Educational Explanations

Philosophy in Empirical Educational Research

Christopher Winch

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781119816478
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

EDUCATIONAL EXPLANATIONS

Educational Explanations is a comprehensive study of the main philosophical questions that confront empirical educational researchers. The book outlines the sense in which empirical educational research pursues truth and sets out and defends an account of its task as the offering of explanations for the many educational problems that claim our attention. The book goes on to look at the criteria for high quality research, the relationship between different methodological approaches and the scope and limits of intervention studies. At all stages detailed examples are presented to make the argument clearer. A distinctive feature of the book is the presentation of four detailed case studies, over four chapters, of influential educational research programmes that not only examine what they have achieved, but emphasise the conceptual issues that researchers are confronted with as they seek to provide explanations. The book goes on to examine the impact of empirical educational research on educational practice and on the practice of teachers in particular.

Table of contents

• Educational Explanations
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: What Is the Question?
• 2 A Criterial Conception of Truth and Objectivity: Its Relevance to Educational Research
• 3 Why Empirical Educational Research Needs to Be Taken Seriously
• 4 The Concept of an Educational Explanation and an Account of What Explanatory Adequacy Should Look Like
• 5 How Good Is Empirical Research – Disaster or Success?
• 6 Could Empirical Research-Based Knowledge Be Cumulative?
• 7 Converging Explanations: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods and How They Are Related
• 8 Intervention Studies, Experimental Methods and Evidence-Based Policy
• 9 Case Study 1: Bernsteinian Sociolinguistics
• 10 Case Study 2: The Comparative Study of Vocational Education
• 11 Case Study 3: School Effectiveness and Improvement Research
• 12 Case Study 4: Research on the Teaching of Reading Debate and on Dyslexia
• 13 Educational Faddism and How to (Possibly) Avoid It
• 14 How Philosophical and Empirical Research Can Work Together
• 15 Prospects for Empirical Educational Research and Its Future Relevance to Policy and Practice
• References
• Index
• EULA