This presentation uses the premise that educational practice currently derives little benefit from the mass of ongoing research as a starting point for a reassessment of the values and goals of research. Particular emphasis is placed on the relation between research and educational practices involving 4-year-olds. The first part of the discussion deals with aspects of research that reduce its effectiveness. These include the disorienting impact of research literature on practitioners; the synthetic role of research and the integrative needs of practice; and irreconcilable aspects of the relation between research and practice. An important way in which research can help the educator is to describe and analyze what actually occurs in classrooms, and in exemplary classrooms in particular. A discussion of change in attitudes toward preschool education is followed by a consideration of such topics as the cognitive environment of the home, the influence of separation from mothers on children, implications of recent studies of cognitive development, cognitive skill and cognitive stimulation, and the design of schools for 4-year-olds. Concluding discussion profiles a longitudinal study of the beginnings of reading among 40 children; points out the value of the life span perspective for research on young children; and indicates the need for improved ways of assessing effects of preschool. (RH)