There is a growing interaction between psychology and education, toward basic research and toward realistic educational events. This is being accompanied by a movement toward equity in education involving the creation of environments for learning that are more adaptive to individual needs than schools generally provide at the present time. Progress is now being made toward the integration required for building a psychology of instruction based on research and theory in learning and cognition. Some of the particular areas discussed include: psychological task analysis of the subject matter of instruction, early childhood education and developmental psychology, the interpretation of intelligence and aptitude in terms of cognitive processes, learning from text and discourse comprehension, behavior modification, and assessment of outcomes of classroom learning. Intensive examples of research on reading and mathematics are discussed in terms of what is known, what is being productively studied, and what is likely to be known in the future that could influence theories of learning and strategies for instruction. (JMF)