Discuss the concepts of educational phylosophy and psychology

Introduction
When we talk of philosophy of education in ordinary discussion, they often mean the personal view of what the schools should be doing or their own attitude to the educational system. In trying to criticize what they find as faculty in a given system, they refer to their own supposed more adequate philosophy. In this way, everyone is his own philosopher of education.
The professional philosopher of education is in a position to provide a thorough and hard look at the educational system, to analyze it, and after deep reflection, to produce an alternative system. Both process of analysis and reflection and the product of their reflection are what the professionals mean by philosophy of education.
Educational philosophy attempts to comprehend education in its totality and tries to interpreter it by means of general concepts that will guide our aims and policies of education.

The Relevance of Philosophy of Education in a Teacher Training Institute.  

Since philosophy involves personal critical thinking, rather than taking statements and recommendations from others for granted. In this way, it helps the teacher become more aware of the implications of the various issues involved in education. By engaging in thinking on the subject himself, he discovers other dimensions which other educations have neglected. He discovers for himself the limits, which formulas and conventional wisdom have in educational issues.  
Secondly, philosophy gives more weight to validity or soundness of an argument rather than to the authority of the person arguing the case, it encouraged the teacher to look at educational problems critically, clearing them of the confusions that personal interests prejudices and emotional usually introduce to educational discussions.
Again, philosophy has a humbling effect on those who pursue it, in that it forces one to keep an open mind on any subject, since new evidence may render one’s previous opinion less tenable. This is for and dogmatic on educational matters.      
The hallmark of a scholar is humility. Socrates, the father of philosophy asserted that, “it is not what wise men say that constitutes wisdom, rather the beginning of wisdom is when one knows how ignorant he/she is”. This humble attribute enables us to keep on learning even from our students and stop us from arrogating all knowledge and wisdom to ourselves.
Thirdly, it increase the ability of the teacher to influence educational policies under which he operates, since by engaging in theoretical discussion of educational issues, he himself can offer alternative for action. He will no longer be at the receiving end of the educational policies formulated by others. He will now be cooperating with others to formulate more adequate policies, which he will implement in the classroom. As it were, any educational policy formulated will be implemented by the teacher, but he is never part of the policy. Many policies suffer poor implementation because the implementers have not been part and parcel of the policy formulation.
Philosophy of education offers personal intellectual education to the teacher. The teacher needs this type of education more than any one else. A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning. In this regard, Akinpelu (1981) Quotes Rahindranath Tagore assaying: “A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flames”. This means that a teacher needs to continues to develop himself intellectually if he will assist in the intellectual development of his students.
The study of philosophy of education enables teachers to appraise their progress and short comings against the background of the aims and objectives of an educational programme.

Finally, philosophy of education helps in the development of a critical mind in the teacher and promotes same in their students.                     

What is meant by the term educational psychology?

Educational psychology is one of the branches of applied psychology which focused on educational processes.  Educational psychology is the application of psychological principles, techniques and other resources of psychology to the solution of education problems confronting the teacher as he attempts to direct the process of learning and growth of the child towards the objectives set by the teacher, the school and the society      However, to Asusbel, educational psychology is that special branch of   Psychology concerned with the nature, conditions out come and evaluations of learning outcomes .      

Aims Of Educational Psychology

i. The aim of educational psychology in the school is basically to make teaching   and learning effective.
ii.  The knowledge  of educational psychology will help the teacher to understand the individual differences among students and cater for them  
Characteristic Features Of Educational Psychology
i. As science, it uses methods which can be replicated by anyone and in different places.
ii. As a branch of psychology, it has links with other branches and borrow  principles, research techniques and ideas
iii.  As an applied area of study ,it is concerned with real problems encountered in the process of learning and it seeks objective solution to these practical problems
iv. In the course of studying the problems associates with learning it has generated theories accumulated a large body of knowledge some principles and techniques. Thus it is a discipline.  

The Scope Of Study Of Educational Psychology  

The scope of educational psychology is quite extensive it can be expanded into 5 broad areas.
1. Human Growth and Development: In order to get people to learn we have to understand their capabilities what they already know, how they think, e.t.c so, the various facets of human development, physical, intellectual, linguistic, moral, social e.t.c endowed and their environments have made them different of special interest are the environmental factors that have been very beneficial in development.
2. Learning and Instruction: Educational psychology is concerned with the general nature of the learning process, the factors that influence learning, how and when different types of materials are learnt. Do people learn skills? Of particular concept is how ensure that knowledge acquire in school is transferred to life outside school not just immediately it is learnt but several years after the students have left school.
3. Personality and Adjustment: Educational psychology is interested in how people develop and maintain healthy personalities and attitudes especially students and teachers. Social; relationship and how students adjust to the school situation, make friends and interact with everyone in the educational settings as well as character formation.
4. Research, Techniques and Methods: The scientific study of educational problems and practices are of interest to educational psychologists. The implementation of research finding and techniques in the classroom settings is also of primary importance. Therefore research interest is also focused on how to find.