Fostering Scepticism: The Importance of Warranting Claims

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Abstract
This paper contains a consideration of the nature and role of warrants for research conclusions in educational research. The paper argues the need for an explicit warrant in the form of a logical and persuasive link between the evidence produced and the conclusions drawn (with appropriate qualifications and caveats). It describes social scientific warrants, some problems arising in real-life research, and the nature of warrants as used by practitioners and policy-makers. It examines some objections to the 'scientific' basis of warranted practice. Overall, the paper argues that greater transparency, complete specifications of the logic, and the elimination of plausible rival alternative explanations for the evidence are key approaches (and ones that are independent of the method used to derive the evidence).

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