CHAPTER 13
Educational Psychology
CLAIRE ELLEN WEINSTEIN AND PAMELA J. WAY
269CONTRIBUTIONS OF EARLY PHILOSOPHERS 269
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE EIGHTEENTH
AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 270
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN AMERICA 271
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY 271
TRACING PROGRESS THROUGH THE
WRITTEN RECORD 272
THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 273
THE INFLUENCES OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 273
THE DISCIPLINE OF EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY 274
GOALS FOR THE FUTURE: THE RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF QUESTIONS, MODELS,
ISSUES, AND APPLICATIONS 274
THE FUTURE 276
REFERENCES 276The history of educational psychology traces a path from its
origins in concerns about cultural improvement and transmis-
sion of cultural norms to philosophical issues in general
education and psychology (Berliner, 1993; Charles, 1976;
Glover & Ronning, 1987; Good & Levin, 2001; Grinder,
1989; Hilgard, 1996; Mayer, 2001; Walberg & Haertel, 1992;
Wittrock & Farley, 1989; Zimmerman & Schunk, in press).
The effects of this amalgam of antecedent contributions on its
birth and development are still evident in the difficulties en-
countered when attempting a strict definition of educational
psychology that clearly separates it from other psychological
disciplines (see Berliner & Calfee, 1996). We will return to
this issue later in this chapter.
Although it is not difficult to identify the emergence of
educational psychology as a recognized discipline, it is some-
what more difficult to determine educational psychology’s
precise lineage. It has been suggested that educational psy-
chology may have first emerged as part of a kind of folk
tradition in which adults educated their children (Berliner,
1993). This certainly makes sense intuitively, and it is quite
easy to imagine not only our own grandmothers and grandfa-
thers teaching our parents a variety of life skills but also
parents and grandparents from many previous generations
passing down what they considered to be the requisite knowl-
edge and cultural norms of their day. It also seems likely that
this knowledge was passed down in a dynamic rather than
static way, incorporating the abilities, skills, weaknesses, and
frames of reference of each generation of teacher and student.
As Berliner (1993) notes, part of the traditional Jewish
Passover service is the duty of the leader of the service to tell
the story of Passover to each of his sons in turn. The father,
however, must tell each son the story in such a way as to em-
phasize the particular son’s own strengths and weaknesses.
So, for example, the wise son may hear the entire story with
additional commentaries, while the recalcitrant son may hear
the story with an emphasis on obeying authority.
Although the folk tradition of educational psychology has
probably existed since the earliest times of humans on the
earth and continues to this day, most formal histories of edu-
cational psychology trace its origins to ancient philosophers
and statesmen. Here we find not only the historical roots of
educational practices but also the historical roots of the psy-
chology of learning and memory.CONTRIBUTIONS OF EARLY PHILOSOPHERSAristotle is sometimes pointed to as a founder of educational
psychology (Berliner, 1993; Charles, 1976; Kaur, 1972).
Aristotle’s book De Memoria et Reminiscentia (On Memory
and Reminiscence),incorporates views of learning, associa-
tion, and retention (Charles, 1976). In this book, written in
350 B.C.E., Aristotle notes that memory is a function of pre-
sentation; that is, memory is directly related to the context in
which the learning occurred. There are very few, if any,
modern-day educational psychologists who would disagree