Populations, Samples, Randomness, and Replication in Two Social Studies Journals

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine if research in social studies education reflected the same lack of attention to population and sample definitions and description, to randomness, and to replication that the authors found in a previous review of articles in the American Educational Research Journal over a ten-year period. Their study of all the research articles in Theory and Research in Social Education and in all Research Department of Social Education through 1978 indicated that small percentages of the articles report research done with random samples of subjects, that accessible populations were not often described with data, that the definitions researchers provided for target and accessible population and the sample descriptions appeared inadequate either as a basis for sampling or for others to use in replicating the studies, and that few studies used random assignment to conditions. It was concluded that, while much time, effort and money are expended on social studies education...