Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching (3rd Edition) - Softcover

The first book of its kind, Essentials of Educational Psychology focuses squarely on the core concepts, principles, and underlying assumptions of the field of educational psychology–the big ideas of ed psych.  Because of this focus and the book’s exceptionally direct and clear presentation, Essentials is a 10-chapter book that can truly be covered and understood in a term.  It is a book that enables and empowers students to understand the value and essential importance of educational psychology to becoming a qualified and effective teacher.

What's new in the Third Edition?

• Each chapter now begins with three to six Mega-Ideas—overarching, unifying principles that subsume the chapter’s Big Ideas and can serve as advance organizers for readers.
• Numerous margin questions encourage readers to reflect on what they’re reading. Their purpose is often to encourage readers to connect what they’re reading to their past experiences or current beliefs about a topic
•  The Developmental Trends tables in Chapters 2 through 10 now have a new “Example” column that illustrates one or more of the age-typical characteristics for each of four grade levels: K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12.
• New video examples have been added to the Book-Specific Resources in MyEducationLab, with references to them in the margins at appropriate places throughout the book.
• Added or enhanced coverage of many topics including: action research, culturally responsive teaching, bullying, the use of technology in planning and instruction, and English Language Learners.

“I have had many students each term tell me that this is the most readable and practical textbook they have ever read. . . .[Essentials] is something that [Ormrod] wrote after considering her students’ needs!  This comes out in the writing style but in a way that also maintains the rigor of the content and uses the most recent understandings in the field.”

Mark J. Szymanski

Pacific University

“This text creates an integrated and engaging narrative that adeptly weaves theories and concepts of learning, motivation, and development into classroom teaching. . . .Not only is the text a pleasure to read, but it is also a pleasure to teach using this text. . . .This format is sensitive to the length of semesters, and frees instructors from rushing from one chapter to the next or covering multiple chapters in a single week.  As such, instructors have greater flexibility to explore the topics with students.”

Cecil Robinson

The University of Alabama

“Other texts present information that is often bogged down with dry descriptions of research and abstract concepts.  Ormrod has an outstanding ability to make content accessible to and interesting for undergraduate students. . . .Also, examples and suggestions are clearly related to chapter content and helpful for tying content to actual classroom practice.  We recommend that students keep this textbook because it will be a useful reference for them when they actually begin teaching.”

Rhoda Cummings

University of Nevada, Reno

Jeanne Ellis Ormrod received her A.B. in psychology from Brown University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in educational psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. She earned licensure in school psychology through postdoctoral work at Temple University and the University of Colorado at Boulder and has worked as a middle school geography teacher and school psychologist. She was Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado until 1998 and is currently Professor Emerita in UNC’s School of Psychological Sciences. She has published numerous research articles on cognition and memory, cognitive development, and giftedness, but she is probably best known for this textbook and four others: Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (now in its seventh edition); Human Learning (now in its fifth edition); Child Development and Education (co-authored with Teresa McDevitt, now in its fourth edition); and Practical Research (co-authored with Paul Leedy, now in its ninth edition). After raising three children (two of whom have become teachers themselves), she now lives in New Hampshire with her husband Richard and occasionally teaches courses at the University of New Hampshire.