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Randomized Controlled Trials: How Can We Know “What Works”?

Cowen, N.; Virk, B.; Mascarenhan-Keyes, S.; Cartwright, N.

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Authors

N. Cowen

B. Virk

S. Mascarenhan-Keyes



Abstract

“Evidence-based” methods, which most prominently include randomized controlled trials, have gained increasing purchase as the “gold standard” for assessing the effect of public policies. But the enthusiasm for evidence-based research overlooks questions about the reliability and applicability of experimental findings to diverse real-world settings. Perhaps surprisingly, a qualitative study of British educators suggests that they are aware of these limitations and therefore take evidence-based findings with a much larger grain of salt than do policy makers. Their experience suggests that the real world is more heterogeneous than the world imagined by evidence-based policy enthusiasts.

Citation

Cowen, N., Virk, B., Mascarenhan-Keyes, S., & Cartwright, N. (2017). Randomized Controlled Trials: How Can We Know “What Works”?. Critical Review, 29(3), 265-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2017.1395223

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Dec 13, 2017
Publication Date Dec 13, 2017
Deposit Date Oct 24, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Critical Review
Print ISSN 0891-3811
Electronic ISSN 1933-8007
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 29
Issue 3
Pages 265-292
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/08913811.2017.1395223

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Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.






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