In an article entitled 'The psychologist's contribution to educational research' Professors J. D. Nisbet & N. J. Entwistle begin by surveying briefly different definitions educational research itself with a view to drawing a distinction between "pure research the social sciences and educational research in the area of the applied sciences" Having suggested this distinction the authors clearly favour a definition which would remove educational research from the category of pure to that of applied research accordingly, their own definition states that "educational research consists in careful, systematic attempts to understand the educational process and, through understanding, improve its efficiency". Pursuing the consequences for educational enquiry of definition they themselves outline, Nisbet & Entwistle point out that this shift in emphasis from 'understanding' to 'improvement' is likely to be dis- puted by many who are active in what they claim to be wholly respectable educational research which does not aim at 'improvement'-such as historical studies and comparative education.