Ten Years After Scientifically Based Research: Is It the Cure or the Disease?

• In Event: Scientifically Based Research and Research Quality

Abstract

Scientifically based research (SBR) in education has been a commonplace term in coursework, conferences, and hallway conversations for almost a decade. The purpose of this paper is to examine how scientifically based research came into common parlance and in what ways it is taken up in educational research. The author will look specifically at the claim that educational research is of poor quality and will explore the ways in which scientifically based research has been enacted in the federal government, the National Research Council (NRC), and the American Education Research Association (AERA). The author has identified moments of discontinuity in the history of SBR, contextualized by the originating presumption that educational research is of poor quality.

Author

• Jessica Van Cleave, Mars Hill University