Annisa Sabrina

*Although I have worked for several years in the field of education, I am not a graduate of educational psychology. Therefore, this essay serves as my little research on how educational psychology fundamentally contributes to one basic aspect that I think needs to be covered by the field of education, namely character education.It is evident that character education is something essential. Unfortunately, some educators nowadays seem to forget about character education’s original history, when values such as responsibility, honesty, loyalty, compassion, trust, and respect became big concerns in society (Sanchez, 2005). Those values certainly need to be taught, learned, and put into practice. In this regard, social institutions such as family and school should be the ones who hold the main responsibility. As noted by William Huitt, character education was the main focus in American schools before the World War II era. However, soon after World War II began, the values they upheld started to shift. At that time, character education among young people was understood as the freedom to choose or not choose something, then academic achievement became dominant and was used as a measure of students’ success.Similar to the phenomena that occurred in the United States, character education may also has become a serious issue in many other countries for quite a long time. Referring to the character education policy in Indonesia, for example, it is stated that the country’s education actually has two objectives (Kurniasih et al., 2018). The first one is to build students’ good character, then the second one is to develop students’ skills and knowledge. The policy implies that character education should be an integrated part of the school curriculum. However, in its implementation, character education was often misunderstood as separate activities from the main classroom activities, such as reading the morning prayer, carrying out the flag ceremony every Monday, and so on. Consequently, character education was not well internalised by students and was only considered as a ritual. Again, it has become something that is less important than academic achievement.In relation to the issues of character education that have been discussed, it is clear that educators need to be equipped with knowledge which could support them to solve problems involving students’ character and educational psychology is one of the relevant areas. There are several previous studies that have raised issues related to educational psychology and education, one of which is research conducted by Martin (2019). The main argument of his research is how the LRI (Load Reduction Instruction) could be a potential approach that contributes to meaningful learning activities. He believes that the approach would create an in-depth learning and improve the learning quality at the same time. Different from the research conducted by Martin (2019) which emphasises the discussion of the LRI approach’s effectiveness based on an educational psychology perspective, this essay aims to criticise the significance of educational psychology’s presence to deal with issues in the realm of character education.Referring to this essay’s purpose that has been elaborated, the methodology which underlies this essay is a qualitative method. It criticises the relation between educational psychology and character education by using Thomas Fetsco and John McClure’s concept of educational psychology as the key concept to be discussed. According to Fetsco & McClure, educational psychology is an area that studies students’ behaviour and mental process which are related to their learning. Experts in educational psychology carefully analyse what kinds of teaching style and classroom environment that could be effective to support the development of students’ learning process. They study various phenomena related to teaching, including the impacts of the digital era, social influences, and students’ characteristics on achievements at school. They also conduct critical observations and apply the theories that they assessed to help teachers in making decisions. Thus, the concept of educational psychology which has been explained is used to examine how educational psychology plays a critical role as a tool in shaping character education.To begin, as stated by Fetsco and McClure, it is obvious that one of the main responsibilities of educational psychologists is to provide assistance for teachers in taking appropriate steps to overcome various kinds of problems regarding students’ learning process. Unfortunately, at the practice level, educational psychologists have recently faced challenges in raising awareness among educators about the importance of their concern for educational psychology itself (Hanich & Deemer, 2005). Based on the article titled “The ABC’s of Motivation: An Alternative Framework for Teaching Preservice Teachers about Motivation” by Valerie Leake and Lynley Anderman, there seems to be a lack of motivation for preservice teachers to devote themselves seriously as educators. Leake and Anderman then suggested that the field of educational psychology should provide courses which emphasise values such as belongingness, self-determination, as well as autonomy. They also highlighted that some preservice teachers are not ready with their students’ diversity. This opinion is also supported by Monica Medina, Anastasia Morrone, and Jeffrey Anderson’s article titled “Promoting Social Justice in Urban Secondary Teacher Education Program”, in which they argued that the ideal preservice teachers need to possess a quality such as an open and critical perspective on various values. Referring to the relation between educational psychology and character education, the findings of the two articles make it clear that educational psychology is a branch of science which acts as a key provision for one of the main pioneers who could improve character education, namely teachers. As illustrated in the articles, it is important to note that educational psychology is a very crucial field for character education development because educational psychologists dedicate themselves as mediators