On Paradigms and Methods: What Do You Do When the Ones You Know Don't Do What You Want Them To? issues in the Analysis of Data in the Form of Videotapes

This article examines a range of issues related to the development of nonstandard methods for the analysis of videotapes of problem-solving sessions. It proposes some rather stringent standards for novel methods, standards concerned with issues of validity, reliability, and the communication of methods and data. The discussion is illustrated by the detailed examination of two case studies that employ two different grain sizes of analysis—the first macroscopic, the second microscopic. In the light of those case studies, theoretical issues regarding the relationships among theory-based, method-based, and problem-based approaches to programmatic research in the learning sciences are considered.