DT>Boy do we see things differently
No kidding!     ;-)
DT>(though I agree with much of what you have said regarding research)
Nice to hear....
DT>.....but....after you said "leap of faith" well...you lost me.....
DT>not all qualitative research can be so easily dismissed.
"Perceived" correlations are leaps in faith, pure and simple.
Doesn't mean that all of these leaps are LONG ones!  ;-)
Some make decent sense; some may even be pretty sure things,
but leaps they are... I never said I "dismiss" them all;
matter of fact, I never said I "dismiss" them.  What I DID
say is that their "conclusions" are often suspect, and
involve a leap in faith somewhere along the line....
DT>Speaking of elephants....I think that the study of elephants is a 
DT>qualitative project.....
Doesn't have to be....
DT>observing the animal in its natural element....
Very few people are in a position to actually DO this....
DT>noting consistencies in its behavior and over time 
DT>"discovering" an "explanation" regarding elephant behavior.  
Inferring an explanation, and my example was of understanding
elephants, not just their apparent behavior....
DT>How well do you think scientific studies have assisted in making 
DT>education better?
I don't think many have been done, but it may be, as you
say, that human behavior doesn't lend itself very well
to scientific study as the variables are too extensive..
DT>One of the reasons for the low numbers of studies is funding.  
DT>Know anything about this?
One of the problems is that everyone observes and then draws
conclusions (in other words, everyone has had an opportunity
to conduct a "study"), and therefore "understands" the
educational process and what its "problem" is... Of course
everyone has different ideas as to the "problem", and
different "solutions" (also based upon no scientific study,
just "commonsense").  Add to that the ridiculous way we fund
education in the FIRST place, and you have funding problems.
___
 * MR/2 2.26 * Why not travel at WARP speed?  OS/2 WARP 3.0
--- PCBoard (R) v15.3 (OS/2) 2
---------------