SPED102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Kavale, Message Passing, Apraxia
2 Jun 2018
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Pseudoscience in Education:
What is a theory in science?
• Term is used very loosely
• The term ‘theory’ is often (but not exclusively) used to refer to an explanation
for observations that has been extensively tested, found to be valid and has
wide acceptance
• Theories are tested by making predictions (ideally, exclusively consistent with
the theory) and then testing these predictions
• If an explanation reaches the status of a theory, we can:
o Provisionally assume that it is true
o Use it as a provisional framework to analyse future data or solve
practical problems
• If it fails to meet this standard:
o Efforts should be directed at testing the explanation to confirm or
refute it
o We cannot assume it is true or use it as a provisional framework to
analyse future data or solve practical problems
Why educational ‘theories’ often are not theoretically driven:
• Educational practice is usually claimed to be theoretically driven
• Often represent no more than speculation about processes that are not tested or
testable by evidence
• Often post-hoc (after the fact) explanations rather than generating testable
hypotheses
Facilitated communication:
• Involves a facilitator assisting a person with a disability to type or select letters
from a board to produce ‘communication’
• Typically, support is provided at the hand, elbow or shoulder
• Developed by Rosemary Crossley in the 1970s in Victoria
• Claimed 12 children with developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy could
communicate and had near normal intelligence
• Book – ‘Annie’s Coming Out’ in 1984
• Background –
o Has been used for a wide variety of disabilities (intellectual, severe
autism, brain injury)
o Typically non-verbal or have minimal speech
o Douglas Biklen, an American academic, promoted facilitated
communication in the early 1990s, particularly for individuals with
autism
o Recently renamed ‘assisted typing’
Claims:
• Most remarkable feature is that many individuals thought to be severely
intellectually handicapped (and often no literacy instruction) produce
extraordinarily sophisticated written communication
• Also associated with (false) claims of abuse, which destroyed many families
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Claims that facilitated communication revolutionised our understanding of
intellectual disability and autism – large numbers of people with profound
disabilities are highly intelligent and literate
• Current understanding of disability is fundamentally incorrect
Some agreements:
• People with significant disabilities can be taught communicate via various
means (Sign language, pictures, gestures)
• Some can develop literacy skills (such as functional sight words, basic word
decoding) with systematic teaching
• Some can learn to type independently
Some disagreements:
• Many can develop highly advanced literacy skills and language skills without
any systematic teaching
• Large numbers have previously undetected high levels of intelligence that can
only be demonstrated by facilitated typing
• The apparent communication is usually produced by the student and not the
facilitator
Research:
• Key issue is who is communicating
• Variety of testing formats have been applied e.g. message passing, showing
same or different photographs to facilitator and learner
• Results:
o Well controlled studies almost always demonstrate the facilitator is
authoring the communication
o Most analyses of the evidence conclude that facilitated communication
is disproven and recommend against its use
o Considered both unproven and dangerous
Where are we now?
• FC is used much less frequently than in the 1990s and widely regarded as rank
pseudoscience
• Nevertheless, despite the evidence it continues to be used (often under name
of ‘supported typing’)
• Most courts have rejected FC as evidence
• Advocates continue to be unconvinced
Possible explanations:
• Facilitators appear to be genuine
• Ideomotor effect
o Ouija boards
o Dowsing – people who dowse for water using rods
o Automatic writing
• Hope and wishful thinking
• Cognitive bias and self-deception
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
If an explanation reaches the status of a theory, we can: provisionally assume that it is true, use it as a provisional framework to analyse future data or solve practical problems. Possible explanations: facilitators appear to be genuine. Ideomotor effect: ouija boards, dowsing people who dowse for water using rods, automatic writing, hope and wishful thinking, cognitive bias and self-deception. What is the harm: false hope of families, families destroyed by false claims of abuse, wasted resources, most importantly, learners denied effective means of communication. Impulsive/reflective: modality (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, holistic/analytical, field-dependent/independent, assimilator/explore, visualiser/verbaliser, surface/deep. Intuition/analysis: learning styles, basic assumptions that . Individuals primarily use one style: styles are stable, styles can be reliably assessed. Cost benefit: use a range of presentation strategies with redundancy, teaching to a style improves learning, kavale and forness (1987) performed meta-analysis of 39 studies on modality training, weak effect size.
