Abstract
Must investigations of treatment effects adopt a logic of causal investigation that defaults to the design and application of randomized control trials in education? Does the language of scientific research impel this too for intervention studies? In this brief response to Scriven’s chapter, we explore the pragmatics of research planning to identify compounding factors and challenges to such characterizations of ‘gold standard’ research in education. The prospect is tantalizing: if adjudications of explanatory power are the true benchmark for evaluating educational studies, then a requisite variety in research designs and logics must be entertained, and engaged.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mark, M.M. (2014). The Logic of Causal Investigations and the Rhetoric and Pragmatics of Research Planning. In: Reid, A., Hart, E., Peters, M. (eds) A Companion to Research in Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6809-3_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6809-3_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6808-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6809-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)