Evidence of confusion about evidence of causes: comments on the debate about EBP in education

ABSTRACT

EBP – evidence-based policy and practice – has generated intense controversy. A rough continuum of positions can be discerned: At one pole are “tough-minded” commentators distinguished by their support of EBP; however, there are serious internal differences in this camp, for some regard randomised field trials (RFTs) as the gold standard methodology that should generate the evidence required in EBP; while other “softer” commentators have a more nuanced position wherein the RFT is an INUS factor – part of a “causal cake” which requires many other support factors to be present before any generalisation can be made about a policy. The evolution of this softer branch of the tough-minded pole is traced, from Campbell and Stanley, to Cronbach and Associates, to Cartwright and Hardie. At the other pole are the tender-minded, many of whom are members of the philosophy of education community; they are sceptical about EBP, perhaps the most serious of their criticisms being that educational processes are not apt for causal investigation at all. The arguments that are offered in support of this position are judged to be deficient.     

From isolation to collaboration: A positive change for postgraduate women?

Social or intellectual isolation has been identified as a problem for many postgraduate students, particularly among subgroups in which women predominate. Newly developing collaborative postgraduate student groups complement the supervisor's role as an advisor and counteract the effects of isolation. However, the very method that may reduce isolation for women also entails risks. Research into gender and communication suggests that groups, often dominated by men, may not adequately serve the educational needs of women. This article brings together two separate strands of research: (a) studies of support groups, collaborative groups, or supervisory groups for thesis-writers; and (b) studies of gender-related communication patterns. The intersection of these areas of research provides a basis for suggesting how arrangements for, and research into, collaborative support groups for thesis writers can help to ensure that the potential of such groups for enhancing educational opportunities for all students—womens as well as men—is tapped and possible risks minimized.     

Working-class Men's Constructions of Masculinity and Negotiations of (Non)Participation in Higher Education

This article draws on discussion group data collected with 64 ethnically diverse working-class men who were predominantly not participating, or planning to participate, in higher education. The article identifies how the men drew on various discourses of masculinity in their arguments for and against higher education participation, and discusses potential implications of these discourses upon working-class men's continued underrepresentation in higher education. Analysis also highlights how the men's various constructions were framed/constrained by their locations within multiple, interlocking systems of inequality. Questions are raised with regard to future widening participation initiatives.     

Thresholds of Quality: Implications for the Social Development of Children in Center-based Child Care

We assessed the quality of center child care relationships with adults and peers for 414 children (ages 14 to 54 months). Classrooms were classified by ratio and group size provisions of the Federal Interagency Day Care Requirements (FIDCR) and by the Early Childhood and Infant and Toddler Environmental Rating Scales. Children cared for in classrooms meeting FIDCR ratios were more likely to be in classrooms rated as good or very good in caregiving and activities. Children in classrooms rated as good or very good in caregiving were more likely to be securely attached to teachers. Securely attached children were more competent with peers. Children cared for in classrooms meeting FIDCR group size were more likely to be in classrooms rated higher in activities. Children in classrooms rated high in activities were likely to orient to both adults and peers. Children with social orientations to adults and peers were more competent with peers.     

An attempt to demonstrate magnetic compass orientation in two species of mammals

An attempt was made to train two species of small mammals (the bush opossum,Monodelphis domesticus, and the Djungarian hamster,Phodopus sungorus) to search for food in the direction indicated by an earth-strength magnetic field. Five opossums and 4 hamsters were tested in a cross-shaped arena whose four arms faced geographic north, south, east, and west. A set of coils generated a magnetic field whose north pole could be randomly pointed toward any arm. A subject was given a food reward if it entered the arm indicated by the north direction of the field. In 12 series of 73 to 1,127 trials each, the subjects were unable to select the appropriate arm with a frequency greater than random. This result contrasts strongly with a variety of published studies on mammals, birds, and other vertebrates that have indicated good ability to determine direction from the earth’s magnetic field.     

Two Decades After: “After The Wake: Postpositivistic Educational Thought”

This essay is an updating of one that was published exactlytwo decades ago; in the intervening years there has been a revival of interest in positivism as a historical phenomenon in epistemology and philosophy of science (some references to which are given), but there also has been heightened awareness of the various weaknesses of the positivist position. But the main themes of the original essay are still valid – the tendencypersists (and may even have grown stronger) for individuals to charge their opponents indiscriminately with being ``positivists'' without being clear what actually characterizes this position; and there is still a failure to recognize that positivism was a complex ``position'' some of whose theses can be held by individuals who strongly oppose other theses and thus often do not deserve this label. Indeed, some present-day opponents of positivism do not realize that they share its important anti-realism or instrumentalism.     

Coming to Grips with Radical Social Constructivisms

This essay distinguishes two broad groups - psychological constructivists and social constructivists - but focusses upon the second of these, although it is stressed that there is great within group variation. More than half of the paper is devoted to general clearing of the ground, during which the reasons for the growing acrimony in the debates between social constructivists and their opponents are assessed, an important consequence of these debates for education is discussed, and an examination is carried out of the radical social constructivist tendency to make strong and exciting but untenable claims which are then backed away from (a tendency which is documented by a close reading of the early pages in Bloors classic book). The last portion of the essay focuses upon social constructivist accounts of the causes of belief in science - the more radical of which denegrate the role of warranting reasons, and which give an exalted place to quasi-anthropological or sociological studies of scientific communities.     

Reconsidering teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and decision making for technology integration as an agenda for policy,practice and research

Educational technology research and development - This article focuses on preservice and in-service teachers’ pedagogical reasoning, decision making and action concerning technology...     

Emergency Response Systems and the Creeping Legibility of People and Places

Over the last 35 years, centralized universal-number (in the United States, 9-1-1) systems have come to be the preferred means of emergency-response dispatching. The creation of these systems has motivated the development of information systems that render the landscape, to those with the right access, increasingly legible. This has been to the benefit of those receiving emergency services, but also to the benefit of police and commercial interests, who have used the improved infrastructure as bases for the creation of geodemographic and other profiling systems. More recently, the creation of wireless telephony has motivated the creation of a further surveillance infrastructure built on and integrated into that landscape. One consequence has been the commercialization of the systems in ways that permit the incorporation of more intimate and detailed data into preexisting systems. Public concern with locational surveillance systems has focused on privacy. However, “privacy” may be an inadequate frame through which to understand these issues and to fashion appropriate responses.