The power of ‘evidence

Reliable science or a set of blunt tools

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8085390
AutoresTerry Wrigley (0000-0002-1536-243X, Northumbria University UK, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen44
Número3
Páginas359-376
Fecha de publicación2018-05-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/berj.3338
OpenAlexW2801869362
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas32
Referencias citadas21

In response to the increasing emphasis on ‘evidence‐based teaching’, this article examines the privileging of randomised controlled trials and their statistical synthesis (meta‐analysis). It also pays particular attention to two third‐level statistical syntheses: John Hattie's Visible learning project and the EEF 's Teaching and learning toolkit . The article examines some of the technical shortcomings, philosophical implications and ideological effects of this approach to ‘evidence’, at all these three levels. At various points in the article, aspects of critical realism are referenced in order to highlight ontological and epistemological shortcomings of ‘evidence‐based teaching’ and its implicit empiricism. Given the invocation of the medical field in this debate, it points to critiques within that field, including the need to pay attention to professional experience and clinical diagnosis in specific situations. Finally, it briefly locates the appeal to ‘evidence’ within a neoliberal policy framework

Appeal · Empiricism · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills · Computer Science · Critical Realism in Sociology · Philosophy and History of Science · Law · Philosophy