QED50/52A Educational Psychology: Theories and Applications for Learning and Teaching Coursework 2026, Singapore

QED50/52A Coursework 2026

Overview Of The Course

This course provides the foundation for understanding the 21st-century learners, learner development, and the psychology of learning and motivation.  The ways in which these aspects influence the processes of learning will be considered, and proactive approaches to enhancing student motivation, learning, and thinking explored.  Theories with a focus on students’ psychosocial and cognitive development will be introduced and their implications for classroom-practice considered.  In particular, the course will explore how students learn and the challenges they face in the process.  Students’ cognitive, social, emotional, personal and moral development will be considered.

Student teachers will synthesize and consolidate the key concepts learnt to establish explicit theorypractice links and analyse issues in authentic classroom scenarios.  This enables the student teachers to leverage on the acquired theoretical-knowledge to make theory-based decisions for enhancing teaching and the design of learning experiences.

Learning Outcomes

Student teachers will develop a positive and professional attitude towards teaching and acquire knowledge and relevant skills to become caring, committed, creative and effective teachers.   By the end of this course, student teachers will be able to:

• identify the role of educational psychology in the teacher’s decision-making process;
• describe the developmental needs of students;
• explain cognitive, psychosocial and cultural factors that may facilitate or impede the development of students and their learning;
•  synthesize the concepts of student development and learning theories and apply this knowledge in teaching and the design of learning experiences;
•  use different theoretical explanations for learner motivation to enhance student engagement in learning;
• describe several types of higher-level thinking skills (such as creativity, critical thinking, decisionmaking, and problem-solving) and explore ways that teachers can foster them
• explain the principles of differentiated instruction and apply these in responding to the needs of diverse learners in the classroom

Course Content                 

Understanding the Learner

• The Role of Contemporary Educational Psychology in Effective Teaching and Learning
• Social Contexts of Development of the 21st Century Learner
• Personal Development
• Moral Development
• Social Development and Social Emotional Learning
• Learner Diversity I: Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

Understanding the Learning Process

• Motivation in Learning and Teaching
• Learning as a Behavioural Change
• Learning by Doing
•  Learning by Thinking
• Complex Cognitive Processes – Eliciting Higher Order Responses
• Learner Diversity II: Catering to the Needs of Diverse Learners

Course Assessment

Details on Assessment

 1. Class Participation (5%)

Rubrics for Class Participation

 2. Problem-Based Learning: Group Project – 30% The PBL Process:

 PBL Template (Optional)

Note:

▪  The goal of the assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to clearly demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the issues explored in this course (i.e., the textbooks, course notes, and supplementary readings).

▪ Be sure to make explicit links to course concepts about psychosocial development and the social context of development.

▪ Cite and list all references used in your presentation.

▪ Use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) (2010) or APA publication manual (BF76.7Pub) to guide your referencing.  Information on the APA format can also be found at the following website:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.ht ml

Rubrics for Problem-Based Learning Group Project (30%)

 Peer Evaluation on PBL Assignment 

A Peer Evaluation system will be used to ensure fair and equal distribution of work among student teachers for PBL projects.  Student teachers will evaluate their group members’ contribution to the PBL project on a 0-5 scale. Each group member’s PBL grade is based on the average peer evaluation score.

The link to the Peer Evaluation form will be put up on the Blackboard Announcement Page by Week 11.

ALL student teachers must complete the form by Week 12. 

3. Quiz (Individual) – 10%

Students will have a 10 question online Quiz to determine their understanding of the Learning Theories learnt in class. It will be a self-study, closed-book MCQ Quiz to be done online in class. This will be part of the overall grade for this module, comprising of 10% of the final grade.

4. Individual Assignment – 50%

Lesson Planning The purpose of the assignment is for you to:

1. demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the theories you have learned in this module;
2. synthesize the concepts of student development and learning theories and apply this knowledge in teaching and the design of learning experiences;
3. make connections between these theories and various aspects of lesson planning.

Instructions: 

• Identify a lesson from one of your CS subjects that you plan to teach. The lesson should be a 60minute lesson.
• Use the first page of the lesson plan template to provide the rationale and explanation for the overarching approach to your lesson plan. Through describing your approach, you should answer the following:
  o What is the level you are teaching? Please indicate the stream if you are developing a lesson plan for secondary school teaching.
  o What is your students’ prior knowledge?
  o How does this lesson build on your students’ prior knowledge and how does it link to previous or future lessons?
• Develop a lesson plan based on the given template (see below). The lesson plan should answer all of the following:
  o What are the instructional objectives of your lesson? You should have 2 objectives.
  o What is the approximate time required for the introduction, body and conclusion of the lesson?
  o What are the materials and resources required for the lesson?
  o What do you plan to do for the introduction or the pre-activity of the lesson?
  o What do you plan to do for the body or the main activities of the lesson?
  o What do you plan to do for the conclusion or the post activity of the lesson?
  o Does the lesson fulfil the instructional objectives that you identify?
• In the Rationale column, provide brief descriptions of the theories before you make the connections with your planned instructional activity in the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion of the lesson. You should demonstrate 1+2+1 theories or variations of the same theories. You may want to select from the theories below:

  o Understanding the Learner: Personal Development (Week 2 – Non-learning Theories)
  ▪  Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development
  ▪  James Marcia’s Identity Status Theory
  ▪  Self-Concept & Self Esteem
  ▪ The Pygmalion Effect

o  Understanding the Learner: Moral Development (Week 3 – Non-learning Theories)
▪ Piaget
▪ Kohlberg
▪  Gilligan
▪ Lickona

o Understanding the Learner:  Social Development and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) (Week 4 – Non-learning Theories)
▪ Emotional development
▪ Social development
▪  Social-emotional learning
▪ Bullying

o Motivation in Learning (Week 5 – Non-learning Theories)
▪ Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
▪  Self-Determination Theories
▪ Achievement Goal Theory
▪ Attribution Theory

o Understanding the Learning Process (Weeks 6 to 8 – Learning Theories)
▪ Behaviourism
▪ Classical Conditioning
▪ Operant Conditioning

o Understanding the Learning Process (Weeks 6 to 8 – Learning Theories)
▪ Constructivism
▪ Personal constructivism – Piaget
▪ Social-Constructivist Approach: Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

o Understanding the Learning Process (Weeks 6 to 8 – Learning Theories
▪ Contemporary Cognitive Theories
▪ Information Processing Model

o Learner Diversity I: Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners (Week 9 – Learning Theories)
▪ Differentiation
▪ High ability learners
▪ Slow progress learners

o Learner Diversity II: Catering to the Needs of Diverse Learners (Week 13 – Learning Theories)
▪ Problem-Solving
▪ Creativity
▪ Mediated Learning

• Attach the handouts and materials (if applicable) that you plan to give your students to your lesson plan.
• The lesson plan should not exceed 5 pages excluding references, worksheets and resources.  It should be typewritten with Arial font size 12 and single-spaced. The page layout should be landscape.

Submission of Assignments:

1. Use the Student Declaration form as the cover page, stating your name, matriculation number, programme, course code, title, and submission date.
2. Generate a Similarity Report for your assignment (without cover page, appendices and references) using Turnitin in NTULearn. The Similarity report provides a percentage of similarity with other written documents and checks for plagiarism.
3. Submit a soft copy of your whole assignment (Similarity report, Declaration cover page, Lesson plan assignment, References, and Appendices) to NTULearn.

Rubric for Individual Assignment: Lesson Planning (50%)