The scientific impotence excuse in education – Disentangling potency and pertinence assessments of educational research

Abstract

When facing belief-contradictory scientific evidence, preservice teachers tend to doubt the potency of science and consult scientific sources less frequently. Thus, individuals run the risk not only to maintain questionable assumptions but also to develop dysfunctional stances toward research as a reliable source of knowledge. In two studies, we (a) replicated findings on the so-called scientific impotence excuse (SIE) in education and (b) differentiated the effects on the potency and pertinence of science to investigate educational topics to better understand the nature of SIE-related science devaluation. Both studies followed a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design: Preservice teachers assessed their prior belief about an educational topic (i.e., effectiveness of grade retention) before and after reading either confirming or disconfirming scientific evidence concerning the topic. Study 1 (N = 147 preservice teachers; direct replication) confirmed the central prior findings of science devaluation when belief-evidence conflicts occur. In contrast, the results of Study 2 (N = 152; follow-up study) revealed no systematic devaluations of science when disentangling the facets of potency and pertinence. Despite partial devaluation tendencies, both studies revealed that preservice teachers adapted their prior beliefs to the evidence presented. These findings extend previous research by providing insights into the conditions of science devaluation.

Do pupils at research-informed schools actually perform better? Findings from a study at English schools

“…This rather requires -at best-controlled beforeafter studies. Some examples for such study designs can be found in the field of evidence-informed initial teacher education, of which some are represented in this special issue (e.g., Futterleib et al, 2022;Grimminger-Seidensticker and Seyda, 2022;Lohse-Bossenz et al, 2022;Voss, 2022). Further limitations of this study are, that the sample size at level 2, i.e., the school level, was too low to estimate complex models like the multilevel latent covariate model and multilevel multiple group models.…”

Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict pre‐service teachers' preferences for scientific sources

“…Three items adopted from Futterleib et al. (2022) asked participants to rate their preferences for using scientific sources in order to justify their positions about teaching‐related topics (example item: ‘Evidence on aspects of the topic from scholarly journal articles’). These items were mixed with six additional items representing non‐scientific sources that served as distractors.…”