What do you think?
Rate this book
Educational Psychology
John Santrock's Educational Psychology is a well-crafted text that emphasizes the application of theory to classroom practice. With richly evocative classroom vignettes provided by practicing teachers, as well as the most case studies - three per chapter - of any Introductory text, Santrock's Educational Psychology helps students think critically about the research basis for best practices. Additionally, Santrock's hallmark Learning System organizes the content into manageable chunks to support retention and mastery, and makes it much more likely that students will have an engaging and successful course experience.
704 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
38 people are currently reading
441 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 15, 2021
کتاب بدی نبود ولی در حد لیسانس خوب بود. درک نمی کنم استادمونو که برای ارشد اینو معرفی کرد. چون حرف تازه ای برای گفتن نداشت برای ما
و درضمن برای معلم ها خیلی مفید بود به نظرم هر معلمی باید بخونه
و درضمن برای معلم ها خیلی مفید بود به نظرم هر معلمی باید بخونه
June 22, 2013
I just started reading this book, and I think it has good insite to teaching theories and how they went through cycles since the time of William James. William James wrote the first psychology textbook, Principles of Psychology and gave a series of lectures called "Talks to the Teachers" in which he discussed applications.
His goal was to improve education in the classroom, but I wonder about parents who spend less time developing their own children as it seems from my research they do not. Teachers from the reports I have seen on TV news they have to many people who claim to be teachers that are not teaching children anything and it gets worst. I do not think I have to spell that out!
These theories proved much in the system and helped some children achieve...but then again they have to apply themselves. I like what I have been reading and find it interesting. It seems to be a new discipline for College Students to study and become better Teachers. Hopefully the younger generations will find out the importance of learning, applying and remembering to take what they know to the next level. It takes in some areas a life time to be effective in society and an expert.
His goal was to improve education in the classroom, but I wonder about parents who spend less time developing their own children as it seems from my research they do not. Teachers from the reports I have seen on TV news they have to many people who claim to be teachers that are not teaching children anything and it gets worst. I do not think I have to spell that out!
These theories proved much in the system and helped some children achieve...but then again they have to apply themselves. I like what I have been reading and find it interesting. It seems to be a new discipline for College Students to study and become better Teachers. Hopefully the younger generations will find out the importance of learning, applying and remembering to take what they know to the next level. It takes in some areas a life time to be effective in society and an expert.
November 2, 2010
This book was rather ponderous, with little attempt made to make it readable. That's not the worst of it, though; that's to be expected in a psych textbook. The worst of it is, there was an unforgivable amount of sloppy editing in this book; most of it was in the first half of the book, with only one or two errors slipping through after chapter 8, but that still leaves me thoroughly unimpressed, although the book IS less sloppy than the Adolescent Psych textbook by the same author.
In general, the errors are of the typo or proofreading variety, not relevant to the subject matter, although the author does still have a tendency to confuse correlation with causation in spite of his clear disclaimers to the contrary.
Some examples of the errors that I'm speaking of:
1) At the end of chapter 2, on page 68, in the "reach your learning goals" section, under the "Developmental Issues" subheading, he speaks of the conflict between "nature and nature", rather than "nature and nurture".
2) In chapter 3, on page 83, under the subheading "Children in divorced families", second paragraph, he speaks of "...a time when parents are often in conflict with other." rather than "with EACH other".
3) Still in chapter 3, on page 94, under the subheading of "Effective schools for young adolescents", he references a report by the Carnegie Foundation which he dates as being from 1989, and then later in the paragraph, goes on to say that "twenty five years later, experts are still finding..." Given that the copyright for this book is 2009, not 2014, that just doesn't add up.
4) In the "Crack the Case" at the end of chapter 4 (page 145) question 6 asks us "What type of grouping is Mr. Adams most likely discussing?" That's awfully difficult to say, because NONE OF THE TEACHERS IN THE ANECDOTE WERE NAMED MR. ADAMS! (My suspicion is that in the first draft, there was a Mr. Adams, and in the final draft, that name was changed to add ethnic diversity to the group; perhaps "Mr. Adams" morphed into "Mr. Hassan". In any case, the change did not make it into the questions.
5) In chapter 5, page 151, second paragraph from the bottom, he references "connectectness" when he clearly means "connectedness".
6) Still in chapter 5, on page 155, in the "Through the Eyes of Teachers" interlude, we have the sentence "She visits students at home early in the school year in A EFFORT (emphasis mine) to connect with them..." Particularly ironic in an interlude dealing with attempts to improve literacy.
