Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my parents and to my students. I also thank the authors of the book for their effort, and many thanks to Sara Debeuc for her support.

## Author details

#### Trif Victorița

Address all correspondence to: victoriatrif@yahoo.com

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

**Chapter 2**

**Provisional chapter**

**A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve**

**A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve** 

The purpose of this chapter is to present a theoretical proposal for the adoption of a professional role characterized by thinking and acting critically, in order to generate educational changes. Educational psychology has been shaped by theoretical and epistemological perspectives that have not placed emphasis on the reflection or discussion of issues relevant to discipline, which has led to establishment of areas, functions and roles that are unclear and lacking consensus, from a paradigmatic logic of simplicity. It is proposed, through the bibliographic review of articles and book chapters, a position of educational psychology that promotes critical thinking as an essential part of the professional role, which allows, on the one hand, to discuss the foundational basis of this discipline, allowing greater clarity on the scope of the scientific and the professional field. On the other hand, it allows the development of a facet of promotion of changes in the educational community, from this same critical role, bringing it closer to a paradigm of complexity. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of this position are discussed, and it is concluded that this view would establish a new perspective of educational psychol-

**Keywords:** educational psychology, professional role, educational change, complexity,

Educational psychology has a long history that has been lost in the dawn of time, hand in hand with the first concerns of Greek philosophers in relation to human thought and their ability to know. However, as a discipline it does not have a transient nature of more than

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.80509

**Complexity in Educational Psychology**

ogy, which can be complemented by the traditional view.

100 years, a scarce time compared to other fields of knowledge.

**Complexity in Educational Psychology**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Carlos Ossa-CornejoAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80509

Carlos Ossa-Cornejo

**Abstract**

critical thinking

**1. Introduction**

## References


#### **A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve Complexity in Educational Psychology A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve Complexity in Educational Psychology**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.80509

Carlos Ossa-Cornejo

Author details

Address all correspondence to: victoriatrif@yahoo.com

6 Educational Psychology - Between Certitudes and Uncertainties

studies-as-unconventional-meanings

Paris: UNESCO; 2008. pp. 136-138

bridge University Press; 2003. pp. 3-30

Academic Publishing; 2017. http://www.lap-publishing.com

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

[1] Trif V. Case studies as unconventional meanings. In: Bernand Cavero O, Llevot Calvet N, editors. New Pedagogical Challenges in 21st Century—Contributions of Research in Education. Rijeka, Croatia: InTechOpen; 2018. http://mts.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/case-

[2] Cognitive TV. Semantic and Social Dissonances into Assessment. Saarbrucken: Lap Lampert

[3] Trif V. Sharing knowledge system in higher education as a result of psychological reglobalization. In: Global Research Seminar: Sharing Research Agendas on Knowledge Systems.

[4] Bruner J. The Culture of Education. London and Massachusetts: Harvard University Press;

[5] Davidson J, Sternberg R, editors. The Psychology of Problem Solving. Cambridge: Cam-

[6] Trif V. Can Images—As a result of processing metaphorical brain—be processed by quantitative metrics? Open Journal of Social Sciences. 2016;4(3):123-129. DOI: 10.4236/jss.2016.43018

Trif Victorița

References

1996. p. 46

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Carlos Ossa-CornejoAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80509

#### **Abstract**

The purpose of this chapter is to present a theoretical proposal for the adoption of a professional role characterized by thinking and acting critically, in order to generate educational changes. Educational psychology has been shaped by theoretical and epistemological perspectives that have not placed emphasis on the reflection or discussion of issues relevant to discipline, which has led to establishment of areas, functions and roles that are unclear and lacking consensus, from a paradigmatic logic of simplicity. It is proposed, through the bibliographic review of articles and book chapters, a position of educational psychology that promotes critical thinking as an essential part of the professional role, which allows, on the one hand, to discuss the foundational basis of this discipline, allowing greater clarity on the scope of the scientific and the professional field. On the other hand, it allows the development of a facet of promotion of changes in the educational community, from this same critical role, bringing it closer to a paradigm of complexity. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of this position are discussed, and it is concluded that this view would establish a new perspective of educational psychology, which can be complemented by the traditional view.

**Keywords:** educational psychology, professional role, educational change, complexity, critical thinking

### **1. Introduction**

Educational psychology has a long history that has been lost in the dawn of time, hand in hand with the first concerns of Greek philosophers in relation to human thought and their ability to know. However, as a discipline it does not have a transient nature of more than 100 years, a scarce time compared to other fields of knowledge.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

It is possible to establish that its birth and development is mainly generated in the twentieth century, spite the identification of a varied range of European precursors such as North Americans [1] in the previous centuries. The birth and consolidation of this discipline, found between the years 1900 and 1920, is sustained and guided by ideologies and conceptual frameworks linked to the behavioral and functionalist perspective of psychology [1, 2], that will print an unmistakable seal of scientificity, evaluation and intervention of the medium to guide such behavior. This seal will be maintained throughout the twentieth century as part of the professional role.

