[AAACE-NLA] NIFL Publication

[Debbie Yoho]

I just returned from a meeting at NIFL for the Special Collection directors
and Core Knowledge Groups. At this meeting, a document was passed out
entitled:  "Using Research and Reason in Education:  How teachers can use
scientifically based research to make curricular and instructional
decisions".  42 pages long, it can be downloaded from a PDF file at
www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading or a printed booklet can be ordered by
calling EdPubs at 1-800-228-8813.  The document is dated May 2003 and was
written by two apparently married individuals, Paul and Keith Stanovich at
the University of Toronto. If anyone knows anything about these two
individuals, I would appreciate hearing it.

>From page two:  "...This paper offers a primer for those skills that will
allow teachers to become independent evaluators of educational research."

page 4:  "...if lessons are not based in the science of pedagogy, they,
like poorly constructed buildings, will fail."

>From page 5:  ""...teachers have not yet been armed with the skills to
evaluate (educational) disputes on their own."

>From page 23  "...here is why the sole reliance on qualitative techniques
to determine the effectiveness of curricula and instructional strategies
has become problematic..."

As a practicing teacher, I found the document insulting, especially the
overview and introduction, but also fascinating.  It sheds a great deal of
light on the underlying agenda of the "scientific evidence" pressures and
is useful in defining some terms so that those of us who disagree can use
"their" own language to discuss the issue. Much of the document achieves
its purpose and many, including me, would see the overall approach and the
content as valid. But in several places the biases and hubris of the
authors are evident. 

Incidentally, I commented in the meeting that I thought it self-defeating
to insult the people you are trying to convince.  Someone commented that my
reaction was not unusual and others had made the same observation.  I was
also reminded that actually the authors had k-12 teachers in mind when
writing it, but the document does not say so and it was distributed at this
meeting of adult educators.  

The references at the back include such interesting entries as Dennett,
D.C. (1995) Darwin's dangerous idea:  Evolution and the meaning of life.
NY, Simon and Schuster. (!!!)


For the Cause!  Debbie

Deborah W. Yoho
Co-moderator, NIFL-Health Listserv
Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council
Past President, SC Adult Literacy Educators
2728 Devine Street,  Columbia, SC  29205
803-765-2555   Fax  803-799-8417   dwyoho at earthlink.net