[NLA] "breaking news"

[Eileen Eckert]

Since this is e-mail and "immediate" communication, development of ideas is 
visible and incremental. I am still advocating for program-based research, 
learning and developing my ideas aboout why and what for, and also trying to 
be clear about what I do and don't mean.

In advocating for practitioners to do research, I am NOT discounting the 
value of teachers' or learners' experience. Such experience can be part of 
research. I am saying that without examining experience, we are more likely 
to come to unjustified conclusions. Even if those conclusions are correct, 
they won't be convincing to others, like policymakers.

I keep referring to valid or trustworthy experience. I believe research that 
meets criteria for trustworthiness (within a naturalistic paradigm) is more 
likely than valid/reliable research to be both useful and usable for 
practioners. It's also more likely to address the following concern: It's 
possible, and not uncommon, to go astray using valid and reliable research. 
The idea of tacit knowledge and implicit learning has been getting attention 
in research on expertise and other questions of learning: we know more than 
we can tell, and we often learn it in ways that don't show up on 
standardized tests (true for teachers and students). I do believe that 
teachers can know based on observations without being able to articulate the 
reasons If we only trust scientific research (that is valid, reliable 
research) and ignore "feelings" that something's wrong with it, we lose out 
on all our tacit knowledge. However, sometimes intuitions are erroneous, 
based on stereotypes or other stubborn fallacies. We sort them out by 
learning to question our assumptions and use reflection and evidence to draw 
conclusions.

An article by Ronald Epstein in a 1999 issue of JAMA (I'm not using an 
obscure literacy acronym; I reall mean the Journal of the American Medical 
Association) discusses the concept of mindful practice. Program-based 
research that is valid or trustworthy can help us become more mindful 
practitioners (which helps us learn to articulate tacit knowledge and sort 
it out from erroneous intuitions). At the same time, it can address 
practical program issues and provide the field with evidence to support the 
recommendations we make to policymakers. Of course, there is also a need to 
learn how to organize ourselves and present recommendations so that 
policymakers listen. That's another topic...

Thanks, Andrea and others who have been discussing and arguing the issue of 
program-based research. I appreciate the opportunity to develop my thinking 
about it and the imperative to consider other perspectives.

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