Handbook of psychology volume 7 educational psychology
Future Perspectives in Educational Psychology
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- Sensitivity to Sociocultural Contexts 611 Integration of Metacognition, Self-Regulation, and Motivation 612
- Significance of Early Childhood and Developmental Research 614 Advances in Neurobiology 615
- Expanded Methods of Inquiry 617 Advances in Assessment 618 Authentic Outcomes and
- Strategies for Instruction 621 Tensions in Designing Instruction 622 Teacher Impact and Preparation
- Cautions on Translations to Practice 625
- Current Changes in the Field
- Organization of This Chapter
- Theoretical Advances 611
- Broader Models of Cognition and Learning
- Sensitivity to Sociocultural Contexts
- Integration of Metacognition, Self-Regulation, and Motivation
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Future Perspectives in Educational Psychology GLORIA E. MILLER AND WILLIAM M. REYNOLDS 609 Current Changes in the Field 609 Organization of This Chapter 610 THEORETICAL ADVANCES 611
RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS 617
PRACTICE INITIATIVES 621
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY’S FUTURE: CONCLUSIONS 627
Summary 628 REFERENCES 628 Educational psychology is an applied science dedicated to applying psychological principles to the study of important educational issues and problems with a focus on learners, learning, and teaching (Slavin, 2000). McCombs (this vol- ume) emphasizes the important role of educational psychol- ogy and its promise to deepen our understanding of learning, motivation, development processes, and the contexts and conditions that can effect change and reform. Another dis- tinction that characterizes research traditions in educational psychology is the emphasis on understanding cognition and learning and—more recently—how these related domains are reciprocally influenced by the contexts in which they occur.
Educational psychology as a field has matured and advanced significantly over the last century and in particular in the last two decades. A well-defined, empirically based body of liter- ature in educational psychology has grown dramatically in breath and depth. This proliferation of research is evidenced by increased manuscript submission rates at leading journals representing the field, by the number of new educational psychology journals and books, and finally by heightened so- cietal interest in education—especially in political arenas. Although the sheer quantity of research in educational psy- chology published over the last two decades is impressive, another notable trend is the broad scope of this research. A review of the chapters in this volume suggests that the field of educational psychology cannot be defined by a single line of inquiry. Educational psychologists are conducting research across a wide range of topics and across a variety of learning contexts and settings. The published work within many domains is so vast as to require focused compendium vol- umes in order to adequately capture the expanding literature (e.g., Handbook of Self-Regulation, Boekaerts, Pintrich, & Zeidner, 2000; Handbook of Mathematics and Computa- tional Science, Harris & Stocker, 1998; Handbook of Reading Research, Kamil, Mosenthal, Pearson, & Barr, 2000; Handbook of School Psychology, Reynolds & Gutkin, 1999; Handbook of Research on Teaching, Richardson, 2001). Contributors within each of these volumes are heavily identified with the field of educational psychology.
610 Future Perspectives in Educational Psychology The diversity of philosophies, theories, and practices en- compassed in the field of educational psychology suggests that the discipline is broadening and changing as quickly as our expanding knowledge base; this has led some researchers to suggest that the modern era of educational psychology is at a crossroads. Key shifts in theory have contributed to attempts to blend research across major frames of reference (Calfee & Berliner, 1996; also see the chapter by Reynolds & Miller in this volume). To heed the call by Cronbach in 1957 to merge the study of individual differences (differential psychology) and cross-individual commonalties (experimental psychol- ogy), contemporary research in educational psychology seeks to merge general laws of behavior with individual variations in behavior. Bruner (1990) suggests that the field has moved from a focus on stimuli and responses to a focus on informa- tion processing—and most recently, to models of learning and cognition that emphasize meaning and the construction of meaning. Stronger conceptual links between behavioral, Piagetian, and Vygotskiian theories have led to studies of in- dividual human capacities that also strive to understand the impact of contexts on learning and cognition. Contemporary researchers seek more global foundations that capture how external environments modify or affect the individual as well as what goes on in the minds of learners as they explore and interact in their world. Individual processes are studied with an eye towards understanding the significant impact of social, interpersonal, and cultural environments on learner’s beliefs, attitudes, and cognition. These trends have led to significant new advances in theory, research, and practice. The contributors to this volume reviewed important his- torical contributions to the emergence of contemporary work within five domains. Authors were asked to synthesize cur- rent issues and trends and to present impressions of future is- sues likely to have a major impact on theory and application in the twenty-first century. Innovations and developments with the most promise for the future were identified, as were unresolved theoretical, methodological, and practical issues in need of further clarification and research. The work re- viewed here reflects the considerable changes and accumu- lated understanding that have developed in the latter half of the twentieth century. This work has had a profound influ- ence on our understanding of learners, learning, and instruc- tion. Because these authors represent some of the most prominent educational psychologists active in the field today, their ideas are likely to have an enduring effect on fu- ture research. As instructors and mentors in institutions of higher education, their ideas will not only influence a whole new generation of educational psychologists but will also in- form key decision-makers responsible for educational re- forms and policies.
