Educational research : why "what works" doesn't work / edited by Paul Smeijers and Marc Depaepe.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Smeyers, Paul.

Depaepe, Marc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Research.

Education.

Physical Description:

vi, 195 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, [2006]

Summary:

Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with 'what works', to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving 'student achievement' as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and therefore educational research, cannot ignore the distinctive nature of what it studies: a social activity where questions of meaning and value cannot be eliminated, and where interpretation and judgment play a crucial role.

In this book distinguished philosophers and historians of education from 6 countries focus on the problematical nature of the search for 'what works' in educational contexts, in practice as well as in theory. Beginning with specific problems, they move on to more general and theoretical considerations, seeking to go beyond over-simple ideas about cause and effect and the rhetoric of performativity that currently has educational thinking in its grip.

Contents:

Introduction. On the Rhetoric of 'What Works'. Contextualizing Educational Research and the Picture of Performativity / Paul Smeyers, Marc Depaepe 1

1 The 'Good Practices' of Jozef Emiel Verheyen - Schoolman and Professor of Education at the Ghent University / Marc Depaepe, Frank Simon, Angela Van Gorp 17

2 Ovide Decroly, a Hero of Education / Angela Van Gorp 37

3 Why Generalizability is not Generalizable / Lynn Fendler 51

4 The New Languages and Old Institutions: Problems of Implementing New School Governance / Daniel Trohler 65

5 Problematization or Methodology / James D. Marshall 81

6 The Relevance of Irrelevant Research; The Irrelevance of Relevant Research / Paul Smeyers 95

7 Expectations of What Scientific Research could (not) Do / Kathleen Coessens, Jean Paul Van Bendegem 109

8 Kuhnian Science and Education Research: Analytics of Practice and Training / Lynda Stone 127

9 The International and the Excellent in Educational Research / David Bridges 143

10 Technical Difficulties: The Workings of Practical Judgement / Richard Smith 159

11 The Science of Education - Disciplinary Knowledge on Non-Knowledge/Ignorance? / Edwin Keiner 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781402053078

OCLC:

76949272

Publisher Number:

9781402053078