7) Still in chapter 5, on page 160, under the heading "Bilingualism", we are told "The ability to speak two languages has a positive effect on children's cognitive development. Children fluent in two languages perform better than their single-language counterparts on tests of control of attention, concept formation, analytical reasoning, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive complexity." Now, both of these statements MAY be correct, but the first does not necessarily follow from the second. If it is true that bilingual students perform better in all of these ways than single-language students, it MAY be because bilingualism "has a positive effect", but then again, it may simply be that students who are better at all of those things ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE ABLE TO learn a second language. Perhaps the cited study controls for that variable; Santrock says nothing to suggest this. This is a case of confusing correlation with causation, given the information in the text.
8) In chapter 8, on page 271, second full paragraph, Santrock tells us that "...in one study, 10-year olds were approximately 1.8 times slower at processing information than young adults..." and later goes on to say that 12-year olds were "approximately 1.5 times slower...". The concept of (some number) of times slower is Mathematically meaningless. If we want to speak of someone taking twice as long to do something, we say that they are "half as fast". "Twice as slow" is not a valid concept. So we can say that they took 1.8 times as long to do something, but that does not make them "1.8 times slower". That's like saying that something is 180 percent cheaper, which would mean that they would pay you 80 percent of the original price to take it off their hands.
9) In chapter 10, at the top of the page, we are told that "(Research concludes) that cooperation and postive interdependence needs to occur..." rather than "need to occur".
Now, obviously, some of these errors are more important than others; still, the fact that there are so many indicates a sloppiness that I find troubling in a textbook. Most of the information here is worthwhile, but I can't rate something with so many careless errors higher than three stars.
In general, the errors are of the typo or proofreading variety, not relevant to the subject matter, although the author does still have a tendency to confuse correlation with causation in spite of his clear disclaimers to the contrary.
Some examples of the errors that I'm speaking of:
1) At the end of chapter 2, on page 68, in the "reach your learning goals" section, under the "Developmental Issues" subheading, he speaks of the conflict between "nature and nature", rather than "nature and nurture".
2) In chapter 3, on page 83, under the subheading "Children in divorced families", second paragraph, he speaks of "...a time when parents are often in conflict with other." rather than "with EACH other".
3) Still in chapter 3, on page 94, under the subheading of "Effective schools for young adolescents", he references a report by the Carnegie Foundation which he dates as being from 1989, and then later in the paragraph, goes on to say that "twenty five years later, experts are still finding..." Given that the copyright for this book is 2009, not 2014, that just doesn't add up.
4) In the "Crack the Case" at the end of chapter 4 (page 145) question 6 asks us "What type of grouping is Mr. Adams most likely discussing?" That's awfully difficult to say, because NONE OF THE TEACHERS IN THE ANECDOTE WERE NAMED MR. ADAMS! (My suspicion is that in the first draft, there was a Mr. Adams, and in the final draft, that name was changed to add ethnic diversity to the group; perhaps "Mr. Adams" morphed into "Mr. Hassan". In any case, the change did not make it into the questions.
5) In chapter 5, page 151, second paragraph from the bottom, he references "connectectness" when he clearly means "connectedness".
6) Still in chapter 5, on page 155, in the "Through the Eyes of Teachers" interlude, we have the sentence "She visits students at home early in the school year in A EFFORT (emphasis mine) to connect with them..." Particularly ironic in an interlude dealing with attempts to improve literacy.
7) Still in chapter 5, on page 160, under the heading "Bilingualism", we are told "The ability to speak two languages has a positive effect on children's cognitive development. Children fluent in two languages perform better than their single-language counterparts on tests of control of attention, concept formation, analytical reasoning, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive complexity." Now, both of these statements MAY be correct, but the first does not necessarily follow from the second. If it is true that bilingual students perform better in all of these ways than single-language students, it MAY be because bilingualism "has a positive effect", but then again, it may simply be that students who are better at all of those things ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE ABLE TO learn a second language. Perhaps the cited study controls for that variable; Santrock says nothing to suggest this. This is a case of confusing correlation with causation, given the information in the text.
