Maturation and growth from conception onwards is a natural phenomenon. The direction which growth takes as a result of factors outside the maturing or growing individual may be referred to as development. Maturation as a natural process and development as a result of the effect of environmental conditions upon the young person as he grows are the two factors basic to the teaching-learning process.
Nature and Nurture are common terms used to explain an individual at any stage of his development. In the past it was believed that heredity and environment were two separate factors, each influencing in its own way, an individual’s personality. More and more are we coming to realise that what a person thinks, does or feels results from the inter-relationship that exists between biologically inherited factors and environmental influences.
Educational psychology is concerned with the study of the individual’s education, and with the study and solution of problems connected with his educational growth and development. In order to achieve this objective, an understanding of the nature and principles of human growth and development is very essential. ood insructional practices are to be basd on the stage of gowth which the pupil has then far attained. At the same time, it is becoming widely recognised that good education has to bring about faster, better directed and more balanced growth.
The task of ecational psychology is to point out the various ways in which growth in general, and educational growth in particular, can be facilitated.