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Berliner - 2002 (R)
Berliner - 2002 (R)
Berliner - 2002 (R)
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Under the stewardship of the Department of Education, recent acts not confuse science with method. As Peter Medawar said, “what
of Congress confuse the methods of science with the process of sci- passes for scientific methodology is a misrepresentation of what
ence, possibly doing great harm to scholarship in education. An other- scientists do or ought to do.”
The “evidence-based practices” and “scientific research” men-
wise exemplary National Research Council report to help clarify the
tioned over 100 times in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
nature of educational science fails to emphasize the complexity of sci-
are code words for randomized experiments, a method of re-
entific work in education due to the power of contexts, the ubiquity search with which I too am much enamored. But to think that
of interactions, and the problem of decade byfindingsinteractions. this form of research is the only “scientific” approach to gaining
Discussion of these issues leads to the conclusion that educational knowledge—the only one that yields trustworthy evidence—
science is unusually hard to do and that the government may not be reveals a myopic view of science in general and a misunderstand-
serious about wanting evidence-based practices in education.
ing of educational research in particular. Although strongly sup-
ported in Congress, this bill confuses the methods of science with
the goals of science. The government seems to be inappropriately
diverging from the two definitions of science provided above by
confusing a particular method of science with science itself. This
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NOVEMBER 2002 19
20 EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER