Bill B's note of about December 17 has a number of interesting points in
it (to me at least!). One is the problem of "scaling up" interventions
if you believe, as we do, that to understand the changes it is necessary
to participate in them. This problem afflicts me directly because the
politics of increasing diversity at UC on my local campus has resulted
in a focus on school systems that are relatively inaccessible to my
students (they are across the middle of the city, about 25 miles away,
and at rush hour a mess).... and my intervention strategies involve
college students. So, I am relatively peripheral to that effort, substituting
the community college/telecom/"hire a circuit rider" strategy instead. I
do not, however, consider this research precisely because I cannot participate
in a way that I think necessary.
Bill made another point which caught my eye:
There is a fundamental
problem in all of this related to a recent mca article by Peter -- and
that is the other participants perspectives, to whatever extent that they
engage in the theory, become warped by the theory, and you don't finish
studying the same system you started out with. If Peter's comments of the
subjects learning across the duration of an interview sting the
investigator, as they indeed do, then those concerns across the span of a
multiyear project are very painful, especially with the lack of control
(that Herb Simons claims is possible in lab settings to preclude learning)
in settings conducive to achieving ecological validity. especially when
one of the goals is learning.
This problem bedevils Bill Blanton at Appalachian State U where, owing to
local circumstances, he can set up "experimental/control" comparisons of
efficicay of 5thDimension afterschool activities. Or least, he can for
a while. At first kids, owing to overcrowding, can be selected at random. But
as time goes on, fairness dictates that everyone gets a turn. So over time,
everyone is "contaminated" (from the logic this kind of experimental
comparison)...... and nicely enough, the evidence shows that along with
that contamination comes better academic performance, although since it is
"contaminated" that conclusion could be queried. So, Bill is finding that
to "prove" a proven system of activities works, he must change schools
and start all over! Now, try being a participant in all the schools in
western north carolina, Bill B!
Not the worst of quandries, but real enough when applying for grants.
mike
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