The eduFire Blog

Psychology is powerfully linked to education; without research in neuroscience, speech pathology, learning, cognition, and much more, we would never be able to advance and improve teaching. Besides being useful, psychology is extremely interesting and can tell you a lot about how you learn and why you think the way you do. Sadly, there aren’t too many psychology courses on eduFire, though that will hopefully change in the near future! In the meantime, here are ten blogs about various fields within psychology. All of them provide great ways to learn more about the subject (the links and articles are REALLY interesting) and see how it relates to important social issues like bettering education or special needs learning.

1. The Media Psychology Blog

My personal favorite of the ten, the Media Psychology Blog (run by the Media Psychology Research Center) is a fascinating, up-to-date read for anyone interested in psychology and/or social media. It discusses different forms of research and is extremely applicable to many people today, with the growing importance of social networking sites (Facebook or Twitter, anyone?). Even better, it relates new findings on psychology and media to entrepreneurship, marketing, and current events, so it also gives plenty of information to people with an interest in business or in knowing the latest media trends and how they are rapidly changing our world.
(http://mprcenter.org/blog/)

2. Techpsych

Techpsych caught my attention not only because of the many links, diagrams, and videos, but also due to how well it links psychology with technology and uses both of these topics to discuss how to improve education (that last part sounds a bit like eduFire’s goal too :)!). This site shares an abundance of resources, also aimed at psychology researchers as well as educators and other professionals in similar fields, so it is a great source of information.
(http://techpsych.blogspot.com/)

3. Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs

In our efforts to improve education for all students, we can’t forget those who are trying hard to learn in spite of special needs. This blog provides tons of links and resources for educators working with special needs students, however severe or complicated their needs may be. Thus, it provides important information to teachers who are truly making education accessible to everyone, while covering a specific major field within psychology.
(http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/)

4. Perusing Psychology

Somewhat more technical and scientific, Perusing Psychology is another interesting blog that really caught my eye (I only wish I had enough time to read through all the older entries too; they’re quite long!). This site focuses more on neuroscience and psychobiology research, discussing how people think as well as the latest data on diseases that affect a brain’s functioning, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or aphasia. Definitely a good one for anyone curious about the more biological side of psychology. There’s some cool videos on there too!
(http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/)

5. IQ’s Corner

This blog has some great pictures and throws some humor into the mix with a few cartoons as well. Topic-wise, its focus is on intelligence and various theories put forward by psychologists. It is a good source of information on recent research, and also an interesting place for discussion and “musings” on psychology.
(http://www.intelligencetesting.blogspot.com/)

6. School Psychologist Blog Files

The School Psychologist Blog Files is yet another blog dedicated improving special needs learning and helping parents and teachers with special needs students. It discusses child psychology and development, as well as various learning disabilities, topics that I have personally always been really interested in, but which are certainly very relevant to anyone interested in advancing education (as I’m sure eduFire members are!). Hopefully blogs such as this one will be able to change the way we see special needs children and provide more resources for them.
(http://schoolpsychologistfiles.blogspot.com/)

7. School Psychology Blog with Dr. Gaston Weisz

Dr. Weisz runs this blog in conjunction with his podcast, but the site has many great links that again link psychology with education. He also covers child development, like the previous blog, with for example, videos on attention deficit disorder and research on autism (which is becoming increasing prevalent in our society). Once again, this is a great blog to learn more about various children’s learning needs and how to improve education (an important theme!)
(http://drweisz.blogspot.com/)

8. Brain, Mind, and Education

Brain, Mind, and Education also ties new neuroscience/psychology research in with education (as its name would imply) and covers quite a range of topics–from taking care of concussions to theories on human intelligence to why a more detailed rubric may be better than a simple, numerical grading system for students. This blog appears to be a fascinating source of research information, and perhaps more importantly, new ideas for improving curricula and advancing education.
(http://brainmindedu.blogspot.com/)

9. Speech-Language Pathology Sharing

I saw this blog because of its usage and discussion of the latest technology resources (wasn’t there an eduFire class on Prezi recently :)?) But it does a great job focusing on speech pathology and providing help to educators of children who may need special language help. Also, videos, pictures, and other resources abound, making learning about speech pathology even easier.
(http://speechlanguagepathologysharing.blogspot.com/)

10. Assessment and Intervention in School Psychology

I never knew that there was a blog devoted just to (as the name indicates) assessment of child development and learning needs as well as the intervention practices used in special needs situations. But this blog is yet another important one for improving education–how do you deal with psychological needs among kids in school, and how should educators be trained to handle such situations? You will find some interesting discussion here on how children are assessed and how they perform as a result.
(http://treatmentvalidity.blogspot.com/)

Of course, these are only ten of many, many psychology and education-related blogs to be found on the Web. I’m sure if you searched for “psychology blogs” on Google, you would get quite a plethora of results, but these ten blogs, while perhaps not the most famous, all provide excellent resources and are incredibly interesting to read. Maybe they will stimulate more interest in how the fascinating field of psychology can be used both to learn more about why people think in certain ways and to better education. What do you think? Are there other psychology blogs you would add to this list?

Related posts:

1. What Will the Future of Education Hold? Let’s Find Out! ...
2. Effective Learning – Tips for Effective Learning ...
3. Bringing J-Bloggers Together ...