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Purposeful Behavior as the Control of Perception

Implications for Educational Research

Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois, 1310 S. Sixth St., 210 Education Building, Champaign, IL 61820-6990. He specializes in learning and development and research methodology

This article continues the discussion begun in my 1989 Educational Researcher essay on the problems posed by the unpredictability and indeterminism of human behavior for educational research and responds to criticisms of these arguments offered by Lehrer, Serlin, and Amundson (1990). In the course of this discussion, a theory of purposeful behavior known as perceptual control theory is presented which provides an explicit, working model of how individuals are able to produce repeatable outcomes via variable means. It is argued that the traditional "scientific" method of educational research, which attempts to find relationships between "independent" and "dependent" variables over groups of individuals, is in principle incapable of providing valid explanations of the how and why of purposeful human behavior.

Educational Researcher, Vol. 21, No. 9, 10-27 (1992)
DOI: 10.3102/0013189X021009010


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				R. Amundson, R. C. Serlin, R. Lehrer, and professor On the Threats That Do Not Face Educational Research Educational Researcher, December 1, 1992; 21(9): 19 - 24. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. A. Cziko Perceptual Control Theory: One Threat to Educational Research Not (Yet?) Faced by Amundson, Serlin, and Lehrer Educational Researcher, December 1, 1992; 21(9): 25 - 27. [PDF]