As a student, I have seen teachers and instructors use the principles of learning psychology a lot of times. Regarding particular examples, it is known that learners’ perspectives on the process of knowledge acquisition and the extent to which a person can develop intellectual abilities greatly affect motivation in the classroom (Lin-Siegler et al., 2016). Being aware of this principle, responsible teachers know that voicing an opinion that intellectual abilities are fixed and predetermined and some students are more gifted by nature can be extremely harmful to those learners who experience temporary difficulties or problems with self-esteem. One of my high school classmates constantly struggled with studying algebra since she saw all notions and concepts as too abstract and disconnected from reality, which resulted in her fear of approaching new tasks. It was regrettable to witness her attempts to blame herself for being untalented and unintelligent, but the situation changed after the intervention of a new teacher. The teacher noticed those destructive dispositions and explained to her those intellectual abilities were malleable and required courage and efforts to improve and reveal a person’s true potential.
Another example that comes to my mind when I reflect on the uses of educational psychology in real-life educational settings refers to proper goal-setting. Professional educators know that long-term and time-consuming goals may be regarded as too abstract and indefinite, whereas dividing such goals into a set of short-term and clear tasks helps to guide students and keep them motivated throughout the process of achieving the final goal. A few years ago, I needed to write an extended literature analysis essay and simply did not know how to start working on the task and what steps to take first. Understanding that the need to create a large project from scratch may instill some fear in students, the teacher provided us with the plan of work and the list of clear and detailed milestones to be achieved by certain weeks.