Social challenges for educational research and practice. Contributions of educational psychology

To improve educational systems and to contribute to a just distribution of resources among citizens are fundamental challenges for our society. Therefore, the importance of interdisciplinary educational research, with a strong participation of educational psychology, has been rising tremendously over the last decades. For these reasons, it is a good time to recapitulate recent changes in educational practice in Germany and to investigate how educational research has inspired or reacted on these developments. Along the educational trajectory, including pre-school, school, higher education in general and teacher education specifically as well as life-long learning, the present review describes recent developments in educational research and connected reforms of the educational system. Moreover, the authors describe fields in which educational psychology might take chances to use and develop its expertise in the future. The authors conclude with a statement about the extent to which educational psychological research has an impact on educational practice.