Sign In to Download the Syllabus
The Psychology 120 syllabus is available to enrolled or registered students. Sign in to your UPI Study account to download it instantly — or enroll today to get access.
Once signed in, the syllabus will download automatically. No extra steps.
Educational
Psychology
Understand how people actually learn, and use that knowledge to teach, train, design, or lead in ways that genuinely work.
What You'll Learn
A full semester of educational psychology — completed at your own pace, with no deadlines or fixed class times.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Understand the cognitive processes involved in learning, including memory systems, problem-solving strategies, and creativity; explore behaviorism and its applications in education, including classical and operant conditioning, reinforcement schedules, and behavior management techniques.
- Examine child and adolescent development within educational contexts, including cognitive development theories, sociocultural influences, and moral development; investigate motivation theories and their impact on student learning, including goal orientation, self-efficacy, and teacher expectations.
- Recognize and accommodate individual differences among learners, including intelligence measurement, learning styles, and special education considerations; apply assessment methods, instructional strategies, and research methodology to real educational settings.
Major Course Topics
Course chapters and lessons
Educational Psychology has 11 chapters across 71.5 instructional hours, as listed in the course syllabus. Expand any chapter to see the lessons inside it.
- Chapters
- 11
- Lessons
- 100
- Instructional hours
- 71.5 hrs
- Semester hours
- 3
Chapter 1
Foundations of Education and Learning
- 1.1 Why Do We Even Have Schools? A Look at Education's Past and Purpose
- 1.2 How People Learn: Psychology Meets the Classroom
- 1.3 What Actually Makes a Great Teacher?
- 1.4 Five Ways to Think About Learning: Behavior, Cognition, Development, Society, and Construction
- 1.5 Know Your Rights: Supporting Students with Disabilities in School
Chapter 2
Memory, Thinking, and the Learning Mind
- 2.1 How Your Brain Processes Everything You Learn
- 2.2 How Memory Works: A Classic Model Explained
- 2.3 From a Glance to a Lifetime: How Your Brain Stores Information
- 2.4 Your Brain's Sticky Note: Understanding Short-Term Memory
- 2.5 Never Forget Again: Memory Tricks That Actually Work
- 2.6 Why We Forget — and Why That's Okay
- 2.7 Mental Filing Cabinets: How We Organize What We Know
- 2.8 Information Processing: Types of Transfer
- 2.9 Think Smarter: Creativity, Brainstorming, and Solving Problems
- 2.10 Building a Classroom Where Big Ideas Thrive
- 2.11 Stuck on a Problem? Here's How to Unstick Yourself
- 2.12 Why Your Brain Takes Shortcuts (and When That Backfires)
- 2.13 Thinking Like an Adult: Piaget's Final Stage of Development
Chapter 3
Behavior, Conditioning, and Classroom Management
- 3.1 Actions Have Consequences: Thorndike's Big Idea
- 3.2 Pavlov Wasn't Just About Dogs: Classical Conditioning in Real Life
- 3.3 Fear by Design: How Watson's Little Albert Experiment Changed Psychology
- 3.4 Rewards, Punishments, and Everything In Between
- 3.5 How Often Should You Reward? Finding the Right Schedule
- 3.6 Use What They Love: The Premack Principle in Your Classroom
- 3.7 Small Steps, Big Changes: How to Shape Behavior
- 3.8 Keeping It Together: Practical Classroom Discipline Strategies
- 3.9 When Students Act Out: Understanding and Responding to Difficult Behaviors
Chapter 4
Cognitive and Social Development in Children
- 4.1 Growing Up: What Changes and What Shapes Us
- 4.2 How Kids Think: Piaget's Map of the Mind
- 4.3 Learning by Adjusting: Assimilation vs. Accommodation
- 4.4 From Baby to Teen: Piaget's Four Stages of Thinking
- 4.5 Learning is Social: Vygotsky's Big Idea
- 4.6 The Sweet Spot for Learning: ZPD and Scaffolding
- 4.7 We Learn Together: Social Constructivism in Action
- 4.8 Giving Students the Right Mental Tools to Grow
- 4.9 Piaget vs. Vygotsky: Two Giants, One Goal
- 4.10 How Thinking and Relationships Grow Together
Chapter 5
Identity, Language, Morality, and the Whole Child
- 5.1 Who Am I? Erikson's Eight Stages of Life
- 5.2 From Babble to Books: How Language Develops in Kids
- 5.3 Speaking More Than One Language: Why It Matters in Schools
