March 2000, Vol. 31, Issue 2
The Evidential Basis for Knowledge Claims in Mathematics Education Research
Frank K. Lester, Dylan William
During the past few years, diverse individuals and groups have begun to promote a variety of old and new instructional approaches, programs, and policies for mathematics education (Dixon, Carnine, Lee, Wallin, & Chard, 1998; Jacob, 1997; Kilpatrick, 1997; Wu, 1997). Researchers are being exhorted to gather and analyze data for evaluating the efficacy of various instructional approaches and curricula. Moreover, individuals both within and outside of the mathematics education research community have offered "evidence" to support specific agendas. In view of this turbulent state of affairs, it seems especially timely for researchers and those interested in research to engage in discussions of the notions that are at the heart of all educational research activity. This essay addresses one of these fundamental notions--evidence.
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