Premium
Can educational experiments both test a theory and inform practice?
Author(s) -
Marsden Emma
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920701434094
Subject(s) - grammar , test (biology) , educational research , education theory , scale (ratio) , range (aeronautics) , mathematics education , psychology , computer science , epistemology , linguistics , higher education , paleontology , philosophy , physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , political science , law , composite material , biology
This article feeds into debate about the feasibility and usefulness of educational experiments by discussing methodological issues arising out of a study which sought causal links between teaching and learning of one aspect of French as a foreign language. The study involved two small‐scale experiments which tested a hypothesis regarding the learning of second language grammar within a particular theoretical, and its related pedagogical, framework (Input Processing and Processing Instruction respectively), and has been described in full elsewhere. The current article uses that example to suggest some circumstances (contextual, methodological and theoretical) within which educational experiments may be able to both test a learning theory and inform educational practice. It is argued that despite the complexities and limits of small‐scale educational experiments, an experimental design which combined a range of methods was able to generate new and useful (in a range of senses) substantive knowledge.