When you read the business news, it is very obvious that there is a great lack of scientific management. Although business and industry in capitalist nations function far more efficiently than in communist or socialist countries, they are not as efficient as they should be. Why? The Blunder is the answer. Business schools do not […]
A large and powerful group of our top educational leaders claim that the scientific method doesn’t exist, that science is a culture, that there is no one method, that the scientific method is only a textbook method, that scientific knowledge is achieved by the self-regulating norms of the scientific community over time. They use these […]
The November 25, 2005 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education contains two excellent articles about the challenges ahead for higher education and how the future will shake out by 2015. One article says, “In higher education, the liberal arts, philosophy and the humanities - the nonscientific ways of truth seeking - have been put […]
The Bush administration is advocating “evidence-based education.” Considering all the fads and impractical programs we have had in the education field over the years, this is a step forward. But we have to be careful! In the past, when various fads have been imposed on teachers, those advocating them have submitted “evidence.” The evidence often […]
Peer review has been called the gold standard of the scientific method. Natural science journals have used it successfully for a long time, even though, because humans are involved, it is far from perfect.
However, in the case of educational journals, it has not stopped educational research from being, on the whole, unreliable. The reason is […]
In an article in the Wall Street Journal (November 21, 2005) Carol Hymowitz says:
“Executives talk about how their most important job is finding and keeping the best talent. Unless they regularly recruit good people who can solve problems, originate ideas and inspire others, they can’t grow or compete effectively, they say.”
Unfortunately, recruiters have a hard […]
Events of the last few years in business, science, publishing, education, and other domains have created more interest in ethics. The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy issued Federal Policy on Research Misconduct in January 2001. It states that “research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, […]
The National Academy of Sciences had contract ED-00-00-0038 with the U.S. Department of Education National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board. Here is my critical and constructive review of the publication, Scientific Research in Education (2002), published by the National Academy Press, that resulted from that contract.
It contains a misrepresentation inferring that there is no […]
After a number of complaints, an audit will be scheduled to scrutinize the contracts for technical assistance to states. This type of thing could have been avoided if we had a permanent specialized SM-14 type national research center on reading. The teaching of reading has been a disaster for decades. In 1955 Dr. Rudolph Flesch […]
A big discussion on intellectual capital started in about 1991. Here is a quote from the Editor’s Desk column of the June 3, 1991, issue of Fortune magazine discussing its cover story by Thomas Stewart:
Intellectual capital. Simply put, it’s the collective brainpower of everyone you work with. The knowledge that sets you and your organization […]
You are currently browsing the Norman Edmund’s Educational Blog weblog archives for November, 2005.