274 Educational Psychology
be as important as simply teaching specific strategies; and,
finally, strategies should be dynamic rather than static across
different disciplines—elaboration strategies in math, for ex-
ample, are quite different from elaboration strategies in a
literature class. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the
acknowledgment that it is impossible to examine whether or
not specific techniques and strategies are effective unless
they are tested in the classroom or other educational settings
using students’ own curricula (Paris & Paris, 2001).
THE DISCIPLINE OF EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
Another approach to tracing a discipline’s history is to exam-
ine the current state of the discipline, for all disciplines are,
ultimately, a culmination of precedents. In educational psy-
chology, this current state can be represented by looking at
a small sampling of recent definitions, directives, theories,
methodologies, and applications in the field of educational
psychology.
Some of the definitions of educational psychology today
are broad: Berliner (1993), for example, states: “Our funda-
mental goal should be to understand and improve education
in our society.” Other definitions are more specific: Good
and Levin (2001) assert, “The heart of work in educational
psychology is to produce theoretical and well-researched
psychological knowledge that has the potential for enhancing
learning and socialization in various settings.”
The directives to practicing educational psychologists
come from both institutions and individuals. The mission of
the APA’s Division 15, Educational Psychology, is “to pro-
vide a collegial environment for psychologists with interests
in research, teaching, or practice in educational settings at all
levels to present and publish papers about their work in the
theory, methodology, and applications to a broad spectrum of
teaching, training, and learning issues” (American Psycho-
logical Association, 2000).
And, somewhat in contrast to the early days of educational
psychology, with its emphasis on the purely practical compo-
nents of teachers and teaching, Pintrich (2000b) directs edu-
cational psychologists, now and in the future, to do work that
merges the primarily applied goals of the past with the pre-
sent and future goals of furthering the more theoretical,
scientific, and fundamental understandings of learning, de-
velopment, cognition, and motivation. Furthermore, Pintrich
charges that, as scientists, educational psychologists should
also work to gather and provide sound evidence to support
our conclusions and conceptual models (Pintrich, 2000b).
Although there are some who believe that the discipline of
educational psychology is too often in a state of flux, others
commend the ability of the discipline to change itself in ways
appropriate to meeting the changing needs and demands of
society (O’Donnell & Levin, 2001).
Mayer (2001) suggests that educational psychology has
substantial strengths whose energies can be directed toward
making considerable contributions to both the psychology of
the subject matter itself and the teaching of cognitive strate-
gies. This is congruent with the message in Pintrich’s
farewell address after his fifth year as editor of Educational
Psychologist. In this address, Pintrich reviewed several
themes he saw as emergent in the field of educational psy-
chology. Although he cited a focus on the individual learner
as one of these themes, Pintrich emphasized that educational
psychologists could no longer consider the dimensions of
cognition, motivation, and social interaction in isolation from
the individual (Pintrich, 2000b).
This being said, however, what is the current state of edu-
cational psychology? What contributions are educational
psychologists making now? Who are these changes affect-
ing? Most importantly, perhaps, is the question about what
directions educational psychology and its practitioners will
take in the future. Again, a look at the direction of recent
research in the area provides clues that can be used to help
answer these questions.GOALS FOR THE FUTURE: THE RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF QUESTIONS, MODELS,
ISSUES, AND APPLICATIONSSeveral recent trends in educational psychology show great
promise for the present as well as for the future. One of these
trends is greater emphasis on the development of models that
can be used not only to explain and predict students’ successes
but to aid students directly in achieving academic success.
Many of the existing and evolving models have been designed
and developed to provide an easily negotiated bridge between
the theoretical and the concrete. Thus, although these models
do explain and predict in the same way as more traditional
models, they can also be used within a curricular or other set-
ting to foster student success. Another difference is that many
of the current models are constructed such that the individual
components within the model can be assimilated and inte-
grated with the other components of the model. The focus is
not on the individual elements as much as it is upon the emer-
gent properties that are apparent when the components are
interacting. These emergent properties are similar to the con-
cept of the gestalt: The whole is greater than a simple sum of
the parts.