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Home > College Board Tests > CLEP: Exam Descriptions > Intro to Educational Psychology

Introduction to Educational Psychology

Description of the Examination

The Introduction to Educational Psychology examination covers material that is usually taught in a one-semester undergraduate course in this subject. Emphasis is placed on principles of learning and cognition, teaching methods and classroom management, child growth and development, and evaluation and assessment of learning.

The examination contains 100 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. Some of these are pretest questions that will not be scored. Any time candidates spend on tutorials and providing personal information is in addition to the actual testing time.

Knowledge and Skills Required

Questions on the Introduction to Educational Psychology examination require candidates to demonstrate one or more of the following abilities:

  • Knowledge and comprehension of basic facts, concepts, and principles
  • Association of ideas with given theoretical positions
  • Awareness of important influences on learning and instruction
  • Familiarity with research and statistical concepts and procedures
  • Ability to apply various concepts and theories to particular teaching situations and problems

The subject matter of the Introduction to Educational Psychology examination is drawn from the following topics. The percentages next to the main topics indicate the approximate percentages of exam questions on those topics.

Approximate Percent of Examination

5% Educational Aims or Philosophies
  • Lifelong learning
  • Moral/character development
  • Preparation for careers
  • Preparation for responsible citizenship
  • Socialization
15% Cognitive Perspective
  • Attention and perception
  • Chunking/encoding
  • Memory capacity
  • Mental imagery
  • Organization of long-term memory
  • Problem solving
  • Transfer
11% Behavioristic Perspective
  • Applications of behaviorism
  • Behavioral modification programs
  • Classical conditioning
  • Cognitive learning theory
  • Law of Effect
  • Operant conditioning
  • Schedules of reinforcement
  • Token economies
15% Development
  • Adolescence
  • Cognitive
  • Gender identity/sex roles
  • Language acquisition
  • Mental health
  • Moral
  • School readiness
  • Social
10% Motivation
  • Achievement motivation
  • Anxiety/stress
  • Locus of control/attribution theory
  • Learned helplessness
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Reinforcement contingencies
  • Theories of motivation
17% Individual Differences
  • Aptitude/achievement
  • Creativity
  • Cultural influences
  • Exceptionalities in learning (e.g., giftedness, physical handicaps, and behavior disorders)
  • Intelligence
  • Nature vs. nurture
  • Reading ability
12% Testing
  • Assessment of instructional objectives
  • Bias in testing
  • Classroom assessment (e.g., grading procedures and formative evaluation)
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Norm- and criterion-referenced tests
  • Scaled scores/standard deviation
  • Test construction (e.g., classroom tests)
  • Test reliability
  • Test validity
  • Use and misuse of assessment techniques
10% Pedagogy
  • Advance organizers
  • Bilingual/ESL instruction
  • Clarity/organization
  • Classroom management
  • Cooperative learning
  • Discovery and reception learning
  • Instructional design and technique
  • Psychology of content areas
  • Teacher expectations/Pygmalion effect/wait time
5% Research Design and Analysis
  • Experiments
  • Longitudinal research
  • Qualitative research/case studies
  • Research analysis and statistics
  • Surveys

Study resources

Most textbooks used in college-level introduction to educational psychology courses cover the topics in the outline given earlier, but the approaches to certain topics and the emphasis given to them may differ. To prepare for the Introduction to Educational Psychology exam, it is advisable to study one or more college textbooks, which can be found in most college bookstores. When selecting a textbook, check the table of contents against the "Knowledge and Skills Required" for this test.

You may find it helpful to supplement your reading with books and articles listed in the bibliographies found in most educational psychology textbooks. In addition, many college faculty members post their course materials on their school websites, and there are a number of educational websites that contain useful resources organized by subject.