Theories provide valuable guidance for research and practice. They provide a framework for generating testable hypotheses and integrating empirical evidence and, over time, a road map for the design and implementation of intervention strategies. With repeated use, a theory or set of theories can become the dominant lens through which investigators…

This commentary on EC 608 301 points out that devotion to the natural science canon of experimental proof in the area of generality testing requires proof procedures that are difficult, expensive, or impossible, but adopting a different canon of proof will not produce the desired certainty about the accuracy of the answer. (JDD)