Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research

Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research

Sound educational policy recommendations require valid estimates of causal effects, but observational studies in physics education research sometimes have loosely specified causal hypotheses. The connections between the observational data and the explicit or implicit causal conclusions are sometimes...

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Main Author: M. B. Weissman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2021-09-01
Series:Physical Review Physics Education Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020118
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spelling doaj-31e381accaa8464eab2f4f6f3dafd7502021-09-15T17:03:09ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Physics Education Research2469-98962021-09-0117202011810.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020118Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education researchM. B. WeissmanSound educational policy recommendations require valid estimates of causal effects, but observational studies in physics education research sometimes have loosely specified causal hypotheses. The connections between the observational data and the explicit or implicit causal conclusions are sometimes misstated. The link between the causal conclusions reached and the policy recommendations made is also sometimes loose. Causal graphs are used to illustrate these issues in several papers from Physical Review Physics Education Research. For example, the core causal conclusion of one paper rests entirely on the choice of a causal direction although an unstated plausible alternative gives an exactly equal fit to the data.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020118
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author M. B. Weissman
spellingShingle M. B. Weissman
Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
Physical Review Physics Education Research
author_facet M. B. Weissman
author_sort M. B. Weissman
title Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
title_short Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
title_full Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
title_fullStr Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
title_full_unstemmed Policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
title_sort policy recommendations from causal inference in physics education research
publisher American Physical Society
series Physical Review Physics Education Research
issn 2469-9896
publishDate 2021-09-01
description Sound educational policy recommendations require valid estimates of causal effects, but observational studies in physics education research sometimes have loosely specified causal hypotheses. The connections between the observational data and the explicit or implicit causal conclusions are sometimes misstated. The link between the causal conclusions reached and the policy recommendations made is also sometimes loose. Causal graphs are used to illustrate these issues in several papers from Physical Review Physics Education Research. For example, the core causal conclusion of one paper rests entirely on the choice of a causal direction although an unstated plausible alternative gives an exactly equal fit to the data.
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020118
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