Master 2 DID LIC LAC module : Psych-pedagogy Psycho-pedagogy is a combination of two disciplines : psychology and pedagogy Psychology is the study of the mind pedagogy is the art of teaching Psychology is everywhere and it plays a very important role in our everyday lives. When we combine the two disciplines, we are involved in the study of the psychological side of the teaching/learning process. In the teaching/learning process we have three elements: the learner, the teacher and the syllabus. The learner is the focus of our attention Example of the psychological aspect of the learning process: motivation, teacher’s commitment Example of the psychological aspect of teaching process: attitude of teacher towards the learner, Example of the psychological aspect of the Syllabus: learner’s feeling about the syllabus The aim : to reach a high level in the teaching/learning process; get good results The aim of science : provide people with theories what is a theory? A theory is a general, scientific explanation of a phenomenon. Only a theory can do this kind of job. A theory has a higher level of understanding but cannot explain reality in its complete form Unfortunately we do not have this general scientific explanation. Instead we have models In the literature, the word “model” is used to imply a theory but it is not. What are models: a model is an attempt to visualize some aspect of the reality. How ? by delimiting the domain of the investigation. A model cannot be a general explanation but it is very important in the development of a theory. The development of many models is a positive sign in the development of science Models restrict the domain of the research because the more you restrict the domain of the research the more you are likely to find something scientific about it. Even restricted , models may have gaps.