In general there are two fields of work you can undertake as a psychologist – you can either conduct research, or you can work in some practical capacity helping patients with their problems.

One of the more interesting job within the research side of things is the job of the educational psychologist.

This is not to be confused with the job of a school psychologist. The school psychologist is more practical – they work directly with students to help them overcome any problems they might have with their studies, or school lives in general.

The educational psychologist on the other hand is more interested in the manner in which humans of all ages learn.

You see every person is slightly different in the way they comprehend information and store it in their memory.

The most obvious example is in the speed of learning – some people seem to be naturally gifted and learn things very quickly.

others require more attention and always seem to struggle with new concepts and ideas.

But learning goes much deeper than this. Not only do we learn at different rates, we also learn in different ways.

Every person digests information differently. Some people struggle to learn if they don’t have a written explanation in front of them.

other people struggle to find much use for books, instead learn much more effectively when they have something explained to them out loud.

Some people are more visual, others more auditory.

Some people work well with the theory, others are more hands on and require a practical demonstration if possible.

Some people learn better individually while others find learning easier in a group setting.

And it’s not a black and white thing – for example, just because you are more auditory, doesn’t mean that you have zero visual learning skills.

So the educational psychologist studies all of these factors, and then tries to use them to help educators do their jobs better.

So for example they might help a teacher create a style of teaching which caters to as many different learning styles as possible.

This then gives them a much greater chance at having their students successfully learn and understand as much of their curriculum as possible. thereby raising standards of education.

So as you can see the role of the educational psychologists is an important one. While there are many other fields of study they’re involved in than the ones mentioned here, any research that improves the ability of humans to comprehend information can only be a good thing.

And if you have an interest in the human mind and how it works and learns, then this field of psychology can provide you with a very rewarding career.

psychology careers