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Recent events have vividly underscored the societal importance of
science, yet the majority of the public are unaware that a large
proportion of published scientific results are simply wrong. The
Problem with Science is an exploration of the manifestations and
causes of this scientific crisis, accompanied by a description of
the very promising corrective initiatives largely developed over
the past decade to stem the spate of irreproducible results that
have come to characterize many of our sciences. More importantly,
Dr. R. Barker Bausell has designed it to provide guidance to
practicing and aspiring scientists regarding how (a) to change the
way in which science has come to be both conducted and reported in
order to avoid producing false positive, irreproducible results in
their own work and (b) to change those institutional practices
(primarily but not exclusively involving the traditional journal
publishing process and the academic reward system) that have
unwittingly contributed to the present crisis. There is a need for
change in the scientific culture itself. A culture which
prioritizes conducting research correctly in order to get things
right rather than simply getting it published.
Designing and conducting experiments involving human participants
requires a skillset different from that needed for statistically
analyzing the resulting data. The Design and Conduct of Meaningful
Experiments Involving Human Participants combines an introduction
to scientific culture and ethical mores with specific experimental
design and procedural content. Author R. Barker Bausell assumes no
statistical background on the part of the reader, resulting in a
highly accessible text. Clear instructions are provided on topics
ranging from the selection of a societally important outcome
variable to potentially efficacious interventions to the conduct of
the experiment itself. Early chapters introduce the concept of
experimental design in an intuitive manner involving both
hypothetical and real-life examples of how people make causal
inferences. The fundamentals of formal experimentation,
randomization, and the use of control groups are introduced in the
same manner, followed by the presentation and explanation of common
(and later, more advanced) designs. Replete with synopses of
examples from the journal literature and supplemented by 25
experimental principles, this book is designed to serve as an
interdisciplinary supplementary text for research-methods courses
in the educational, psychological, behavioral, social, and health
sciences. It also serves as an excellent primary text for methods
seminar courses.
This book poses and ultimately answers the question of whether the
public schools would have been affected if no educational research
had been conducted during this century. To answer this question, 12
genres of educational research are evaluated. The genres are
accompanied by non-technical, annotated synopses examples of each.
A case is made that the science of education as a whole is
repetitive, non-cumulative, and is characterized by a circular
rather than a linear trajectory.
Bausell provides a restrictive but defensible view of the purpose
of educational research which is to produce instructional,
curricular, or assessment products rather than seldom read and soon
forgotten academic papers.This book poses and answers two
questions: (a) whether it is possible for the science of education
to develop into a discipline that could constructively impact the
education of students and, if so (b) what type of research would be
required for this transformation. Three genres of research were
identified that possess the potential for impacting school
instruction if the end result of this work is an instructional
product capable of increasing learning by increased access to
instruction or engagement therewith. Finally, specific suggestions
are tendered for creating the infrastructure needed to realize this
unique vision of what the science of education should be.
Bausell provides a restrictive but defensible view of the purpose
of educational research which is to produce instructional,
curricular, or assessment products rather than seldom read and soon
forgotten academic papers.This book poses and answers two
questions: (a) whether it is possible for the science of education
to develop into a discipline that could constructively impact the
education of students and, if so (b) what type of research would be
required for this transformation. Three genres of research were
identified that possess the potential for impacting school
instruction if the end result of this work is an instructional
product capable of increasing learning by increased access to
instruction or engagement therewith. Finally, specific suggestions
are tendered for creating the infrastructure needed to realize this
unique vision of what the science of education should be.
This book poses and ultimately answers the question of whether the
public schools would have been affected if no educational research
had been conducted during this century. To answer this question, 12
genres of educational research are evaluated. The genres are
accompanied by non-technical, annotated synopses examples of each.
A case is made that the science of education as a whole is
repetitive, non-cumulative, and is characterized by a circular
rather than a linear trajectory.
Health evaluation has become increasingly important in recent years
as policy makers, health professionals and health researchers
become more concerned with the rigorous assessment of healthcare
policies, health interventions and health research. This important
volume, edited by Barker Bausell, will be a must-read for anyone
interested in the methodological fundamentals of how best to
design, carry out and analyse health evaluation studies, and anyone
interested in making healthcare policy and health research more
effective. This collection includes key publications on the topic
of health evaluation, focusing primarily on four themes: evaluation
theory and approaches to the process of evaluation, methods and
design considerations, statistical issues and exemplary case
studies. As part of the Fundamentals of Applied Research series,
this four-volume major work offers an overview of seminal articles
in the field of health evaluation that are designed to enable
health professionals and their students to learn about, interpret
and ultimately undertake evaluation studies in their own specialist
fields.
Too Simple to Fail presents a startling dissection of what is wrong
with our educational system and a set of simple, common-sense steps
for improving it. This simplicity, Bausell argues, characterizes
both the schooling process and the science of education, as
witnessed by legions of researchers who have discovered precious
little that their grandmothers didn't already know. Yet
surprisingly, based upon the author's own studies and a review of
the past 30+ years of educational research, these discoveries boil
down to a simple but powerful theory: The only way schools can
increase learning is to increase the amount of relevant
instructional time for all students. Here, Bausell demonstrates
that classroom instruction is hopelessly obsolete, as are our
current testing practices, both contributing to the widening
opportunity gap between socioeconomic and racial groups. But with
an understanding of what is wrong with education today comes the
revelation that the answer to these deficiencies has been available
to us all along in the form of the tutorial model, the most
effective instructional paradigm ever developed. Only in recent
years has it become feasible to simulate this extremely effective
instructional medium as a universal option that, in effect, would
allow schools to provide relevant instruction as a rule and not an
exception. If implemented, a new world of opportunity and potential
will finally be available to children, whose learning is so crucial
for our future. The new model presented in this book has
implications for identifying not only what is wrong with the way we
educate our young, but also why it is wrong, and how the
educational process can be made more efficient, effective, and
fair.
