Trends and Research Questions in Psychological Research on Learning and Schooling

For many psychologists interested in educational phenomena, the boundaries between basic and applied research are becoming increasingly blurred. Examination of recent work on the nature and development of human knowledge and intellectual skills makes it apparent that research now being directed toward educationally relevant areas is both fundamental in character and, at the same time, directed toward practical understanding. A corrective interactive network between behavioral science and educational problems appears to be developing in a strong way. Examples of such research are presented in this paper to illustrate this point. This discussion should indicate that in the 1980's, research relevant to education will involve both strong interactions with an advancing science of human cognition and increasingly sophisticated analyses of school