- 5.4 Learning to Be Good: Moral Development and Kindness in Schools
- 5.5 Is It Right or Wrong? Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Thinking
- 5.6 A Different Voice: Gilligan's Take on Morality
- 5.7 Boys, Girls, and Everyone Else: Gender in the Classroom
- 5.8 Born That Way or Raised That Way? The Gender Debate
- 5.9 It Takes a Village: Bronfenbrenner's World of Influences
- 5.10 Putting the Student First: Humanistic Approaches in Education
Chapter 6
Motivation, Goals, and the Drive to Learn
- 6.1 Why Motivation Is the Engine of Learning
- 6.2 Watch, Learn, Do: Social-Cognitive Learning in Action
- 6.3 Meeting Students Where They Are: Maslow's Hierarchy
- 6.4 Believe You Can: Bandura and Attribution Theory
- 6.5 Do I Want This? Can I Do This? Expectancy-Value Theory
- 6.6 What Are Students Really Trying to Achieve? Goals and Motivation
- 6.7 Loving It vs. Earning It: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
- 6.8 I Think I Can vs. I Am Good At This: Self-Efficacy and Self-Concept
- 6.9 Choice, Competence, and Connection: Self-Determination Theory
- 6.10 Taking Charge: Self-Regulated Learning and Teacher Expectations
- 6.11 When Students Stop Trying: Learned Helplessness and Extrinsic Rewards
Chapter 7
Individual Differences, Intelligence, and Inclusive Learning
- 7.1 How Do We Measure How Smart Someone Is? Intelligence Methods
- 7.2 Fluid, Crystallized, and Multiple Intelligences: The Full Picture
- 7.3 How Parenting, Culture, and Socialization Shape the Way We Learn
- 7.4 Who Am I? Self-Concept, Identity, and How They Change Over Time
- 7.5 Every Student Deserves a Plan: Special Education and IEPs
- 7.6 Spotting and Supporting Students Who Learn Differently
- 7.7 Understanding ADHD in the Classroom
- 7.8 Finding the Words: Speech, Communication, and Asperger Syndrome
- 7.9 Learning Without Limits: Supporting Students with Sensory Needs
- 7.10 When the Brain Races Ahead: Teaching Gifted Learners
- 7.11 To Group or Not to Group? Ability Grouping, Dysgraphia, and Learning Differences
Chapter 8
Assessment, Testing, and Making Sense of Results
- 8.1 How Do We Know What Students Know? Types of Assessment
- 8.2 Checking In vs. Wrapping Up: Formative and Summative Assessment
- 8.3 What Makes a Good Test, Actually? Qualities, Validity and Reliability
- 8.4 Did They Learn It or Just Do It? Product vs. Process Assessment
- 8.5 From Scores to Insights: How to Summarize Assessment Results
- 8.6 The Bell Curve and Standard Deviation: What the Numbers Tell Us
- 8.7 Compared to Others vs. Compared to a Standard: Norm vs. Criterion
- 8.8 Average, Middle, and Most Common: Stats Every Teacher Should Know
- 8.9 Standardized Tests: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated
- 8.10 When Tests Have Too Much Power: High-Stakes Testing
- 8.11 Fair for Everyone: Tackling Bias in Assessments
- 8.12 Using Tests Responsibly: Ethics in Assessment
- 8.13 Assessing Students with Special Needs
Chapter 9
Instructional Strategies and Effective Teaching Practice
- 9.1 Get Up, Get Involved: Active and Collaborative Learning
- 9.2 Taught or Discovered? Two Approaches to Instruction
- 9.3 One Size Doesn't Fit All: Differentiated Instruction
- 9.4 What Do You Want Students to Actually Be Able to Do? Bloom's Taxonomy
- 9.5 The Art of Explaining Things Well: Expository Teaching
- 9.6 Setting the Stage Before the Lesson Begins: Advance Organizers
- 9.7 Learning Is Better Together: Cooperative Learning Strategies
- 9.8 Calm, Focused, and Ready to Learn: Classroom Management Tips
- 9.9 The Magic of Silence: Using Wait Time Effectively
Chapter 10
Research Methods and Evidence in Education
- 10.1 How Do Researchers Study Education? Research Designs and Experiments
- 10.2 Can We Trust the Results? Validity, Reliability and Correlation
- 10.3 What Do the Numbers Tell Us? Inferential Statistics in Education
- 10.4 Research with Integrity: Ethical Guidelines in Education
- 10.5 Can We Apply This Everywhere? Generalizing Research Findings
Chapter 11
Technology, Digital Tools, and the Future of Learning
- 11.1 Tech in the Classroom: Real-World Examples
- 11.2 Learning Online: What Works and What Doesn't
- 11.3 Giving Students the Digital Tools to Succeed
- 11.4 What's Next? The Future of Learning Technology
These chapters come straight from the official course syllabus, which also sets out the graded assignment and the proctored final exam.
