According to Niklas Luhmann, causality is both an impossibility and a necessity in education. On the one hand, the task of the teacher is an impossible one, because teaching as communication is a closed system that cannot determine the learning of pupils' psychical system in any causal sense. On the other hand, one cannot practice as a teacher…

Mediation has played a critical role in developmental theory and research. Yet, developmentalists rarely discuss the methodological challenges of establishing causality in mediation analysis or potential strategies to improve the identification of causal mediation effects. In this article, we discuss the potential outcomes framework from…

We welcome Professor Pearl's comment on our original article, Dawid et al. Our focus there on the distinction between the "Effects of Causes" (EoC) and the "Causes of Effects" (CoE) concerned two fundamental problems, one a theoretical challenge in statistics and the other a practical challenge for trial courts. In this…

The authors reflect on findings from three studies of different approaches to reading intervention (Al Otaiba et al., Denton et al., and Miller et al., all found in this issue). It is argued that the science of interventions for reading disorders is advanced and that these and other related studies provide a strong evidence base for guiding…

People's reactions to coincidences are often cited as an illustration of the irrationality of human reasoning about chance. We argue that coincidences may be better understood in terms of rational statistical inference, based on their functional role in processes of causal discovery and theory revision. We present a formal definition of…

In 4 experiments, the author explored the spontaneous construction of spatial situation models during discourse comprehension by using the sentence-recognition paradigm of J. D. Bransford, J. R. Barclay, and J. J. Franks (1972). In Experiment 1, signaling causal relevance of spatial relations was a necessary precondition for replicating their…

The concept of attitude is often used in the mass media as a causal factor, but it is seldom identified as such in Swedish scientific reports, possibly because of pessimism about the usefulness of attitude research. A research review suggests that attitude is an interesting predictor and explanatory concept. (SLD)

Violence in America is a public health problem of the highest magnitude. In order to address this problem, the causes of violence and an overview of some effective treatment and prevention programs are presented in this booklet. It focuses on biobehavioral factors (ways in which physiological characteristics influence behavior) and centers on such…

An integrative causal process model of evaluation utilization variables is presented. The model was developed through a traditional approach to literature review that lists results from published studies and relates these to the research topic, and through an approach that tries to integrate the models found in the literature search. Meta-modeling…

Issues the author has explored in his work on the philosophy of statistics are reviewed. Indeterminacy, the place of empiricism, questions of causation and causality, and explorations of language have preceded the study of objectivity. The relationship between objectivity and multivariate statistics is examined. (SLD)

Community colleges must often analyze and report rates for outcomes, such as transfer to four-year colleges. A single, summary rate may be an invalid measure of its achievement in the transfer goal if the summary rate ignores the real difference in enrollment composition at different institutions. California's community colleges embody a very…

A three-stage model of academic probation that addresses cognitive, affective, behavioral, and environmental factors is presented. Stages examine precursors to probation (factors inhibiting student performance), reactions to being placed on probation, and coping strategies that predict long-term consequences. A key assumption is that student…

Results are presented of an evaluation of effects of the within-classroom component of the Second International Science Study on science learning processes and products at the twelfth-grade level in Hong Kong. Partial Least Squares Path (PLSPATH) analysis is used to model the data obtained from 6,103 students in 217 classrooms. (SLD)