Knowledge or Certainty? A Reply to Cziko

In an Educational Researcher article, Cziko (April, 1989) questioned contemporary approaches toward the conduct of educational research, especially those involving experimentation. He justified the need for reform by appealing to the inherent unpredictability and indeterminacy of behavior and went on to suggest greater reliance on descriptive research. Cziko drew unwarranted conclusions about the feasibility of experimentation from his premises about indeterminacy, and he misrepresented some of the implications of quantum mechanics, evolution, chaos theory, and individual differences for the study of behavior. Cziko’s framework leads one to have little reason to conduct any kind of research, descriptive or otherwise. Contrary to Cziko’s view, when used appropriately, contemporary research methods provide the intersubjectively available framework necessary for scientific understanding.