Collection
The Past, Present, and Future of Theory Development in Educational Psychology
Theory plays a vital role in organizing, guiding, and advancing educational psychology scholarship and subsequent translations to practice (Greene, 2022). Unfortunately, many scholars lack knowledge and skill regarding how to build or test theory (Eronen & Bringmann, 2021), likely because theory development is rarely taught in graduate preparation programs (Gray, 2017). Further, within the relatively small corpus of theoretical works in educational psychology, there are concerns about sample and conceptual homogeneity, which can threaten the applicability, generalizability, and benevolence of theory (DeCuir-Gunby & Schutz, 2014; Emery & Anderman, 2020; Gervais, 2021; Teo, 2020). Thus, there is a clear need for increased and enhanced theory development in educational psychology, by more and more diverse pool of theorists. These aspiring theorists would benefit from examples of how foundational educational psychology theories have been created, developed, and refined over time (Wentzel, 2021). Therefore, in this topical collection, scholars responsible for the creation of many of these theories discuss their theory development process, focused upon the following questions:
1. What inspired the theory? What observations and phenomena were you trying to describe, understand, and/or explain?
2. How did you go about creating the initial theory and what was its initial form?
3. How has the theory developed over time? What are some major findings, insights, and/or challenges that lead to productive changes in the theory?
4. What is the current status of theory? How is it similar and different than the initial theory you created?
5. What are the contributions of this theory? How has it benefitted educational psychology research, practice, and/or policy?
6. What are the virtues of theory?
7. What do you see as some promising "next steps" or "open questions" for future development of the theory?
The articles from these theorists, gathered in a single topical collection and tethered to a recently published article in Educational Psychology Review (Greene, 2022), serve as exemplars for scholars and aspiring theorists, prompting more and better theory development in educational psychology. In addition, each article indicates new directions for future theory development, seeding future scholarship.
Editors
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Jeffrey Greene
Greene leverages the science of learning to help people be better critical consumers and producers of information, particularly in online and technology environments. Greene began his career in higher education administration and became interested in the science of learning as he watched some students struggle to translate their capacity into academic and lifetime success. He believes that the vast majority of students, from kindergarten through graduate school, have the capability to achieve their goals.
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Kristy Robinson
Kristy A. Robinson is an Assistant Professor and the director of the Motivation, Identity, Learning, and Education in STEM Lab in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. In her research, she examines how and why students' motivational beliefs change over time. She investigates developmental patterns of motivation including identity, interest, and competence beliefs during adolescence and early adulthood, along with classroom climate supports for students' socioemotional development.