The goal of this chapter is to highlight and synthesize the salient future implications forwarded by our contributors. By closely examining and integrating their ideas and recommen- dations, we hope to identify critical theoretical, research, and practical issues likely to inform and direct the field of educa- tional psychology well into the twenty-first century. A frame- work was developed to capture the key future issues that surfaced across a majority of chapters. In doing so we were struck by the consistency of promising perspectives high- lighted across the five research domains used to organize and structure the content of this volume. That there was greater uni- formity than divergence across chapters clearly emphasizes the importance of these issues in guiding the nature and role of ed- ucational psychology in the future. The future issues integrated into this chapter reflect those with the greatest potential for ad- vancing our understanding of individual learners and learning contexts, including interpersonal, relational, and instructional processes; curriculum development; and teacher preparation. Consequently, these issues are likely to have a substantial im- pact on prospective practice, research, and policy. This chapter is organized into three sections. The first sec- tion presents theoretical issues likely to receive continued refinement and elaboration. Notable areas of consensus are highlighted, as are remaining differences in philosophical orientation and ideas for translating theory into educational practice. The second section reviews current methods of in- quiry most likely to inform and enhance future educational research. Key methodological concerns that represent press- ing issues for future researchers are presented, including the need to balance basic and applied research. The third section consolidates central themes with the greatest potential to in- fluence educational research, practice, and policies. Notable areas in need of further investigation and key recommenda- tions for training a new generation of educators and educa- tional psychologists are forwarded. The issues reviewed here are developed primarily with exemplars from the chapters in- cluded in this volume. Accordingly, the reader is referred to specific chapters in this volume for further elaboration and more in-depth analysis. A strong consensus among our contributors was that the significant knowledge-base established by educational psy- chologists must be transformed into sound educational policy and practice and consequently should play a major role in directing future educational reform. Accordingly, this chapter concludes with impressions of the prospective status of the field of educational psychology. We focus on the contribu- tions as well as the limitations of our knowledge base. We agree with many of our authors who caution against the
Theoretical Advances 611 tendency to overgeneralize or look for magic bullets or easy answers to very complex challenges in education today. However, we concur with McCombs (in this volume), who suggests that we need to do more to highlight the significant contributions of educational psychologists. Indeed, the future promise of educational psychology will likely depend upon how well this body of work is understood by educational con- sumers and policy makers and on how easily it can facilitate the ongoing work of educators seeking to increase student learning, enhance teacher preparation, and improve school- ing practices. THEORETICAL ADVANCES In the last two decades, significant theoretical advances have been made in almost every area of study reviewed in this vol- ume. Advances include expanded, ecological models, greater refinement and clarification of key concepts, and more pre- cise specification of interrelationships between constructs. There are also new areas of investigation that have emerged in the past decade, such as the role and nature of new tech- nologies, including the Internet, as a dynamic force in the learning process. Future work based on these advances ulti- mately will lead to highly integrated areas of inquiry.
Educational researchers increasingly have studied how learn- ers construct meaning within broader social and cultural environments; this has been accompanied by a focus on reci- procal processes—how learning is affected by and results in modification of external environments. Recent models of in- telligence and memory processes (see chapters by Mayer and by Sternberg in this volume) include multidirectional theo- ries that focus on socially situated learning, practical aspects of intelligence, and implicit theories of intelligence. The work reviewed by Mayer (this volume) supports the notion that the human mind seeks to build and manipulate mental representations. The recognition that social environments are critical to the study of cognition and early development has increased since the mid-1950s with the rising influences of constructivism and the integration of Vygotskiian, Brunerian, and Piagetian models of learning. Cognitive theorists have moved from individually focused roots to more socially situated frame- works from which to study learning. Socially mediated con- ceptualizations of learning have transformed hierarchical information-processing models to ones in which intellectual behavior is studied as learners adapt to and modify their environments. Models of cognition now incorporate both in- dividually focused study and the study of situated learning embedded within contexts (Bruner, 1990, 1996). Future researchers will continue to investigate areas of cognition beyond conventional aspects of intelligence, lead- ing to reconceptualizations of how socialization experiences shape learning and cognitive development (see chapter by John-Steiner & Mahn in this volume). Models of how the mind works will be integrated with models of how students perform authentic tasks in educationally relevant settings. As Mayer (this volume) suggests, in the future we must continue to be informed by more comprehensive theories of individual learners, yet we must continue to recognize that individually focused theories will be substantially improved when they are situated in and informed by examinations of environmen- tal and contextual variables. In the future there will be little room for unidirectional notions of learning and cognition or isolated models with little input from the individual. Instead, reciprocal and multidimensional models of learning will focus on how basic internal processes are transformed by and with input from the environment. Sensitivity to Sociocultural Contexts The variables of race and gender as well as family, school, and community contexts and their effects on learning pro- cesses have been examined across many of the domains re- viewed here. Sociocultural theories and approaches have led to new constructs and methodologies for studying the com- plexity of human learning across diverse learners and set- tings. John-Steiner and Mahn (this volume) review the increasing interdisciplinary literature on teaching and learn- ing processes guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural framework. Within this framework, interrelationships between social and individual processes are explored during the construction of knowledge, and teaching-learning processes emphasize eth- nically relevant aspects of behavior. This research’s emphasis on language, culture, social interaction, and context is partic- ularly relevant to the study of cognition and learning in today’s multicultural society. Sociocultural influences have had a strong impact on con- temporary studies of cognition and learning. Western concep- tualizations and interpretations of intellectual competence have been extended to include culturally defined analytical as well as creative and social abilities and implicit versus ex- plicit notions of intelligence. Theories of intelligence have increasingly sought to capture logical, largely verbal abilities typically stressed in educational settings and practical abili- ties that focus on how individuals adapt and shape their environments (see chapter by Sternberg in this volume).