How It Works
Three steps from enrollment to transferable college credit — no campus visits, no application required.
Pick & Enroll
Start one or more courses covering lower or upper division requirements — instantly, today.
Earn College Credit
Watch short video lessons, take quizzes and the final exam — all from home, on your schedule.
Transfer Your Credits
Send earned credits to your school and graduate sooner, at a fraction of the cost.
Does My School Accept This Course?
UPI Study courses carry NCCRS recommendations — the same standard recognized by hundreds of cooperating colleges and universities. Check if your school is on our list and move forward with confidence — or schedule a call with our team.
Students Also Enrolled In
Stack multiple courses to build 6, 9, or 12+ transferable college credits — at a fraction of the cost of most campus options.
UPI Study Courses Include
Use educational psychology to understand people, behavior, and society.
Understand how people actually learn, and use that knowledge to teach, train, design, or lead in ways that genuinely work.
🎯 Why It Matters
- Understand what drives human thought, emotion, and behavior
- Build skills applicable in counseling, education, research, and beyond
- Strengthen ethical reasoning and cultural sensitivity
- Applies to careers across healthcare, education, and social services
💼 In-Demand Careers
- Case Manager
- Social Services Coordinator
- Human Resources Specialist
- Counseling Assistant
- Research Assistant
- Community Outreach Coordinator
🚀 How This Sets You Up
- Complete structured lessons and a comprehensive final exam
- Earn 3 transferable college credit hours
- Recognized by NCCRS cooperating universities
- Self-paced — no deadlines, no campus visits required
135,000+ Learners.
Real Results.
From college freshmen to career changers, international students to working adults — here's what our community says.
Refer a friend, earn free courses
Your friend gets 25% off their first purchase, and you earn points when they join and buy. 1 point = $1 toward courses, transcripts and Lifetime. Points are never cash.
See how it works →
See the course before you enroll
A 58-second look at Educational Psychology.
Common Questions Answered.
Everything you need to know about Educational Psychology — credits, grading, transfer, and how it compares to traditional options.
What is Educational Psychology?
What will I be able to do after finishing Educational Psychology?
Is the Educational Psychology course self-paced for college credit?
How many college credits is Educational Psychology worth?
How is the Educational Psychology course graded? Are there exams?
Will my university accept Educational Psychology credits from UPI Study?
Why take Educational Psychology online instead of at a traditional university?
Can international students take Educational Psychology for college credit?
Who needs Educational Psychology?
Is Psych 101 a prerequisite for Educational Psychology?
Where will my college put this credit?
Still have questions? Our team answers within hours — not days.
Book a Free 15-Min Call with UPI Team →We're Here When You Need Us
Book an Advisor Call
Talk directly with our team about how credits transfer and whether your university accepts them.
WhatsApp Support
Quick answers about credits, course selection, pricing, and transfer policies — over WhatsApp.
Transfer Credit Blog
In-depth guides on testing out of courses, transfer credit policies, ACE evaluations, and saving on tuition.
Find My College
Check how your college treats our courses before you enroll.
Why Take College Credits?
Quick answers about transferable online credits, test-out style learning, and NCCRS-recommended options through UPI Study.
Which universities accept these credits?
UPI Study courses carry NCCRS recommendations recognized by various cooperating colleges and universities across the U.S., Canada, and UK.
Who can take self-paced college courses?
Anyone can enroll — including high school students, incoming college students, adult learners, and students trying to test out of traditional courses.
Why choose this over traditional classes?
Save time and reduce tuition costs. Many students complete prerequisites faster and shorten their time to graduation — at a fraction of the cost.
How many credits can I earn?
This course is NCCRS-recommended for 3 semester credit hours. Transfer as many credits as your university allows — students have transferred anywhere from 3 to 90+ credits depending on their school's policy.
Everything You Need to Succeed
Video-Based Lessons
HD video lectures broken into short, focused modules. Watch at your own pace — pause, rewind, replay any time.
Quizzes & Final Exam
Evaluate your understanding after every section with quizzes and a comprehensive final exam that mirrors real college assessment.
Structured College-Level Course
Structured lessons covering every topic — designed as a standard Educational Psychology college-level course.
Official Transcript
Complete the course, request your transcript, and transfer 3 credit hours to NCCRS cooperating universities. No separate exam required.
Earn 3 College Credits
for $250.
Self-paced. No deadlines. NCCRS-recommended, recognized by various NCCRS cooperating universities. Join 135,000+ learners on the UPI Study platform.