This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

Children living with the consequences of paediatric acquired brain injury (pABI) may experience persistent challenges that impact their social interactions, academic performance and community integration. Participating in activities is of paramount importance for the development of social and academic skills. The participants in this qualitative…

"Simulation-based inference" is often considered a pedagogical strategy for helping students develop inferential reasoning, for example, giving them a visual and concrete reference for deciding whether the observed statistic is unlikely to happen by chance alone when the null hypothesis is true. In this article, we highlight for teachers…

When designing cluster-randomized trials (CRTs), one important consideration is determining the proper sample sizes across levels and treatment conditions to cost-efficiently achieve adequate statistical power. This consideration is usually addressed in an optimal design framework by leveraging the cost structures of sampling and optimizing the…

This study investigates the effect of survey order in measuring self-reported cognitive load. Understanding how survey order influences responses is crucial, but it has been largely overlooked in the context of cognitive load. Using a 2 × 2 experimental design with 319 high school students, the study manipulated intrinsic cognitive load (ICL)…

Randomized experiments are a strong design for establishing impact evidence because the random assignment mechanism theoretically allows confidence in attributing group differences to the intervention. Growth of randomized experiments within educational studies has been widely documented. However, randomized experiments within education have…

Cluster-randomized trials have been widely used to evaluate the treatment effects of interventions on student outcomes. When interventions are implemented by teachers, researchers need to account for the nested structure in schools (i.e., students are nested within teachers nested within schools). Schools usually have a very limited number of…

Psychologists are emphasizing the importance of predictive conclusions. Machine learning methods, such as supervised neural networks, have been used in psychological studies as they naturally fit prediction tasks. However, we are concerned about whether neural networks fitted with random datasets (i.e., datasets where there is no relationship…

There has been increased focus within the evaluation field on the value of community-engaged research (CER) methods; however, CER is not easily seen as compatible with experimental evaluation methods (or randomized controlled trial, RCT). For instance, in an experimental design, researchers leverage randomization to create a counterfactual; this…

Random encouragement designs evaluate treatments that aim to increase participation in a program or activity. These randomized controlled trials (RCTs) can also assess the mediated effects of participation itself on longer term outcomes using a complier average causal effect (CACE) estimation framework. This article considers power analysis…

Background: Although past research demonstrated growth mindset interventions to improve school outcomes, effects were small. This may be due to the "theoretical" nature of psychosocial techniques (e.g., reading about brain plasticity), which may not be optimally convincing for students. Aims: To address this issue and improve…

ICH-GCP guidelines have provided international ethical, scientific, quality standards for designing, conducting, recording, and reporting of clinical trials, and are hugely popular in the region. Recent revisions to its guidance; ICH-GCP; E6 (R3) have brought significant changes in both structure and content from its predecessor, affecting every…

Purpose: Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with facial emotion recognition (FER), which may exacerbate social difficulties in ASD. Few studies have examined whether FER can be experimentally manipulated and improved for autistic people. This study utilized a randomized controlled trial design to examine…

In recent years, countries including the UK and USA have seen advancements in the use of Randomised Controlled Trials in education, progress that has not been mirrored in Ireland. Ireland does not have a strong tradition of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs for monitoring and evaluation of education policy despite…

Background: There is a paucity of research into interventions that help people with intellectual disabilities learn to read. This feasibility study examines whether an online reading programme, Headsprout, with additional support strategies and supervision (the intervention), can be delivered by support workers/family carers and the feasibility of…