**2. Transitions of educational psychology from simplicity to** 

achieve clear, measurable and unambiguous knowledge.

process as a central object of educational psychology [1].

power) as they cannot be explained nor adequately controlled [4, 9].

Munné [8] has pointed out that the discussion of simplicity and complexity is linked to the search for knowledge, which relates this discussion with an ontological and epistemological analysis with which human beings have explained reality. The preceding is due to the fact that it is a search for knowledge that has guided the development of scientific and professional disciplines. The way in which this search has been based has been to a great extent, although not in a single dimension, on the rationality and reductionism that are characteristics of the traditional and positivist scientific outlook. This has allowed the capturing and understanding of reality in a sequential and orderly manner, and with basic processes of cognition that promote the processing of information in an expeditious and efficient manner, in order to

A Critical Role of the Psychologist: A Way to Achieve Complexity in Educational Psychology

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80509

9

This perspective is oriented by the human need of seeing this reality as something ordered, perfect and harmonious [4, 8], where even the knowledge of the people and the educational theory should also be equally ordered, structured, and specified in stereotyped actions, with a hierarchical, clear and objective management, that leaves out the problems and noises that arise in the educational level (such as learning difficulties, school demotivation, violence and

According to the perspective of the simplistic paradigm, psychology as a scientific discipline (as well as the traditional educational psychology) would fit greatly in that model, as it would present characteristics that are focused on individual attention (preferably), on the assessment of technical knowledge, in the functionality of a pathology, in the standardization of behaviors to behavioral standards (norms), and in the hierarchical relation between the fields

Even the history of educational psychology has been influenced by the characteristics of simplicity, as its birth and consolidation seemed to have responded more to pragmatic-conceptual determinations, such as the adherence to the behavioral theory of the 1920s and 1930s, rather than an academic reflection [6]. This adoption of the scientific position (uncritical and amoral), has established a reductionist approach that is focused on the teaching and learning

It is necessary to properly recognize the contribution of a scientific view of simplicity that has allowed the conceptual and empirical field of psychology to develop as a serious and respectable discipline, thus, producing the same result in educational psychology. However, nowadays this view has been imposed as the only acceptable paradigm for the development of knowledge and professional performance, generating difficulties in the theoretical, paradigmatic and even technical evolution that this discipline presents in its link with the educational process, which

Therefore, it is necessary to direct our practices toward the development of a perspective centered on complexity, as it is part of our everyday reality, and can give an account of our most

results in an inability to provide adequate answers for the challenges that arise [10].

**complexity**

of knowledge [6].

These perspectives of psychology and their cognitivist derivation (cognitive behavioral psychology) were developed on the basis of the conception of the world and the human being of the paradigm of simplicity, which aims to value objectivity, control and reduction of variables [3, 4]. Even though other psychological views populated the twentieth century (psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, transpersonal or systemic psychology, etc.), they have not had the same impact on educational psychology, as well as on education as a socio-cultural phenomenon, perhaps due to the fact that they search exactly the opposite, that is, the integrity, the subjectivity, the emotional; in other words, the complexity.

With a discipline inspired by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and materialized in the twentieth century, I think it is fair, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, to establish a reflexive, innovative and transformative review of the educational psychology. This is necessary because even with the great amount of knowledge and expertise that has accumulated, educational psychology has not significantly impacted the educational process or contributed to the sociocultural change that is required in these times to learn and teach [5].

What kind of educational psychology does the twenty-first century need? This is a great question to answer. However, little has been done about it [6].

In this chapter we propose a resignification of the work of the educational psychologist in order to establish a complex and non-simplistic discipline that allows facing the essential tensions and dilemmas that have never been clarified [6] such as: what is the identity of educational psychology, and what is the purpose in the generation of knowledge. This desirable horizon, educational psychology from the complexity, requires a crucial tool: the availability of critical thinking. The nature of a professional is to use criticality to generate change, both of themselves as a professional and as a person, as well as of the educational community in which they are located.

The critical concept has different acceptations, on the one hand, it is seen as something decisive or of priority, which must be resolved in a timely manner, and on the other hand, as the constant evaluation of an idea or situation (definition from the Royal Spanish Academy or RAE in Spanish) [7]. In this way, and from a superficial synthesis of these acceptations, critical thinking is a tool that would allow facing relevant situations of the person or the community through questioning and reflection, in order to achieve a change in said situation, and therefore, should be the strategy that allows the work of educational psychologists to promote change as a part of the sociocultural interaction in the educational community, a focus that César Coll was already pointing out in 2001.
