Educational Explanations

Оглавление

Christopher Winch. Educational Explanations

The Journal of Philosophy of Education Book Series

Educational Explanations. Philosophy in Empirical Educational Research

Contents

List of Figures

Guide

Pages

Foreword

Preface

1 Introduction: What Is the Question? THE PRINCIPAL CLAIMS OF THE BOOK

A STRATEGY FOR ADDRESSING THE CLAIMS

SOME BASIC IDEAS ABOUT EDUCATION

CATEGORIAL CONCEPTS AND CONCEPTIONS

EDUCATION AND CONTESTABILITY

Multiple Aspects and Phenomenology: Why Perspectivalism Does Not Have Relativistic Epistemological and Ontological Implications

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTERS

Notes

2 A Criterial Conception of Truth and Objectivity: Its Relevance to Educational Research. INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVITY AND TRUTH CRITERIA

UNDERSTANDING, PERSPECTIVALISM AND REALISM

PERSPECTIVALISM AS A VARIANT OF REALISM

Perspectivalism and Salience

THE ROLE OF CONCEPTIONS OF RATIONALITY IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

CAN A CRITERIAL CONCEPTION OF TRUTH BE DEFENDED?

CONCLUSION

Notes

3 Why Empirical Educational Research Needs to Be Taken Seriously. WHY IT IS NECESSARY TO DEFEND THE POSSIBILITY OF EER

PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM ABOUT EMPIRICAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Inadequate Conceptualisation

Inappropriate Methods and Flawed Explanations

Difficulties Related to Context and Identity

Most Educational Findings are False

The Problem of Context and How to Interpret It

All We Need Is Commonsense

Education Is Value-laden and Hence Cannot Be Studied Empirically in a Value-neutral Form

CONCLUSION

Notes

4 The Concept of an Educational Explanation and an Account of What Explanatory Adequacy Should Look Like. INTRODUCTION

A PRAGMATIC ACCOUNT OF EXPLANATION

FEATURES OF GOOD EXPLANATIONS

EXPLANATION BY CAUSES AND EXPLANATION BY REASONS

Notes

5 How Good Is Empirical Research – Disaster or Success? INTRODUCTION

WHAT DOES GOOD EMPIRICAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH LOOK LIKE?

HOW GOOD IS EMPIRICAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH?

An Identifiable Set of Problems and a Debate (Including Unresolved Conceptual Issues)

A Research Question (Which Should Involve Adequate Conceptualisation)

A Viable Research Strategy (Best Way Given Resources, Time, Expertise) Which Pays Attention to Validity Broadly Conceived

Methods of Data Collection and Analysis Which Reflect the Question and the Overall Strategy (Appropriateness)

Explanation that Satisfies Objective Criteria (See Ch. 4) and that Does Not Make a Tendentious Interpretation and Takes into Account Possible Alternative Explanations

Notes

6 Could Empirical Research-Based Knowledge Be Cumulative? INTRODUCTION

THE TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS OF GRAND THEORY BUILDING

Paradigms

Grand Theory

VARIOUS SENSES OF ‘ACCUMULATING KNOWLEDGE’

EXPLANATIONS REVISITED

WHAT MIGHT THIS MEAN IN PRACTICE?

EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

Methodological Corroboration of Same Phenomena (Related to Common Question)

Aggregating Research: Meta-surveys and Meta-analyses

CONCLUSION

Notes

7 7 Converging Explanations: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods and How They Are Related. INTRODUCTION

ARE THERE METAPHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS?

METHODOLOGICAL APPROPRIATENESS

INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

MIXED METHODS RESEARCH: A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

The Creole Interference Hypothesis: An Investigation in St. Lucia

CONCLUSION

Notes

8 Intervention Studies, Experimental Methods and Evidence-Based Policy. INTRODUCTION

INTERVENTIONS

EXAMPLES

RCTs AND WHAT THEY PROMISE

LIMITATIONS OF RCTS

CONCLUSION

Notes

9 Case Study 1: Bernsteinian Sociolinguistics. INTRODUCTION: WHY THE CASE STUDIES?

LANGUAGE USE AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: THE CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND

THE RISE AND FALL OF VERBAL DEFICIT THEORY AND THE BERNSTEINIAN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROGRAMME

Empirical Counter Claims

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE RISE AND FALL OF VERBAL DEFICIT THEORY?

