Psychology, education and environment

Abstract

Educational research is traditionally modelled on experimental psychology with its origins in the methods of pure science. The last decade has seen an accelerating interest on an ecological approach in both disciplines. To illustrate this, the author reports work by Barker and his co‐workers on “behaviour settings” and by Wiseman at the University of Manchester on the relationship between the social environment of the child and his educational progress. The failures and fallacies in educational planning resulting from a failure to adopt an environmentalist position are discussed and the work of Jensen on the genetic inheritance of intelligence is critically appraised. Finally, cultural identity and its importance in the education of disadvantaged groups such as the black and deaf populations is emphasized and discussed in detail.