Educational Research, History of

John L. Rury

Educational research has a long and distinguished history, closely related to the evolution of the social and behavioral sciences. It also has been centrally concerned with the improvement of instructional practice and determining better means to aid learning. Research in education has thus embraced both theoretical and practical dimensions of systematic inquiry into teaching and learning. It also has been shaped by ongoing disputes about the nature of human development and the aims of education, as described in this entry. Inquiry into learning and education dates from ancient times, but it became a more highly organized social activity with the advent of state-sponsored mass schooling in the nineteenth century. Perhaps the earliest forms of such research in the United States were found in comparative accounts of school systems in other parts of the world, provided by traveling educators and other observers. State and federal departments of education published reports on ...

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