8) In chapter 8, on page 271, second full paragraph, Santrock tells us that "...in one study, 10-year olds were approximately 1.8 times slower at processing information than young adults..." and later goes on to say that 12-year olds were "approximately 1.5 times slower...". The concept of (some number) of times slower is Mathematically meaningless. If we want to speak of someone taking twice as long to do something, we say that they are "half as fast". "Twice as slow" is not a valid concept. So we can say that they took 1.8 times as long to do something, but that does not make them "1.8 times slower". That's like saying that something is 180 percent cheaper, which would mean that they would pay you 80 percent of the original price to take it off their hands.
9) In chapter 10, at the top of the page, we are told that "(Research concludes) that cooperation and postive interdependence needs to occur..." rather than "need to occur".
Now, obviously, some of these errors are more important than others; still, the fact that there are so many indicates a sloppiness that I find troubling in a textbook. Most of the information here is worthwhile, but I can't rate something with so many careless errors higher than three stars.
August 10, 2023
My big issue with this textbook is how redundant some of the material is. I know, I know, never assume what your audience knows, but I'm talking rudimentary stuff. It felt like a waste of my time.
Another even bigger issue is the bias of statistics. Whether intentionally or not, a lot of the data provided within the text gives a skewed picture because it lacks context or parameters. I can't remember which chapter, but he gives some data on dropout rates in Chicago and it's wildly inflated. I, a Chicagoland native, took one look at it and knew it was wrong. I even did my own little research to see what other sources said, and it was wrong. I have no context for the survey or whatever they did to get this information, but as it is presented in the textbook, it is wrong.
There was some interesting/beneficial stuff mixed in, but between the repetitive basics and the poorly-presented data, I had a miserable time reading this.
Another even bigger issue is the bias of statistics. Whether intentionally or not, a lot of the data provided within the text gives a skewed picture because it lacks context or parameters. I can't remember which chapter, but he gives some data on dropout rates in Chicago and it's wildly inflated. I, a Chicagoland native, took one look at it and knew it was wrong. I even did my own little research to see what other sources said, and it was wrong. I have no context for the survey or whatever they did to get this information, but as it is presented in the textbook, it is wrong.
There was some interesting/beneficial stuff mixed in, but between the repetitive basics and the poorly-presented data, I had a miserable time reading this.
April 17, 2018
This is a great developmental psychology book, and is a great book to have in your 'teaching library'. This textbook has a breadth of basic developmental psychology, as well as classroom politics and strategy information. The best part, is that it includes perspectives, advice, and opinions from teachers in every grade-level for each topic. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is considering teaching.
July 2, 2021
I had to read this book for my Nature of the Learner class and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know if I would have gotten as much out of it if it wasn't for my professor assigning us to do the Crack the Case as thought exercises but it was very beneficial and will help me as a teacher.
*I'm currently finishing up my licensure in Music Education while I'm teaching full time so this is a good book that will provide some hands on assistance.
*I'm currently finishing up my licensure in Music Education while I'm teaching full time so this is a good book that will provide some hands on assistance.
June 5, 2017
De los pocos manuales de la UNED en los que se predica con el ejemplo. Muy bien estructurado, muy bien escrito, sin complicaciones ni repeticiones innecesarias, con aplicaciones prácticas para implementarlo en situaciones reales... Ya era hora.
July 3, 2021
Wonderful book for applied educational psychology. It is well written and, while it doesn’t cover some aspects to the depth I have studied previously, it is thorough. Couple it with an excellent instructor and you will have a marvelous learning experience.
November 6, 2020
Got to read its 5th edition...Here,you'd learn learning and teaching strategies so the book can be a useful tool for teachers....
May 15, 2022
Loved the Orthodox Jewish representation!
November 28, 2025
Required textbook reading super theoretical academic jargon. Very informative but boring, which is expected from a textbook
August 5, 2013
Good information, pretty dry though. I fell asleep a lot reading it!
August 2, 2013
This book (among others) helped me ace the test for my teacher's license in Thailand. Easy to read and well organized.
May 4, 2014
This is a very good book to read to know more about psychology!
December 9, 2016
I like it
Want to read
June 15, 2017This is basically a textbook on Educational Psychology. Inside contains theories such as Piaget's Cognitive Theory, Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, Ivan Pavlov's conditioning, multiple intelligence and some others. However, the book isn't hilarious or engaging and it's hard to read. Also, this book tends to cover only the tip of the iceberg for certain theories.
This book also may not make you an effective teacher yet. This is an important book but there are still many other important books on teaching and communication in classroom.
This book also may not make you an effective teacher yet. This is an important book but there are still many other important books on teaching and communication in classroom.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews