Chapter 1: Introduction: Setting a Course for the Teaching of Learning

Given the complexity of learning, an increasingly diverse student population, and growing demands on today’s teachers, educational psychology has never been more relevant for informing instructional practice. Notably, an understanding of learning, both what and how it occurs, is essential for teachers to design and implement effective instruction that is responsive to the needs of their learners. As part of the six-part series Theory to Practice: Educational Psychology for Teachers and Teaching, this volume was developed to highlight what and how teacher educators should teach about learning so that developing teachers will be more effective in their instructional practice.

This volume on learning is needed for many of the same reasons raised in Volume 1 (Teaching on Assessment, edited by Nichols & Varier) and Volume 2 (Teaching Motivation for Student Engagement, edited by Meyer & Emery) in this series. As noted by Varier and Nichols (2021), there has been a decrease in general educational psychology courses in teacher preparation programs, often accompanied by the argument that content such as how to assess and evaluate students can be taught in an applied context, folded into classes focused on domain-specific instructional methods (Patrick et al., 2011). In their volume, Meyer and Emery (2021) point out the number of important theories and constructs related to motivation presents a challenge, as does teaching such content in a de-contextualized manner that hinders application to K–12 classroom contexts (Anderson et al., 1995). Learning, as an area of study, is no different with respect to the number of relevant fundamental theories and concepts, as well as the temptation to incorporate that content into other, more applied, courses. The amount of content related to learning juxtaposed to less time and space to teach it presents a challenging dilemma.