Is school performance synonymous with learning?

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of the research approaches used in educational psychology when addressing, on the one hand, school learning and, on the other, school performance. Throughout the 20th century, educational psychology studies tended to move away from behaviorist laboratories to structure a field of study within compulsory schooling. Since both culture and the conditions inherent in schooling are determining factors for learning, educational psychology asks how to achieve meaningful learning in students under these conditions. However, with the growing interest in improving school performance on the part of both national governments and international organizations, psychology studies changed their perspective. This is how quantitative studies from so-called Evidence-Based Psychology began to be used. This is because, unlike school learning, the aim is to use evidence to identify which psychological variables affect school performance in order to predict and improve it. This has led to a noticeable change in perspective, not only in the way compulsory education is thought about, but also in the way teaching is thought about.