612 Future Perspectives in Educational Psychology Analyses of gender-based learning have led to contrasting perspectives of scientific inquiry as a deeply personal and re- lational activity versus an objective, rationalist, depersonal- ized style of inquiry. Research suggests that females may seek to make sense of the world through interpersonal con- nections and attachments, in contrast to males, who use more analytical stances (see chapter by Koch in this volume). Sociocultural influences are also reflected in broader models of peer- and adult-mediated learning within new media learn- ing environments (see chapter by Goldman-Segall & Maxwell in this volume). The study of relationships between teachers and students and the individual and contextual factors that influence such relationships are additional domains that have benefited from sociocultural influences (see chapters by Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman and by Pressley et al. in this volume). Research on teacher-student and peer group contexts has led to a greater understanding of key relational and interaction variables that contribute to learning and adjustment. Cooperative learning researchers have investigated how cultural background might affect decision-making and accountability processes in col- laborative learning groups involving cultures that stress har- monious and stable intergroup relations versus individualistic and competitive processes (see chapter by Slavin et al. in this volume). These findings are particularly relevant for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse learners (see chapter by John-Steiner & Mahn in this volume). To further establish conditions under which personal and sociocultural characteristics mediate the effects of particular learning strategies and classroom conditions, studies are needed that identify specific components most responsi- ble for learning and affective outcomes. For example, future work is needed to determine whether cooperative learning is as effective with high school and early childhood populations (see chapter by Slavin et al. in this volume) and whether differential benefits are found with normal versus high- achieving or gifted students (see chapter by Olszewski- Kubilius in this volume). The question for future researchers is how to best design group and individual incentives to match critical person, setting, and contextual demands. At the same time, researchers should not ignore the potential for ap- titude by treatment interactions (Cronbach & Snow, 1977; Snow, 1986, 1989; Snow & Lohman, 1984) that may be par- ticularly relevant in understanding sociocultural relationships in learning and cognition. The next century will be replete with research to further our understanding of the role of sociocultural variables and systems that affect learning and teaching relationships. This work will expand upon the range of sociocultural vari- ables studied by educational psychologists and will involve studies of group and individual variation across school and home environments. Future researchers are less likely to en- courage the compartmentalization of culture, race, or gender; instead, they are more likely to design studies that allow for flexible and situated points of view. Koch (this volume) ex- emplifies this idea by suggesting the need for gender-flexing policies to acknowledge that boys may benefit from practices traditionally associated with girls and vice versa.
A burgeoning literature over the last two decades has led to substantial advances in our knowledge of metacognition, self-regulation and motivation processes and constructs, and their impact on learning and teaching. Metacognition is viewed as a primarily conscious, distinct subcomponent of self-regulation that contributes to a learner’s knowledge of and control over cognition (see chapter by McCormick in this volume). Self-regulation processes are broadly defined as systematic thoughts and behaviors that students initiate, mod- ify, and sustain in order to attain personally relevant learning and social goals (see chapter by Schunk & Zimmerman in this volume). Motivational processes are viewed as those that instigate or get people going, keep them going in a particular direction, and help them finish tasks (see chapter by Pintrich in this volume; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Normative com- parison, performance monitoring, and evaluative judgments of progress have been tied to self-regulatory performance cy- cles before, during, and following a task. One’s goal orienta- tion and representations of the purpose of a task, beliefs about the importance of a task, interest in a task, and ideas about the ultimate utility of a task are all motivational constructs with a strong impact on cognition and learning outcomes (see chapter by Pintrich in this volume). Self-efficacy has gained increasing prominence as a key mediator of regulatory and motivational processes (Bandura, 1977, 1986). Self- efficacy—viewed as prospective beliefs influential before a task is begun—differs from older attribution theories that view such expectancies as post hoc explanations of perfor- mance (see chapter by Pintrich in this volume). Self-efficacy positively affects self-regulation and cognitive engagement and has been linked to improved learning performance over time. Self-efficacy beliefs comprise one of the strongest pre- dictors of actual course achievement, even after accounting for variance associated with a student’s previous knowledge or general intellectual ability (see chapter by Schunk & Zimmerman in this volume). A strong research base exists that shows the reciprocal influence of self-efficacy beliefs, behavioral choices, and personal goal-setting processes.
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