Publication Opportunity

Call for Papers: Contemporary Educational Psychology

Special Issue: Examining Innovations—Navigating the Dynamic Complexities

of School-Based Intervention Research



As has been averred by educational stakeholders across the globe, schools need innovations—innovations created in the service of solving problems faced by billions of teachers and children (e.g., Duncan, 2009). Educators worldwide need access to research that will enable the development of model learning communities marked by effective pedagogical practices, deeper student learning, active engagement, and positive motivation and affect for all members of that learning community.

We seek to disseminate important, classroom-based intervention research being conducted by contemporary educational researchers around the globe. Contemporary Educational Psychology seeks paper submissions for a special issue on Examining Innovations—Navigating the Dynamic Complexities of School-Based Intervention Research. Submitted studies must meet all of the following criteria (in addition to the general CEP guidelines regarding theory-driven research, high-quality methods, writing style, and formatting found at http://ees.elsevier.com/cedpsych/):

(a) take place in K-12 or primary-secondary formal educational settings in any country;

(b) employ random assignment of classes, groups, or individuals to treatment(s) and comparison/control condition(s);

(c) occur in intact classroom settings (i.e., either whole class or small group);

(d) include researcher- or teacher-delivered instructional treatment;

(e) have a duration longer than one class day; and,

(f) involve assessment of fidelity to treatment.

For example, a month-long experiment comparing middle school writing instruction in science classes with and without motivational supports could meet these criteria. Likewise, an experiment in a private school comparing small-group social studies learning from original source documents versus traditional textbook passages could meet these criteria. On the other hand, an individual tutoring study at an after-school program would not, even if all of the other criteria were met. Similarly, a computer-based algebra tutoring experiment would not meet the criteria, even if all of the other criteria were met. The editors will return, without review, any manuscript that does not meet all of the criteria.

Submissions should describe school-based conditions and constraints in slightly more detail than is typical for CEP, so that the papers in the special issue can be as informative as possible regarding navigating the dynamic complexities of spending extended research time in classrooms, situating relevant interventions within existing curricula, dealing with varying student abilities, school cultures, classroom enclaves, pedagogical nuances, and a general malaise toward research. In addition to describing these unique features of classroom research that differentiate it from laboratory research, submissions should describe how the researchers responded to these conditions and constraints.

Deadline for submissions is June 4, 2013.

Please direct questions to either co-editor of the Special Issue: P. Karen Murphy, Ph.D. pkm15@psu.edu OR Jennifer G. Cromley, Ph.D., jcromley@temple.edu