Evaluating the credibility of claims and recommendations in educational psychology: a grand challenge
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: (2) conversely, the proportion that employ observational methods has increased from 43% in 1994 to 66% in 2025; and (3) the proportion of observational articles that include recommendations for practice has increased from 30% in 1994 to 66% in 2020.An astute reader will have noticed that FIP:EP is not listed among the journals we considered to be the Big Five journals in the field. There are two reasons for this exclusion. First, the journal is relatively new, launching in 2010. Second, unlike the other five journals, FIP:EP is solely open access, with author publication fees. But now that FIP:EP is clearly the most popular educational psychology journal in the world, it is time that we take stock of where we are and how far we have come. Thus, my grand challenge in this editorial is for a similar examination of the FIP:EP section.The latest article in our line of inquiry is Brady et al. (2023). As of December 22, 2025, this article has been cited 50 times according to Google Scholar and 34 times according to the Web of Science. It seems that questioning the scientific validity of a field elicits a considerable response.I want to challenge the readers of, and contributors to, FIP:EP to seriously consider what this means for them.In a response to the reactions from the field, Robinson and Wainer (2023) wrote:In educational psychology, we have moved away from a very important component of research -rigor. Instead, we have been seduced by what is simple and easy. The fruits of this latter type of research are rarely useful in providing causal evidence (p. 82).As section editor, I want to invite manuscripts that examine whether the articles published in FIP:EP have an evidence base that supports their corresponding claims and recommendations. I also welcome other examinations of FIP:EP, including who has contributed as authors, editorial members, etc. Are women participating at a rate consistent with their increasing involvement in the field as researchers, faculty, students, etc.? I have been involved in similar investigations (e.g., Fong et al., 2022;Griffin et al., 2023) and am convinced that such studies can serve as a healthy audit for the journal.Besides looking backwards and assessing where we have come as a field, we also need to consider the future. What will be the key issues and new directions in educational psychology? I see two areas that are relevant here. First, how will artificial intelligence (AI) influence how we pursue knowledge? Generative AI has already begun to shape the way we teach, assess, and learn (Mayrath et al., in press). But along with enthusiasm about its potential, there is an accompanying fear that AI will hurt student engagement and learning by providing easy shortcuts and new ways to plagiarize. I expect to see more submissions that address how we can harness AI to augment, rather than replace, student learning. How can AI be used to improve assessment of learning? How will the roles of the instructor change? How will learning materials be different in this age of AI? Second, getting back to the main point of this editorial, educational psychology must also continue to deal with the abundance of misinformation, pseudoscience, and quackery that appears daily in popular media outlets. We must continue to serve as watchdogs and call out policies that are not supported by scientific research. In the U.S., we have witnessed a resurgence of childhood diseases such as measles that had been eradicated long ago only to resurface due to vaccine hesitancy. There is a level of distrust in science that is reaching an all-time high. In education, we continue to see recommendations to teach to students' learning styles to improve learning despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (Cleary & Robinson, 2025;Robinson et al., 2022). Other popular educational practices have been recently challenged, including universal design for learning (Boysen, 2024) and growth mindset training (Macnamara & Burgoyne, 2023). Our first obligation to society must be to protect society from our field.Educators look to us for practical solutions to difficult problems. When we publish empirical
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Author: Daniel H. Robinson
Institution: The University of Texas at Arlington
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7144143157