| Abstract: | Reviews the book, The science of learning disabilities, by K. A. Kavale and S. R. Forness (1985). Kavale and Forness assert that the field of learning disabilities has become a pseudoscience. They state that the purpose of their book is to demonstrate how the field of learning disabilities strayed from its scientific course and suggest how it can regain its scientific status. To accomplish their goals, the authors emphasize the importance of scientific inquiry, the history of the learning disabilities field, and possible solutions to the problems they depict as currently being characteristic of the field. The field of learning disabilities, they assert, strayed from the scientific method by emphasizing empirical associations per se without the proper formulation of theories regarding learning disabilities. The authors fulfill their stated goals of describing how many in the learning disabilities field drifted away from the scientific method and by outlining how the field can regain its scientific status. The review of the history of the learning disabilities field is comprehensive and informative. This book is written in a scholarly, unemotional style. Although its exploration of the scientific method, that forms the basis of the authors' arguments, is simple and consistent with that provided in most introductory texts in the sciences, the authors' discussions of research findings are, at times, complex. Readers who are not familiar with meta-analytical techniques are encouraged to obtain some familiarity with these before reading this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
