Until now, the conventional approach using two distinct groups, experimental and control, continues to dominate research, especially education research. Researchers, particularly those who are active in this domain, readily recognise this pattern when surveying literature. This article explores the use of the Solomon four-group design as a…

Pregnancy is a frequently applied exclusion criteria for many forms of research. Common justifications for this exclusion include the potential for teratogenicity, as well as the potential for physiologic changes in pregnancy to impact the research itself. The systematic exclusion of pregnant persons from clinical studies has created a significant…

A broad consensus exists that the use of appropriate methods are important in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. However, methodological controversies arise around what constitutes acceptable evidence, if one needs a control group, how generalizable results must be, and other similar issues. Much SoTL work, I argue, asks questions about how…

Improving academic, behavioural, and social outcomes of students through empirical research has been a firm commitment among researchers, policy-makers, and other professionals in education across Europe and the United States (U.S.). To assist in building scientific evidences, executive bodies such as the European Commission and the Institute for…

The recently reported i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery (May et al., 2015) found an effect size of +0.69 in favor of Reading Recovery compared to the control group. We discuss four issues: (a) many of the lowest achieving students were excluded from participation in Reading Recovery; (b) the control group received a range of different experiences;…

The studies in this special section of the "Journal of Educational Psychology" present a variety of social-psychological interventions across large numbers of classrooms and populations. They show notable benefits for many students at risk for low performance. This is the glass half-full interpretation, and we consider the strengths of…

The motivation for this paper is the authors' recent work on several randomized control trials in which they found the primary result, which averaged across subgroups or sites, to be moderated by demographic or site characteristics. They are led to examine a distinction that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) makes between "confirmatory"…

Background and objectives. The majority of environmental education takes place in informal settings, of which so-called free-choice learning is typical. What is understood by this is a kind of learning which is self-determined and driven by the needs and interests of the learner. The voluntariness of participation in interventions and the fact…

Objective: The aim of this paper was to review all randomized published trials and unpublished conference presentations on the neurofeedback (NF) treatment of pediatric ADHD, and their relevance, strengths, and limitations. Method: Via PsychInfo and Medline searches and contacts with NF researchers 14 studies were identified and reviewed. Results:…

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based protocol, ModerateDrinking.com (MD; "www.moderatedrinking.com") combined with use of the online resources of Moderation Management (MM; "www.moderation.org") as opposed to the use of the online resources of MM alone. Method: We randomly assigned 80 problem drinkers to…

Foster parents have special needs which must be addressed to retain them in the child welfare system. Several of these needs may be addressed within their foster parent training experience; however, little research is available to determine the effectiveness of these training programs. What little research is available is fraught with…

The point of departure in this study is the question: do teachers who develop theoretical knowledge of the variation theory change the way(s) they offer their pupils the object of learning due to the theoretical framework. The aim of the study is to describe this development, i.e. to find if and how teachers developed theoretical knowledge when…

Parents of children with a developmental disability require tailored parenting support, as their families have special needs and are at risk of increased burden. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Stepping Stones Triple P seminars, a brief group intervention for parents of a child with a disability. There were two seminars…

Randomized trials have experienced a marked surge in endorsement and popularity in education research in the past decade. This surge reignited paradigm debates and spurred qualitative critics to accuse these experimental designs of eclipsing qualitative research. This article reviews a current iteration of this debate and examines two randomized…

Which science programs have been proven to help elementary students to succeed? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on three types of programs designed to improve the science achievement of students in grades K-6: (1) Inquiry-oriented programs without science kits, such as Increasing Conceptual Challenge, Science IDEAS, and Collaborative…