- By Dartington SRU
- Posted on Friday 27th September, 2013
Logic model lessons from the kitchen
In his book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan explores why we do what we do when we cook. He looks at what he calls the ‘transformative fundamentals’: cooking with fire, cooking with water, cooking with air and cooking with earth. But he doesn't just learn about why these techniques work. He finds that developing a better understanding of the science behin…
Read more- By Dartington SRU
- Posted on Tuesday 17th September, 2013
Realising our shared ambition
This week, as part of our commitment to provide independent investment advice to children’s services, we launch the website Investing in Children.It applies the Social Research Unit's widely acclaimed and increasingly applied Standards of Evidence. Using a US model, translated for use here in the UK, it calculates the costs and benefits of competing investment options, and gives a &lsquo…
Read more- By Dartington SRU
- Posted on Wednesday 11th September, 2013
Plurality and rigour
Imagine two interventions, each evaluated using contrasting methods. One measures impact by looking at children receiving an intervention and comparing their well-being before with the situation after. The other is based on a randomised controlled trial, meaning the progress of children receiving the intervention is contrasted with a control group who did not get it. Which evaluation should we tru…
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