教育心理學是整個心理學領域內發展最早、影響最大的一門學科;也是世界各國師資培育計畫中唯一列為必修的心理約學科。據此進論，教育心理常本當早已發展為性質明確、內容共識、功能顯著的獨學科。然而從多年來此一學科的實際發展狀況及其在學校教育上所發揮的效用看，不特迄今未能建立起獨立體系，且亦未能善盡其角色功能。究其原因，蓋以以往之教育心理學誤將純屬基礎科學的心理學原理原則，直接用於學校教育，致使理論無法付諸實踐，實乃問題關鍵之所在。本文之撰寫，旨在從回顧中分析檢討此一學科以往發展取向之偏差，嘗試建議今後在國內教育心理學研究發展取向上，如何兼顧現代心理學理論與國內學校教育的實際需要，在研究目的、研究對象、研究方法三方面謀求共謀，以及如何在學校教育情境中從事系統的應用研究，以解決教育問題並提升教學效果;首先奠定教育心理學的應用科學基礎，而後再進一步在此礎上建立起其完整的獨立體系。

　　　　　 For many years the orientation of educational psychology has followed the basic seience approach, rather than the applied science approach. Research workers in this field intended uncritically to take psychological principles of learning that derived from laboratory on animal learning. This basic science approach has been proved irrelevant to actual school subjective-matter learning. School education refers to guided or manipulated learning that can be related to effective ways of bringing about cognitive and behavioral change that lead to specific goal with social value. The role of educational psychology, as its name implies, should be responsible to actualize the goal of the school education. Educational psychology, therefore, should change its orientation, from basic science approach to applied science approach, in order to evolve as an independent discipline. The practical way for doing this matter, this paper discussed it in detail.