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ERIC Number: EJ927586
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jun
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 66
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-726X
The Philosophical Foundations of Prescriptive Statements and Statistical Inference
Sun, Shuyan; Pan, Wei
Educational Psychology Review, v23 n2 p207-220 Jun 2011
From the perspectives of the philosophy of science and statistical inference, we discuss the challenges of making prescriptive statements in quantitative research articles. We first consider the prescriptive nature of educational research and argue that prescriptive statements are a necessity in educational research. The logic of deduction, abduction, and induction in philosophy of science are briefly reviewed, and the logic of prescriptive statement is specifically considered. The inductive nature of statistical inference is examined for both classical frequentist statistics and Bayesian statistics. To conclude our discussion, we recommend conducting replications and building "research programs" in educational research. We also make recommendations on what to write in the discussion section and what evidence is required to make an appropriate prescriptive statement.
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: N/A