in preparing teachers to fulfill the required skills, so they would be ready to improve students’ character education according to the dynamics of society. However, teachers need to do more careful self-reflection because they are the root of education itself. They need to realise that their responsibility is not only to deliver learning materials to students, but also to dedicate themselves in making peace with complex circumstances. To improve students’ character, teachers are certainly expected to have adequate capabilities to lead classes well, which include both good pedagogical skills and emotional maturity. It is undeniable that the question remained in this matter is how to set up a conducive collaboration between teachers and educational psychologists during preservice training or any educational psychology course to create such an environment. There should be acceptance and a strong desire from teachers to actually implement the knowledge they have received in training or courses.Furthermore, Fetsco & McClure’s concept validates that educational psychology is indeed suitable to be considered as a core science which determines the direction of character education development. There is one important thing that might be the reason why educational psychology could bring significant changes in the context of character education building, namely the fact that it studies students’ behaviour and mental process. Along with mental process, behaviour is closely related to emotional intelligence and recently, there has been a lot of research claiming that emotional intelligence influences many things, including academic achievement. For instance, in an article titled “The Role of Emotional Intelligence, the Teacher-Student Relationship, and Flourishing on Academic Performance in Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Study” by María Teresa Chamizo-Nieto, Christiane Arrivillaga, Lourdes Rey, and Natalio Extremera, it is argued that students with good emotional intelligence tend to achieve better academic results as they know how to manage emotions when communicating with their friends and teachers. This kind of argument could thus solidly reconstruct the educational paradigm which should focus on two aspects, namely the academic aspect and the character aspect. There is a possibility that the implementation of character education could change for the better at such a phase. Surely, before being able to sharpen students’ emotional intelligence, teachers must at least have some knowledge of students’ behaviour and mental process that they have received from courses or training provided by educational psychologists. It would be even better if teachers specifically pursue further education majoring in educational psychology and implement their knowledge in the workplace.Last but not least, the interesting point from Fetsco & McClure’s concept is the long-term benefits of educational psychology. It can be seen that educational psychology is not only beneficial for teachers, but also for students, since educational psychologists always try to deeply examine various social phenomena which have the potential to affect students’ performance. Indeed, in relation to the issues of character education, talking about students’ performance does not only include aspects of academic intelligence, but also emotional intelligence. The pure purpose of education since previous centuries, after all, has been to create youths who make beneficial contributions to the world and to make them successful individuals with good ethics (Center for Curriculum Redesign, 2015). It is the matter of how students acquire strong values, abilities, as well as virtues to act wisely in a diverse life. Especially in the 21st century, students are required to grow as citizens who are able to carry complex community and social responsibilities in society. Through these views, it is shown that the presence of educational psychology indirectly influences the formation of future generations’ character and fate.In conclusion, the discussions that have been described point out educational psychology as a science which makes a substantial contribution to character education. It is a basic knowledge that teachers need continuously in order to be able to deal with various issues associated with education, including character education. However, there are several challenges which still need to be faced so that the knowledge in educational psychology is implemented successfully and effectively. One of the fundamental solutions to overcome these challenges is to design constructive methods which could establish teachers’ sincere devotion. With sincerity, they would probably have a stronger dedication and effort to improve students’ character. If the awareness to actually practice knowledge received from the field of educational psychology has been built among teachers, a solid system for improving character education, gradually, would also be formed and create a lasting impact for future generations.ReferencesCenter of Curriculum Redesign. (2015). Character Education for the 21st Century: What Should Students Learn?. https://curriculumredesign.org/wp-content/uploads/CCR-CharacterEducation_FINAL_27Feb2015.pdf.Fetsco, T. & McClure, J. (2005). Educational Psychology: An Integrated Approach to Classroom Decisions. Allyn & Bacon.Hanich, L. B. & Deemer, S. (2005). The Relevance of Educational Psychology in Teacher Education Programs. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas.Kurniasih, H., Utari, V. Y. D., & Akhmadi. (2018). Character Education Policy and Its Implications for Learning in Indonesia’s Education System. Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Indonesia.Martin, A. J. (2019). Educational Psychology and Student Learning: The Potential of Load Reduction Instruction for Exploring Surface and Deep Approaches to Learning. University of New South Wales.Sanchez, T. R. (2005). Facing the Challenge of Character Education. International Journal of Social Education, v19 n2, p106–111 Fall-Win 2004–2005.

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Annisa Sabrina

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