On the Threats That Do Not Face Educational Research

Abstract

Gary Cziko's 1992 Educational Researcher article is in large part a revision and extension of the attack on mainstream educational research he began in this journal in 1989, to which we published a rebuttal in 1990. Cziko appears to find our 1990 criticisms of little value, but nevertheless abandons most of his earlier bases for criticism. He presents new reasoning to support his old conclusions that mainstream research is futile. We will argue that his new reasoning is no sounder than his old, and that his conclusions regarding mainstream research stem from misunderstandings and misrepresentations of statistical method, philosophy of science, and other topics, including the opinions of the present authors. Powers's (1973) perceptual control theory may well contribute to educational research, but the need for it does not stem from any of the short-comings alleged by Cziko.