SPADES

SCIED 552 11.12.08

The Moss article was suppose to answer our questions about what makes educational research valid as many of us felt that the research didn't typify "real science research." The Butlerman-Bos was aimed at our complaints about the relevancy or lack thereof in educational research.

Discussed the Moss article Page 129: Validity Theory as Situated Inquiry

What is hermenuetics? Hermenuetics is an alternative to educational measurement in the evaluation of IDAs. Hermenuetic philosophy is a study of interpretation. Within this theory, by bringing in multiple outside opinions to reach a consensus on the interpretation, the interpretation gains validity. Hermenuetic philoshopy holds that there is no single correct interpretation of the text or artifact because every individual brings their own background to the interpretation that affects their meaning.

How hermenuetics differs from what we are used to? In our school system, teachers don't typically converse with one another to create their tests.

Page 137: A sociocultural framework for analyzing learning environments?

Moving on to the Butlerman-Bos...

Denise thought that clinical research seemed like a good model so that researchers would know the problems in the field; however felt that since educational research right now is so narrowed in their specific experiments that it already is almost clinical research.

Doug likened educational research and its disconnection from the classroom to physicists and how engineers view them. From our perspective (and this is how engineers look at researchers as well), engineers are always complaining that the physicists are being too idealistic and don't understand how it really works in the real world.

Identifying with Laboree, Alicia feels like there is a place for the abstract educational researchers because if people are immersed into the school/teacher culture they will become overly focused on solving those problems and so society will miss out on those potential abstract ideas that those researchers produce.

Extended analogy about musicians and music theory. Make the music, study that music, make the music theory from that production and then future people can take that theory. Musician theorists theorize about something that already exists, they don't create their own ideas.

Are there music theorists that are not musicians? This would be the analog to be being an educational theorist without being a educator.

The whole purpose of theory is not to capture the existing but to predict in someway what will happen. theory is based on empirical evidence but is designed to go beyond in someway..either predictive or descriptive of how phenomena connects to bigger picture or deeper patterns..but regardless has to do more of just describe the evidence.

The fundamental argument of Butlerman-Bos is that if you are a researcher then you must be a practioner. And she models this system after the clinician model within medicine.

//Our solution would be to://

Teachers would be required to engage in some form of educational and discipline-specific research. Act 48 isn't subject specific enough and so participants get a smattering of little to nothing because its so generalized. Teachers might not have to do/participate in the research, but will need to be updated as to what is going on in their field. A good source for emphasis would be NSTA, which incorporates articles that don't have such a language-barrier. A focus should be made to produce more clear ideas and concepts in educational research publications so that teachers aren't scared away.

Some way to connect researchers to the classroom in a more meaningful way. Does the researcher need to be a teacher, and if so, for how great an exposure? The researcher needs to have some exposure to the classroom and good teaching in a social setting that places the teacher on an equal social-hierarchy so that the researcher is receptive to the value of the teacher's abilities. If educational researchers predominantly have NEVER been in the classroom, they should have to go through an equivalent in-class experience to the PSU Block. If educational researchers mainly become out of touch with the issues in schools, then there should be some version of a reformed reverse Act 48.

So the people who are so abstract in the educational theory, shouldn't be allowed to dictate policy because their research doesn't have a classroom example yet and so isn't applicable. Fundamental research is meaningful because it could lead to applicable strategies but shouldn't be used for policies. (Butlerman-Bos states that the more scholarly the more power and this should be changed).

The idea was brought up that pure researchers and teachers don't normally have mutual personality characteristics. Many teachers are less likely to think analytically than researchers. Teach for America was brought up as many of those individuals have a "clinical experience" with teaching