” We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about `and’. ” —Sir Arthur Eddington
“There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.” —John von Neumann
In a search for objective assessments of human learning and development, data from standardized measures has been accepted as fact, as truth, as having some irrefutable meaning. The reality is that there are so many ways to spin, to interpret, to synthesize and summarize this data, especially when details of context are ignored, it has been used as a tool to further specific agendas.
What would happen if educators were well informed about statistics and the scientific inquiry method so we could raise the questions of context, variables, controls, similar or dissimilar populations, replication of methods, generalizability of conclusions?