Michael Scriven (2010), in his EvalTalk post of 30 June 2010 titled "Re: Non randomized and non regression discontinuity studies on governance programs" wrote [my insert at ". . . .[[insert]]. . . ."]:
"I have proposed a general model for causal attribution, that subsumes RCT as a special case, and the same for regression discontinuity etc. It's the General Elimination Model . . . . .[[see e.g., Google (2010a)]]. . . . ., an extension of the 'inference to the best explanation'. . . . .[[see e.g., Google (2010b)]]. . . . ., approach in the philosophy of science literature. . . . . It's briefly covered in "A Summative Evaluation of RCT Methodology: & An Alternative Approach to Causal Research" in the online *Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation* <http://bit.ly/dxFbKh> volume 5, 2008. Comments are welcome, especially proposed refutations!" As President of "PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)," I can't resist supplying: a. the academic reference for Scriven's (2008) article, online at <http://bit.ly/93VcWD>. See below under "REFERENCES." b. the results of Google (2010a,b ) searches for "General Elimination Model" and "inference to the best explanation." See below under "REFERENCES." Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands <rrh...@earthlink.net > <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi> <http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com> <http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake> REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/>. All URL's accessed on 13 July 2010.] Donaldson, S.I., M.Q. Patton, D.M. Fetterman, & M. Scriven. 2010. "The 2009 Claremont Debates: The Promise and Pitfalls of Utilization-Focused and Empowerment Evaluation," Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 6(13): 15-57; online at <http://bit.ly/bAgE4N>. On page 32, Scriven comments: "A General Elimination Methodology (GEM)-based approach beats the so-called gold standard, and is the commonsense way of establishing causation, which is, 'Think of all of the possible causes for this, and see if you can eliminate all but one.' That's what we always do in the forensic sciences, where we can't possibly use experiments when looking at the corpse of a victim, or the loss of a plane. We do this without going to experimental approaches, but of course, doing so uses masses of evidence in any legitimate use of that term. That's why it stands up in court. I want to stress the fact that, in my view, the internal rationale of this fight is included in this elimination process." Google. 2010a. Results of a search for "General Elimination Model" (with the quotes) on 10 July 2010 07:05:00-0700; online at <http://bit.ly/cR1jUi> (8 hits). Google. 2010b. Results of a search for "inference to the best explanation" (with the quotes) on 10 July 2010 07:10:00-0700; online at <http://bit.ly/aNWP9K> (306,000 hits). Scriven, M. 2008. "A Summative Evaluation of RCT Methodology: & An Alternative Approach to Causal Research," Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 5(9): 11-24; online at <http://bit.ly/93VcWD>. See also Scriven (2010) and Donaldson et al. (2010). Scriven. M. 2010. "Rethinking Evaluation Methodology," Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 6(13): i-ii; online at <http://bit.ly/bcfH1L>. Scriven, M. 2010. "Re: Non randomized and non regression discontinuity studies on governance programs," EvalTalk post of 30 Jun 2010 18:41:08-0700; online at <http://bit.ly/a7nKbf>. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=3832 or send a blank email to leave-3832-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
