The Origin of Educational Psychology

In the fifth century B.C. Democritus, wrote papers on the advantages of the influence home on learning (Watson, 1961). A century later, Plato and Aristotle discussed educational psychology topics such as the kind of education appropriate to different kinds of people, the training of the body and the cultivation of the psychomotor skills, the formation of good character, the possibilities and limits of moral education, the effects of music, poetry, and the arts on the development of the individual, the possibilities, and limits of moral development of the student; the role of the teacher, the relation between teacher and student; the means and methods of teaching; the nature of learning; the order of learning; affect and learning and learning apart from the teacher (Berlinger, 1996, Alder, 1952, Watson, 1961 ). In, retrospective, these topics addressed by Plato and Aristotle are indicative of the pedagogical, educational and psychological thinking that is part of the preservation of democratic principles

According to (Berlinger, 1993), the origin of educational psychology has its humble beginning unnoticed and undistinguished as part of folk traditions of people trying to educate their young children. For instance, the ancient Jewish ritual of Passover, the Jewish leaders tell their children stories based on their individual differences. The wise learned the entire story with all the details, regarding the society and playing emphasis on belonging to a community. (Berlinger, 1993, Cronbach and Snow, 1977). In summary, these differences in teaching their Jewish children by means of story telling by Jewish leaders under today standards are considered part of the mainstream educational psychology principles.

As the following paragraph illustrates educational psychology principles also extend to the Roman era and still part of our democratic society. During Roman times, Quintilian (35-100 A.D.) argued in favor of public education to preserve democratic ideals, these ideas still prevalent in society today, he argued that good teaching and an attractive curriculum can take care of most behavior problems, and condemned physical force (Berlinger, 1996). Psychological ideas that still functional today as it was 2,000 years ago. He argued that teachers should take into account student individual differences. He was instrumental in setting criteria for teacher selection.

According to researchers educational psychology dates back the time in which Granville Stanley Hall called 26 colleagues to organize the American Psychology Association (APA) around 1890 to 1910. However, prior to these events mentioned above some educational leaders in Europe during the 18^th and early 19^th centuries were influential in distinguishing from educational and psychological principles and theories. Thus, the names of four Europeans recur in educational innovations in Europe: Rousseau o f France, Pestalozzi of Switzerland, Herbart and Froebel of Germany. These early European pioneers contributed to the development of educational psychology by means of their philosophical teaching and ideas in Europe which gradually spread to America in the 1890's.

It is worth mentioning that the European influences of Alexander Bain and John Locke allow for the development of educational psychology in England and motivated. European to come to American seeking the new found knowledge of William James via Wilhelm Wundt the father of experimental psychology experimental psychology laboratories in Germany. Wundt principles became part of British psychology via John Lock's writing which reflected James and Wundt early training. At the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century Dewey, Throndike, William James and the Child Study Movement motivated Europeans to declare that education has captured psychology. As a result of these European philosophers, psychology, and pedagogical views led to the introduction o f educational psychology became part of university curriculum in Germany and England (Thomas, 1996).