Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

450 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
expanding the inquiry process to include a diverse variety of research methods and individuals,
any attempted solution will fail, or even exacerbate the problem. Another important difference between
complicated and complex is the understanding that things change—often quickly change.
In recognizing change as a factor that enhances the complexity of a situation, research-driven
solutions are seen as part of an ongoing process, not as an endpoint that can be unrelentingly
generalized to different individuals in different environments. Change requires flexible response.
For instance, any teacher knows that each school year brings different variables into the mix—
different students, different funding levels, and different societal and cultural contexts that place
different requirements on the school and teacher. Last year’s math curriculum, lessons, and assessments
now need to be modified to meet the special and diverse needs of this year’s students.
Because of these changing variables, teaching effectiveness and student achievement are in a
state of constant redefinition.
How do these distinctively different orientations toward educational problem solving relate
to the different purposes of education? First, how one defines research, validity, the production
of knowledge, the roles of stakeholders in the problem-solving process, and what constitutes
an acceptable outcome is directly dependent upon one’s purpose. Certain research methods,
definitions of validity, methods in producing knowledge, and the organization of the activity of
the stakeholders will produce results or outcomes that are quite different from the outcomes of
other methods. Therefore, the purposes that individuals want to achieve dictate the processes
and organizational arrangements of power that will lead to the desired outcome. The desired
outcome focuses their purposeful behavior. Therefore, when educational problems need to be
engaged, in order to fully understand the problem and the effects of the proposed solution, it is
necessary to explore the full context of the problem and the purposes of the groups who propose
very different solutions. Adding purpose to the mix increases the complexity of the problem,
and, in turn, creates the opportunity to more effectively understand the problem and the effects
of the proposed solution. Critically understanding how multiple and different views concerning
the purpose of education affect the definition and resolution of educational problems represents
a reconceptualized view of education.
FUNCTIONAL PURPOSES OF EDUCATION
One purpose of schools is to ensure individuals are able to function effectively in society.
Today’s schools are asked to perform multiple functions that are unrelated to the traditional
purposes of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Besides promoting basic skills, the educational
purposes of schools include learning knowledge provided by other disciplines such as the social
sciences, science, language arts, music, art, physical education, health education, technology,
vocational training, and others. Add to the list extracurricular activities such as the fine arts and
sports, and one can easily see how complex the functional purpose of contemporary education
has become. In addition, purpose has been expanded to meet the needs of special students such
as the gifted, the disabled, and the mentally challenged. Of course, citizenship development is an
additional purpose along with the promotion of values (e.g., character education, sportsmanship,
environmental protection), and social behavior (e.g., student assistance programs, counseling,
and psychological services).
The attempt by schools to meet these functional purposes is complicated by society’s demand
that schools must be sensitive to the poverty, gender, race, ethnic, sexual preference, lifestyle
preference, and other aspects of diversity that are brought into the school by the children. To
achieve these multiple and often diverse purposes, schools are further required to work in concert
with governmental and community organizations and agencies. All of these many functional
purposes add to the complexity of problems that occur in the classroom and school. However, a