Further Developments in the Twentieth Century 271conceptions and practices was also developing during this
time in America.
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN AMERICA
The subtle transition from philosophy and somewhat utopian
worldviews to newer conceptions of psychology as the
framework for understanding and applying educational vari-
ables was introduced to America with William James’s
(1842– 1910) 1891 lecture series at Harvard on the “new psy-
chology.” These lectures were eventually turned into a book,
Talks to Teachers on Psychology. This book is sometimes
regarded as the first popular educational psychology text, and
there is evidence that this lecture series helped to spark the
growth of educational psychology as a movement in America.
James spoke of psychology as a science and teaching as an
art, but one that could benefit from an understanding of psy-
chological laws and human behavior. In addition, long before
the so-called cognitive revolution in psychology, James intro-
duced the idea that consciousness could control the direction
of its own attention, thus setting the stage for later work in
cognition and metacognition (Berliner, 1993; Hilgard, 1996;
Wittrock & Farley, 1989).
One of James’s students, G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924),
earned the first PhD in psychology awarded in America.
Although his degree was in psychology, Hall is most often
remembered as an educator, a label he came by quite natu-
rally. Hall, as well as his mother and father, taught school for
some time. He went on to develop the first research lab in
America at Johns Hopkins, where he introduced another
first—fellowships for graduate students (Berliner, 1993). In
Hall’s lab at Clark University (where he also served as presi-
dent), he and his students systematically researched and doc-
umented problems in higher education, thus establishing the
first formal graduate program specializing in education. This
program was designed to furnish leaders to what was called a
new educational movement in America, a movement that
would facilitate the study of and research in education for
years to come (Berliner, 1993).
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Although his early works emphasized his interests in the
intersection of philosophy and psychology, John Dewey’s
(1859–1952) later work and publications focused more on
educational philosophies and educational practices (Hilgard,
1996). He had his greatest influence on the field after his
move to Columbia in 1904. His books Interest and Effort in
Education(1913) and Schools of Tomorrow(1915) were ex-
tremely popular and influential. Much of his work on engag-
ing children’s interest and the need for them to be active
learners can be traced to the influence of the European work
described earlier, but he went way beyond what had been
proposed through the end of the 1800s. A number of his ideas
about educational practice and ways to conceptualize educa-
tional processes are still current. However, it remained for
others to try to refine the field and give it a more “scientific”
base.
Edward Thorndike was an established researcher when he
directed his attention to educational contexts, processes, and
outcomes. In a landmark study with Woodworth, he attacked
the doctrine of formal discipline (very popular at the time)
and demonstrated that simply “exercising the mind” resulted
in only slight learning gains. In 1901, he and Woodworth
published a paper demonstrating problems of transfer of
learning and the need for “identical elements.” He published
his first educational psychology textbook in 1903 and, in
1913–1914, published a classic three-volume educational
psychology text.
In 1910, in an essay entitled “The Contribution of Psychol-
ogy to Education,” appearing in the first issue of theJournal
of Educational Psychology,Thorndike described the role he
believed that psychology could and should play in education
(Thorndike, 1910). Briefly, Thorndike suggested that psychol-
ogy could assist in making the aims of education more defin-
able and measurable and that education should promote
changes in the intellects, ideals, and behaviors of students.
In the founding issue of the Journal of Educational
Psychology,the editors ambitiously planned for future issues
to focus on the topics of mental development, heredity, ado-
lescence and child study, individual differences, and issues
related to testing and measurement. Within each of these
topics, matters involving general psychology, sensation,
instinct, attention, habit, memory, technique and economy
of learning, and perceptual processes could be explored
(Charles, 1976).
Although the discipline’s primary journal was founded in
1910, it was not until 1922 that the American Psychological
Association (APA) surveyed its members to determine the
need for an educational psychology division within the APA
(O’Donnell & Levin, 2001). It was determined, however, that
there was insufficient interest in educational psychology as a
discipline at that time. It was not until 1946 that enough APA
members cited “psychology in education” as a key concern
for psychologists that educational psychology was assigned