Abstracts - Earli

I 730 August 2007 14:30 - 16:30Room: KonferenciaSymposiumDesign-based research: Promises, potential and pitfalls(Proposal of the International Academy of Education)Chair: Erik De Corte, University of Leuven, BelgiumOrganiser: Erik De Corte, University of Leuven, BelgiumOrganiser: Monique Boekaerts, University of Leiden, NetherlandsDiscussant: Denis C. Phillips, Stanford University, USAEducational research has a dual goal: developing and building theories about learning anddevelopment, and about the impact of instructional/pedagogical interventions on both learning anddevelopment, on the one hand, and contributing to the innovation and improvement ofeducational/classroom practices, on the other hand. Looking at the history of the field shows thatthere has always been a tension between both goals. In the early 1990s especially in the US theconduct of design experiments has been put forward as a methodological approach to overcomethe tension between both goals (or to bridge the gap between research/theory, on the one hand, andclassroom practices, on the other hand). But at the same time a counter- movement – which ismoreover currently policitically supported in the US - has been launched, that criticizes designbasedresearch and puts forward randomized field trials as the gold standard for educationalresearch. The aim of this symposium is to unravel and discuss from different perspectives –developmental psychology, instructional psychology, and philosophy of education - the promises,the potential, but also the possible pitfalls of design-based research in the light of the dual goal ofeducational research mentioned above, namely building theory and contributing to theimprovement of educational practices.Design-experiments: A tool for bridging the theory-practice gap relating to educationErik De Corte, University of Leuven, BelgiumResearch on learning and instruction has developed tremendously, and investigators intend tocontribute to the improvement of education. But complaints about the gap betweentheory/research, on the one hand, and educational practices, on the other hand, have been and arestill the order of the day. In the early 1990s Collins (19920 and Brown (1992) have launched in theU.S.A. the idea of design experiments (DEs) as an approach to bridge this gap. In this presentationit will first be argued that the intervention approach to research on learning and instruction – thegist of design experiments – originated much earlier, albeit that different labels have been used.Then two criticisms of design research (see e.g., Phillips & Dolle, 2006) will be discussed. Designexperiments aim at the simultaneous pursuit of the advancement of our understanding of theprocesses of learning and instruction, on the one hand, and at the improvement of classroompractices, on the other hand. Phillips and Dolle (2006) dispute the potential of DEs to achieve bothgoals simultaneously. Second, and very importantly, theyDEs are from a methodologicalperspective criticized for lack of control and randomization resulting in confounding of variables.It will be argued that under cettain conditions DEs can accommodate both main objections.– 489 –