M critical and occasionally integrated, of much of contemporary educational psychology. The scope of educational psychology is vast, extending from research on classroom motivation to studies of cognitive and social development, from behavior modification for classroom management to the cognitive psychology of school subjects, from basic research in support of theory development to applied studies in the service of practical problem solving. I have made no attempt to review this entire field of study. Certainly another reviewer would have made other choices, both of breadth and of emphasis. The reader should thus beware that this paper is consciously selective and limited; there is much important educational psychology omitted from its pages. That omission is neither an evaluation of the quality of the work nor a commentary on its importance to the field.Educational psychology is not a single coherent field. It is a set of loosely related topics, problems, issues, and investigations. All of these elements share a concern for learning and teaching, but they have emerged from divergent corners of psychology, from other social sciences, and from the controversies and challenges of educational practice. To provide an adequate description of educational psychology, I 77