Theoretical Understanding

Methodological Innovation

Subtraction

Addition

Aggregation

Notes

10 Case Study 2: The Comparative Study of Vocational Education. PREAMBLE

PHILOSOPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PRELIMINARIES

A CONCEPTUAL PRELIMINARY: EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF VET: VET IS EMBEDDED IN A POLITICAL ECONOMY AND A CULTURE

COMPARATIVE VET STUDY AND POLICY BORROWING

Conceptualising the Economy9

Conceptions of Occupation and the Nature of the Labour Market

Managing Difference: Social Partnership

Conceptualising Knowledge: Wissen, Können, Skill, Fähigkeiten and Fertigkeiten

The Evolution of the Dual System in the Germanophone Countries

GRAFTING: THE EUROPEAN POLICY TOOLS

CONCLUSION: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VET? Additivity in the Descriptive Sense

Notes

11 Case Study 3: School Effectiveness and Improvement Research. INTRODUCTION

SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS RESEARCH

Problems with SER and the Current State of Play

FROM SER TO SIR, TO SIR AND SI

CONCLUSION

Conceptualisation of the Problem

Disconfirmation and What It Can Tell Us

Effects on Explanatory Theory

Methodological Points

Notes

12 Case Study 4: Research on the Teaching of Reading Debate and on Dyslexia. INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS READING?

The West Dunbartonshire Reading Initiative

THE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC APPROACH TO READING AND ‘REAL BOOKS’

Against Synthetic Phonics

Problems in Defining Dyslexia

Notes

13 Educational Faddism and How to (Possibly) Avoid It. INTRODUCTION

VALUES, AIMS AND OTHER CATEGORIAL EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTS

SOURCES OF INFLUENCE

FUNDING

TRUTH AND OBJECTIVITY REVISITED

THEN WHY FADS?

EDUCATIONAL FADDISM AND THE ANTIDOTE OF ‘WHAT WORKS’

BEYOND FADS? A CASE STUDY OF THE EDUCATION ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION

Notes

14 How Philosophical and Empirical Research Can Work Together. INTRODUCTION

COMMITMENT TO OBJECTIVITY AND TRUTH: THE IMPORTANCE OF CRITERIA

THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPLANATION

TOWARDS A PLURALIST RESEARCH TRADITION FOR EER

What Should Research Training Guidelines Contain?

MORE DETAIL ON WHAT IS NEEDED

RESEARCHERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Notes

15 Prospects for Empirical Educational Research and Its Future Relevance to Policy and Practice. INTRODUCTION

Levels of Teacher Engagement in Empirical Educational Research

TEACHERS’ LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT WITH EER

THE ETHICS OF TEACHING AND THE ETHICS OF RESEARCHING: SOME PROBLEMS

POLICYMAKERS’ ENGAGEMENT WITH EER

Notes

References

Index

WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Отрывок из книги

The Journal of Philosophy of Education Book Series publishes titles that represent a wide variety of philosophical traditions. They vary from examination of fundamental philosophical issues in their connection with education, to detailed critical engagement with current educational practice or policy from a philosophical point of view. Books in this series promote rigorous thinking on educational matters and identify and criticise the ideological forces shaping education.

Titles in the series include:

.....

Next, the claim it is not possible to know as opposed to believe any educational facts through EER will be considered. It will be argued that this claim is, in the end incoherent. Claims that educational phenomena can be considered through a faculty called ‘common sense’ will also be considered and rejected as incoherent. Finally the claim that EER is inherently unreliable and unable to fulfil its promise will be considered. This is the most serious objection to EER and will need to be considered with great care, paying due regard to the scope and limitations of EER. However, the conclusion will be a qualified positive one, albeit one which more positivistically inclined philosophers of EER may find difficult to accept.

Chapter 4 broaches the issue of what kinds of explanation are available for educational phenomena and is also concerned with the scope of educational explanations. There are a number of issues to be dealt with in a chapter on educational explanations. The first is what an educational explanation actually is. In order to deal with this, we need to remember the focus that most educational research has in trying to improve educational practices. Generally speaking, that purposive feature of EER shapes the kinds of explanations that are offered. But here we need to remind ourselves that explanation is closely tied to interpretation (see von Wright 1971, Ch. 4), not only in the sense that interpretation often has to precede explanation, but also in the sense that explanation sometimes involves interpretation. Explanations in EER tend to be focused on a practical issue, so they concentrate on why certain phenomena occur, in the sense of what causes and reasons are operative in bringing them about, but also on how they occur, in the sense of looking at the unfolding of processes in and around educational practices. In this sense, explanations are closely related to descriptions.The object (Achinstein 1975 in Körner ed. 1975) of an educational explanation is usually an educational phenomenon, but the origin of such an explanation arises from a question arising from a need for explanation.

.....