EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY AND PRACTICE
(From The Book Philosophy of Education By
Richard Pring)
to complete the task of Science Philosophy
Course
Lecturer : Dr. Laila Fitriana, M.Pd.
By :
Heri Satriawan
POSTGRADUATE
OF MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
FACULTY
OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITAS
SEBELAS MARET
SURAKARTA
2018
CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Giving
policy in every case is not always based on evidence because the evidence is an
implication of the policy. A marely superficial acquaintance with the
philosophy of science makes it clear that science grows from constant (and
often successful) attempts to negate the current state of scientific knowledge.
All such knowledge is, as it were, provisional-to be accepted until such time
as it is refuted and replaced by more comprehensive and better corroborated
scientific propositions.
An
important part of refining the evidence lay in the systematic review of
existing research, rejecting that which did not meet rigorous experimental
criteria, ignoring that where the data and method were less than clear,
reconciling where possible the different samples bases for the samples,
identifying where further research was needed to fill the gaps in our
scientifically based knowledge.
Such
has been the success of the Cochrane Centre’s work that people in other areas
of the public services have looked for the lessons which can be learnt from it.
The Campbell Collaboration, based in the United States, but with regional
centres in Canada an Denmark, has extended the work to other areas of social
life – for example, education and criminology. Saw the approach of Cochrane and
Campbell to be what was require to improve the quality of research to inform
both goverment policy and professional practice. And this was seen to be
necessary because of the criticismof that research, certainly in education.
The
reaction to the transfer, to the field education, of the evidence-base approach
of Conchrane and Campbell has varied from the hostile to the welcoming. But the
essence of the critisms and of the differences betwen them is philosophical.
B.
Problem Formulation
1.
What is the meaning of evidence?
2.
How
does the evidence related to the education policy?
C. The
Aim of Research
1.
To knows the meaning of evidence
2.
To knows the evidence related to the
education policy.
CHAPTER
11
DISCUSSION
Evidence
A lot depends on how one interprets the word 'evidence' There are many different kinds of evidence, depending on the type of claim being made. Example: Evidence that the water boils at 100 degrees Celsius is different from the evidence to show whether or not someone is beautiful. Historical evidence is different from that in science, and even within science there are different sorts of discourse, each characterized by differences in what is deemed to constitute evidence. Furthermore, 'evidence' must not be confused with proof. As the previous example, the water boils at a temperature of 100 ℃ is one of the proof because it is already believed inthe truth, whereas the proof that someone who is beautiful is one of the shape of "evidence" in which, we must prove it gradually because someone who is beauty or not, it is relative, we see from many aspect.
One can gradually build up the evidence for a belief but gradually proving it seems a little odd. On the basis of evidence, it may be probable that something is the case - although there may be counterevidence which is less persuasive. For example in education, the teacher sees the child cheating, but the teacher does not have sufficient evidence. Considering that the child is really cheating or not by looking back or reconsidering when he cheats, it is called a prima facie motive. Educational peactice requires judgesments about intentions as well as motivation
There are
philosophical problems about the concept of evidence those are as follows:
1. The logical unpredictability of all the consequences of a particular course of action or a particular policy.
2. The irreconcilability of scientific discourse (and thus the social sciences within a particular tradition) with that concerned with persons.
3. The logical separation of educational 'ends' or 'goals' from the 'means' of achieving them.
Unpredictability
The difficulty to predict what will happen so that the uncertainty
underlies us to make a policy. So the policy will affect to what happens. For example:
the school wants to get good accreditation, so the policy is made to increase
the school's value, eg in the case of increasing minimum competency criteria.
Given this necessary unpredictability of complex social situations, there is a
limit to how far the accumulation of evidence can ensure certain consequences will
follow from carefully considered interventions.
Explaining
human behaviour
Educational policy and professional practice are
ultimately about getting people (usually young people) to learn something - and
something which is deemed to be of value. To educate is to develop the capacity
to think, to value, to understand, to reason, to appreciate. These are states
of mind, mental capacities, distinctively human qualities. One feature of such
states of mind is that they constitute a different kind of'reality'
from that which is the subject matter of the natural sciences.
Those intentions
and motives presuppose a social context of rules where by the intended
behaviours are going to be interpreted by others in a particular way. It is no
good signalling a revolution if the fellow revolutionaries do not understand
the gesture. To explain human actions requires a grasp of the social rules
through which social intercourse is able to take place. Furthermore, such
social rules will change from social group to social group-indeed, a social
group is partly defined in terms of the social rules through which they engage
with each other.
Means
and ends
The concern for evidence-based policy and practice
arises within a climate of 'improvement', 'raising standards', 'making schools
more effective'. Knowledge is required of 'what works'. To do this, so the
argument goes, there is a need to set targets, as specific as possible. That case is
its goal.
Into school effectiveness - the characteristics of a
school and its leadership which will ensure 'success'. Success is spelt out in
terms of very precise targets (such as a given proportion of students attaining
grades in public examinations). Similarly, effective teaching,
for example:
schools that want to achieve accreditation A, set targets to achieve
accreditation A. eg increasing student's KKM score. It makes the teachers think
that how to increase the value of KKM so that teachers can apply appropriate
learning methods to increase the value of student’s KKM.
In the
educational encounter, the teacher is the expert in knowning what ‘means’ will
most effectively attain those ‘ends’. The goal, end or purpose shapes the way
in which the teacher teaches – it is captured and ‘shown’ in the very act of
teaching. Teaching is a transaction between the teacher and the learner, not
the delivery of something to the learner. But the main educational purpose lies
in the engangement with a valuable text.
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION
1.
Evidence is of different kinds relative
to the form of discourse through which a problem is being addressed.
2.
Educational policies, aiming to improve
the quality of learning and to increase the number of people who successfully
participate in education at different phases, need evidence to show that one
policy rather than another will make things better.So, what we have already done, it must have the evidence.There
are three conclusions that need to be drawn from this as we look to the future
·
The first is that evidence-based policy
and practice need to look much more carefully at the diffent kinds of evidence
which legimately enter into educational deliberations at the policy and
professional practice levels.
·
Second, despite the rather electric
nature of educational discourse, there are lessons to be learnt from the
insistence by the advocates of evidence-based policy and practice for the more
rigorous search for evidence.
·
Third, the political and often highly
charged context of educational research needs to be recognized. It cannot be
wished away. And that political context invades not only the policies and
practices themselves, but also the different philosophical advocacies of different
sorts of research.
