Based on trust alone

Anecdotes

Personal experiences or anecdotes (stories) are, by themselves, an unreliable basis for assessing the effects of interventions.

People often believe that improvements in educational outcomes (e.g. literacy attainment) are due to a new intervention. Similarly, they might believe that undesirable learning outcomes are the result of a new intervention. However, the fact that learning improves after changing practice does not necessarily mean that the change caused the improvement, or that other learners receiving the same intervention will also improve. The improvement (or undesirable outcome) might have occurred even without the change.

Even if there is strong evidence that a few individuals did improve due to the intervention, would others also benefit? Research on fair comparisons can assess whether most learners would also benefit.

BEWARE of claims that are based on personal anecdotes alone.

REMEMBER Someone’s personal experience with an intervention does not necessarily mean that it will apply to others or that any change was actually due to the intervention.