A historical review of Contemporary Educational Psychology from 1995 to 2010

The major themes and trends represented by the articles published in Contemporary Educational Psychology (CEP) from 1995 to 2010 are reviewed in this paper. Included are the major topics, theoretical perspectives, participant characteristics, research methods and statistics used, and highly cited papers. The most frequently occurring topic category was individual differences, with motivation being the most common focus of these articles. Academic subjects, particularly reading and math, were also prevalent topics. The two most common theoretical perspectives were cognitive and social cognitive. This article discusses the many contributions of CEP over the past 16 years, including research in the areas of cognitive processing, teaching and learning, motivation, self-efficacy, and learning contexts and the potential for future contributions to theory development, public policy initiatives, and classroom practices. This information could assist authors considering submission of their work and consumers of educational psychology research considering the purchase of journal subscriptions. Researchers and practitioners in the field of educational psychology may also find this information helpful as they choose professional journals for routine review.

► The most frequently occurring topic was individual differences (e.g., motivation).
► Cognitive and social cognitive were the most prevalent theoretical frameworks.
► Most studies involved human participants; many were undergraduate students.
► Only a small percentage of the articles utilized qualitative methodologies.
► CEP has published several highly influential papers over the past 16 years.