The Psychology of Teaching and Learning provides a thorough and comprehensive introduction to the psychology of instruction in the schools and colleges.The book divides the theory into three stages (the three steps in the subtitle): (i) work by the teacher prior to engagement with the student (e.g. needs assessment; diagnosis; mental ability including emotional intelligence); (ii) work by the teacher with the student (e.g. module delivery, formative assessment); and (iii) work done by the teacher after engagement with the student (e.g. summative assessment, remedial planning). The subject matter is wide-ranging including, for example, parental influence, behavioral factors and a consideration of different kinds of intelligence. Martinez-Pons has developed models of instruction in the form of flow charts, reports research (including plentiful quantitative studies) and includes boxed material explaining techniques and concepts (e.g. correlational analysis).It was written with graduate students of education in mind, especially for courses for educational psychology and pedagogy.
Because the book develops out of general educational psychology, it is applicable to all stages of education from elementary school to college teaching as well as in-service professionals, including educational psychologists.