The modern scientific community uses numerous types of research to establish connections between psychology and learning. They include longitudinal studies, qualitative and quantitative methods, mixed-method designs, observational studies, descriptive research, and many other approaches to studying some phenomena (Lin-Siegler, Dweck, & Cohen, 2016). The advancements of psychology research are widely used in early childhood education since effective collaboration with a developing thinker is impossible without understanding his or her age-specific psychological characteristics.
To formulate a relevant and practical research question, it is critical to understand which subtopics in educational psychology require attention to solve real-world problems that educational specialists face on a daily basis. One of such aspects of learning psychology is students’ motivation and passion for learning, involving their readiness to take challenging tasks with pleasure instead of perceiving any constraint as a barrier to success (Duran, 2013; Lin-Siegler et al., 2016). One problem that deserves special attention is the impact of learners’ beliefs about their intellectual abilities on motivation and the process of learning (Lin-Siegler et al., 2016). Specifically, it would be interesting to study differences between students in terms of how their motivation levels change in response to the situations involving competition between peers. As an example, the following research question can be proposed: in what way does comparison in the classroom affect students’ motivation to learn?
As for more ideas that my groupmates may find interesting and especially noteworthy, I suppose that it is critical to study children’s success as learners with the focus on specific psychological traits and potential interactions between them. For instance, research in the field of educational psychology to cultivate curiosity in the classroom may be significant. With that in mind, one can use this research question: what psychological characteristics are positive predictors of curiosity in young learners? Another idea that can be helpful is to research some ways to make young learners’ questions more welcome and effective in the classroom (Harris, 2015). As an example, it is possible to study whether verbal praises for asking questions make learners more likely to display engagement and curiosity in the classroom.