Educational psychology: Practice what we teach! 1

This paper questions three fundamental assumptions which have permeated our thinking and have hampered the teaching of educational psychology especially in the instruction of prospective and current teachers. Beliefs that to know good is to do good, that the good teacher is a junior educational psychologist, and that applied researchers are nothing more than academic blue collar workers are examined in light of current practice and empirical research. In lieu of substantiated relationships between teacher behavior and student behavior, traditional approaches to the teaching of educational psychology flourish. The article concludes with the idea that competency‐based teacher education programs afford educational psychologists the best opportunity to practice what they teach.