CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 12, 279 (1987)

Symposium: Academic Performance and Study Editorial Foreword

The literature of the discipline of educational psychology is filled with attempts to explain individual differences in achievement and differences in achievement from subject to subject and time to time by the individual. With varying degrees of success, variables of all kinds--age, sex, per- sonality, home background, intent to learn, and on and on- -have been investigated and reported.

Rarely, however, has there been a consistent research effort which concentrated on a variable across grade levels within the classroom and without manipulating either teacher or student procedures. The following five studies represent such a departure.

Essentially, the question is asked: How does study affect achievement? Certainly not a novel question, the strength of these investigations lies in devising a means of surveying student study procedures, within one sub- ject matter area, across junior and senior high school and college levels. Measures, controls, and possible meanings of outcomes are clearly de- scribed. As a result, the reader has a clearer picture of relationships-- within the constraints described by the investigators--than has been true before.

CEP is pleased to present the manuscripts detailing the procedures and findings of a large-scale investigation in this issue. Though individual studies will continue to be a significant contribution to the literature, the approach used here offers promise for more complete and comprehensive reporting in future.

A.J.E.

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0361-476X/87 $3.00 Copyright © 1987 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.