This paper aims to explore the philosophical theoretical foundations of two basic research paradigms, namely positivism and interpretivism. In the discussion process, literature in the relevant fields including academic papers and books is reviewed and used as support for the analysis. Firstly, the paper explores the differences between the…

Background: Understanding how policymakers define research and differentiate it from other sources of data is critical for scientists to improve how they conduct and communicate research to policy audiences. Yet, few studies have explicitly asked policymakers -- particularly state legislators in the USA -- how they define research evidence.…

The use of Mixed Methods (MM) in evaluation has increasingly become a valuable asset in evaluators' methodological toolbox. Despite prolific research on various aspects of mixed methods, from typologies to ontological debates, there remains a dearth of empirically derived evidence on effectively communicating MM findings. This lack of empirical…

To successfully learn using freely available (and non-curated) Internet resources, university students need to search for, critically evaluate and select online information, and verify sources (defined as Critical Online Reasoning, COR). Recent research indicates substantial deficits in COR skills among higher education students. To support…

This essay describes what it means to live with existential self-doubt, explores how such doubt emerges in educational encounters, and examines some educational benefits and challenges of uncertainty and doubt. Mordechai Gordon begins his analysis by describing the type of self-doubt that Paul Cézanne embodied, that is, of an artist who painted…

Despite students' growing interest in entrepreneurship education (EE), the small body of research exploring rhetorical strategies for proposing new business ventures has focused only on the argument strategies that startup entrepreneurs use when delivering oral pitches to investors. This study, by contrast, explores the "topoi," or lines…

Suitable execution of moderation policy is challenging but crucial for the trustworthiness and credibility of internal high-stakes assessment systems. In formal education, policies are rarely implemented as intended. Instead, they are "enacted" in ways influenced by mediating factors including the internal and external contexts of…

There are a range of educational web-based resources available for use by education professionals. Although widely available, such web resources vary in terms of usability. As of 2022, there was no way to assess whether these web resources are useful for educators in terms of identifying new classroom interventions to implement. In response, the…

Increasingly, colleges and universities require at least one diversity course as part of general education programs. Students in required undergraduate diversity courses may challenge the credibility and authority of their instructors, particularly if these faculty members belong to minoritized social identity groups. The authors report on…

We hypothesized that autistic adults may be erroneously judged as deceptive or lacking credibility due to demonstrating unexpected and atypical behaviors. Thirty autistic and 29 neurotypical individuals participated in video-recorded interviews, and we measured their demonstration of gaze aversion, repetitive body movements, literal interpretation…

This article focuses on "uncertainty"--ways in which scientists recognize and analyze limits in their studies and conclusions. We distinguish uncertainty from (un)trustworthiness--ways in which scientific reports can be affected by conscious deception or unconscious bias. Scientific journal articles typically include analyses and…

The purpose of this article is to describe scholarly research to the degree that when something labeled "research" is encountered in daily life, the reader will be equipped to discern its credibility. Specifically, the article addresses the following questions: (1) What exactly is "research"?; (2) What distinguishes scholarly…

Content-based techniques for credibility assessment (Criteria-Based Content Analysis [CBCA], Reality Monitoring [RM]) have been shown to distinguish between experience-based and fabricated statements in previous meta-analyses. New simulations raised the question whether these results are reliable revealing that using meta-analytic methods on…

Researcher developers conduct their work in the borderlands between academic disciplines and university administration. Navigating this third space [Berman, J. E., and T. Pitman. 2010. "Occupying a 'Third Space': Research Trained Professional Staff in Australian Universities." "Higher Education" 60 (2): 157-169.…

Understanding attitudes towards anthropogenic disturbances, especially among undergraduates, is important to inform educational practices because of the theoretical link between attitude and behavior. We evaluated the attitudes of undergraduate students in a biology majors course and nonmajors course toward two anthropogenic disturbances: wildfire…