, or development. Students select one of two emphasis areas: (1) cognition and development, or (2) measurement and statistics. The Ph.D. program consists of a minimum of 72 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the bachelor's degree in general psychology, educational psychology, research, specialization courses, internships, and the dissertation.

Tracks

Track 1: Statistics and Measurement

This track focuses on teaching methods of analyzing quantitative data. Research typically begins with some form of measurement. Researchers may measure classroom learning, world knowledge, attitudes, goals, motivation orientations, or personality. Researchers must verify that their measures are reliable and valid and may use analytic techniques like classical test theory or item response theory. Researchers submit their data to statistical techniques like analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression, structural equation modeling (SEM), and growth curve modeling to pinpoint reliable patterns in the data and to verify whether groups differ in their outcomes.

Track 2:Cognition and Development

This track focuses on how people learn and think and how they develop across the lifespan. Researchers use both quantitative and qualitative methods. They consider how people's thinking, reasoning, and behavior change across time. They study how different social settings like classroom, family, work, and peers affect people's well-being, learning, and behavior.

Note: the Educational Psychology program does NOT offer training for clinical, counseling, or school psychologists. (Other programs in the department do offer APA-accredited school and counseling training.)

Placement of Educational Psychology Graduates Since 2003

Recent graduates (since 2003) in educational psychology are employed at the following institutions:

• ETS
• Central Missouri State University
• Jury selection firm in Kansas City
• Southern Illinois University
• Northeastern Illinois University
• University of Houston
• University of Texas- San Antonio
• University of Indiana Center for Post-Secondary Research
• Western Illinois University

Faculty

Steven J. Osterlind
Professor of Education & Co-Director of Educational Psychology Program
Ph.D. University of Southern California

David Bergin
Associate Professor of Education & Co-Director of Educational Psychology Program
Ph.D., Stanford University

John Alspaugh
Adjunct Professor of education
Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia

David Jonassen
Distinguished Professor of Education
(joint appointment with School of Information Science and Learning Technologies)
Ed.D, Temple University

Alex Waigandt
Associate Professor of Education
Ph.D., University of Oregon

Stephen Whitney
Assistant Professor of Education
Ph.D., University of Washington