2017 Volume 60 Issue 4 Pages 391-403
The contribution of educational psychology to society was examined from the perspective of practicality, relative to Japan and mainly to school education. In particular, the discussion was focused on how “researchers” working in universities were involved in school education and how they interacted with “practitioners”. First, the history of educational psychology was reviewed, which indicated that the first generation of researchers regarded this subject as a field of applied psychology. The second generation of researchers considered educational psychology independent from psychology, and practical research was considered important by the third generation. In this evolutionary of thinking, approaches to educational psychology have been revised. Nevertheless, the “educational” and “practical” content of the subject has not been fully investigated to date. Therefore, the attitudes of the third generation of researchers toward practice were classified into three models: the “Doraemon” model, joint development model, and consultation model. The significance and problems of each model were examined, and the conventional framework with the conflict between the terms, “theory” and “application” as well as “research” and “practice” was re-evaluated. It was concluded that the major contribution made by educational psychology was in the process of learning, which has resulted from professional and mutually beneficial interactions between researchers and practitioners.
