One of the areas of learning sciences that I personally believed is important is the cognitive-psychological perspective. As my research interest, cognitive psychology deals with learning how learners identify, think, process, and make sense of the information they gathered. I am personally interested in using this perspective to know how to inspire and encourage learners to persevere while learning.

Educational psychology contributes to understanding the cognitive-psychological perspective because it provides innovations and interventions in learning by acknowledging learners' performances as mutually linked to their socio-emotional conditions. Social factors such as families, friends, peers, classmates, and fellow learners affect their mindset and perception of learning. Meanwhile, emotional factors such as excitement, anticipation, boredom, and unrest can also influence their learning. This results in the inclusion of motivation through reinforcement and incentive in learning.

There is much research evidence available on the internet that educational psychologists aim to offer. These include helping people to learn best at their own pacing, as well as, develop researches for educators, teaching personnel, and students that would further improve teaching and learning methodologies.

In an online article by Cherry (2020), she cited different research interests that educational psychologists delve into: educational technology, instructional design, special education, curriculum development, organizational learning, and gifted learners.

To provide some incites about these research interests, educational psychologists adopt different perspectives on handling conditions to better pave the way to effective learning. In educational technology, they look at "how different types of technology can help students learn". This involves the translation, popularization, and transfer of printed materials to technologies that would enable learners to retrieve and preserve information for future references.

In instructional design, educators help with redesigning learning materials using learning management systems. This allows learners to gauge information on their own pacing, through a more collaborative and creative approach of teaching.

Meanwhile, special education helps educators cater to students' special needs, such as getting specialized instruction for the tasks that they do not understand. Through curriculum development, they were able to create curriculums wherein learning is maximize by empowering learners to be immersed with the practical applications of the lessons to their learning environment.

Organizational learning, on the other hand, studies how learners organize and collaborate as groups to have a better experience of the topics. Lastly, providing unique methods of teaching and learning for “students who are identified as gifted learners” [1].

Reference:

[1] Cherry, K. (2020). Educational Psychology and the Learning Process. Very Well Mind. Retrieved September 9, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-educational-psychology-2795157