Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Constructivism and Educational Psychology 269
representation as defined above. In this respect, even if options depend on the kind of research
conducted and on the goals we want to accomplish, the most valid option is likely to be one
that includes different complementary units of analysis capable of explaining both action and
representation.
From what we have just discussed, it can be inferred that our positioning in constructivist
educational psychology is neither a radically cognitivist nor an extremely social and cultural
one. As we highlighted in previous works, we believe that the adoption of a socio-constructivist
perspective is currently the most comprehensive and coherent option so as to respond to the
challenges faced both by research and intervention in educational psychology.
CURRENT ISSUES IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:
A SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVE
We would like to begin our analysis of the current state of the art in educational psychology
by reflecting upon the implications of research on specific content teaching and learning in
educational psychology. The tendency to study supposedly content-free psychological processes,
highly criticized in the 70s, seems to have been finally abandoned to the extent that, in the next
few years, the epistemology of disciplinary knowledge acquisition is likely to become one of the
emergent areas in educational psychology.
We still don’t know much about the processes of knowledge construction in specific content
areas and, even if this is a field to be studied in collaboration with other disciplines, it is also an
unavoidable one to face if educational psychology is to progress along these lines.
Regarding the line of interest dealing with the teaching process, advances in the understanding
of the processes of new knowledge acquisition are clearer and more substantial than the ones focusing
on the elucidation of educational influence or on criteria for enhancing teaching processes.
This should be one of the future research lines in educational psychology, hence incorporating the
results of studies conducted following social and cultural approaches and, particularly, relating
these results to the ones on knowledge acquisition processes.
In terms of the dichotomy descriptive versus experimental research it should be noted that the
development of educational psychology research in the last twenty years reveals an increasing
tendency to design experimental research studies in contrast to descriptive studies. However,
given the significant shortages and gaps in our understanding of such relevant elements as
teaching processes, the relationship between explicit representations and implicit knowledge,
or between representations in general and performance, and if we are to progress toward the
integration of different theoretical perspectives, we will have to admit that it will be advisable to
incorporate research strategies more focused on descriptive and interpretative studies.
Regarding the relationship between the classroom and other educational settings, we would like
to point out that, as noted by other authors, considering the classroom as a privileged environment
for the study of teaching and learning processes is a recent and increasingly significant trend.
However, and concerning the research agenda, it would be necessary to also bear in mind
the relationship between the classroom subsystem and other subsystems which are part of the
educational context—institution, community, etc.—as well as the different levels in which the
classroom is embedded—transcultural, national, and institutional.
Another relevant issue within educational psychology deals with the relation between educational
practices in school and in other contexts. In this respect educational psychology research
has historically focused on the study of educational practices in school. However, it will be
necessary to incorporate the study of other educational practices in the future decades, especially
taking into account that a great deal of career development thus require it, and that this kind of