How Scientific Is Educational Psychology Research? The Increasing Trend of Squeezing Causality and Recommendations from Non-intervention Studies

The field of educational psychology has been moving away from intervention and experimental methods and toward observational and correlational methods (Hsieh et al., Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(4), 523–529, 2005 ; Reinhart et al., Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(1), 241–247, 2013 ; Robinson et al., American Educational Research Journal, 44(2), 400–413, 2007 ). Additionally, there has been an increase in the percentage of observational and correlational articles that include recommendations for practice. The present study updated previous data to 2020 by examining methodologies and recommendations for practice in articles published in five empirical educational psychology journals ( Journal of Educational Psychology , American Educational Research Journal , Cognition and Instruction , Journal of Experimental Education , and Contemporary Educational Psychology ). The percentage of articles employing experimental methods has continued to decrease (20%), whereas qualitative methods have increased (22%). Across correlational, qualitative, and mixed method articles, two-thirds included recommendations for practice—up from 46% in 2010. Implications are discussed.