Research Concerning Education.

Educational research in the 1940s indicated a need for the reformation of high schools and the expansion of junior and community colleges. Responding to such studies, traditional educators demanded substantial amounts of further research; before initiating major changes schools needed to be sure that such reforms would produce the desired results, they maintained. Thus, research on American education became a growth industry in the 1940s, as well as the subject of many philosophical debates over the role of American education.

Research Areas.

The bulk of the burgeoning discipline of educational research during the decade addressed four areas: school administration, curricula, student development, and pedagogy, or teaching methods. Debates soon formed over the changes and implementation of ideas posited in these four areas. The war had demonstrated the need for an expanded scientific community, but educators argued that overemphasis on...