Hailed in the New York Times as "entertaining and immensely
educational," Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of
alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to
interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate
goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make
medical therapies appear to be effective--not just to consumers,
but to therapists and poorly trained scientists as well. Bausell
explores this remarkable phenomenon and explains why research on
any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect (and other
placebo-like effects) will inevitably produce false results.
Moreover, as the author shows in an impressive survey of research
from high-quality scientific journals, studies employing credible
placebo controls do not indicate positive effects for alternative
therapies beyond those attributable to random chance. Readers will
come away from this book with a healthy skepticism of claims about
the latest "miracle cure," be it St. John's Wort for depression or
acupuncture for chronic pain.
There is no doubt that this book will be well received by those who
are fortunate enough to come across it. This book will be of use to
the growing number of people involved either as purchasers or
providers of research. Don't go to work without it! --Health
Services Management Research Journal "I would recommend [this book]
to a colleague as a useful companion text for students. I would say
that this is an engaging discussion of experimental research for
social, behavioral, and health science students. The writing style
is fresh and entertaining, and draws the willing reader into
thinking through the process of designing and conducting
experimental research. It is not a 'cookbook' or a compendium of
facts. Rather, it is a pragmatic and thoughtful description
intended to help students understand how to design meaningful
experiments, and by understanding that, they will also understand
how to interpret research they do not conduct themselves."
--Katharyn A. May, School of Nursing, Vanderbilt University "This
slim but packed volume is written for prospective researchers in
the social and health sciences. The writing style is lively,
encouraging, upbeat. R. Barker Bausell brings science down to earth
without sacrificing respect for rigor and complexity. . . .
Recommended for all institutions with undergraduate or graduate
research requirements in the social and health sciences." --Choice
Tired of research methods books that tell how to perform a research
study without any mention of the why behind doing research? Aimed
at communicating the excitement and responsibility of the research
process, this remarkable volume enables you to evaluate beforehand
whether a prospective research study has the potential to either
improve the human condition, contribute to theory formation, or
explain the etiology of a significant phenomenon rather than to
produce just another "publishable" study. By emphasizing how to
think about and strategize a research study, R. Barker Bausell
shows you the important steps of a scientific study--from the
formulation of the problem to the write-up of the results. Replete
with illustrative examples drawn from the social, health, and
behavioral sciences, this volume is a must for all serious
researchers.
Every year millions of people flock to complementary and
alternative therapists offering a vast array of treatments ranging
from acupuncture to biofeedback to urine injections. Millions more
purchase over-the-counter alternative medications, such as
glucosamine, herbs, and homeopathic remedies. While consumer
motivations for turning to complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) vary, there is one common element among them all: a belief in
their effectiveness. This belief appears to be prevalent among all
elements of society, from scientists and physicians to celebrities
such as Prince Charles and Oprah Winfrey to clerical workers and
senior citizens. Do these therapies actually work? And if they
work, how do they work? This book is about the science of
complementary and alternative medicine, about how that science is
conducted, how it is evaluated, and how it is synthesised to arrive
at a conclusion about whether CAM therapies work. It is also about
the phenomenon of the placebo effect, and the extent to which it is
at play in a given CAM therapy's efficacy. Are CAM therapies in
fact nothing more than creatively packaged placebos? In exploring
this question, Barker Bausell provides an authoritative and
engaging look at the nature of scientific evidence and at the
logical, psychological, and physiological impediments that can
confound such evidence in the world of CAM research. Ultimately,
the book is not so much opposed to CAM as to the shoddy science
upon which CAM claims are based, and in fact it closes with a
chapter about how one might maximise the placebo effect that
Bausell asserts is the main 'ingredient' of most CAM therapies.
This book is a learned, witty examination not just of the
scientific process as it is applied to CAM but also of the wonders
of the human mind/body system.
Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a
statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific
experiment prior to the experiment being performed. Many funding
agencies and institutional review boards now require power analyses
to be carried out before they will approve experiments,
particularly where they involve the use of human subjects. This
comprehensive, yet accessible, book provides practising researchers
with step-by-step instructions for conducting power/sample size
analyses, assuming only basic prior knowledge of summary statistics
and the normal distribution. It contains a unified approach to
statistical power analysis, with numerous easy-to-use tables to
guide the reader without the need for further calculations or
statistical expertise. This will be an indispensable text for
researchers and graduates in the medical and biological sciences
needing to apply power analysis in the design of their experiments.
Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific experiment prior to the experiment being performed. This comprehensive, accessible book provides practicing researchers with step-by-step instructions for conducting power/sample size analyses, assuming only basic prior knowledge of summary statistics and normal distribution. It contains a unified approach to statistical power analysis, with numerous easy-to-use tables that make further calculations or statistical expertise unnecessary.
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