Experimental Designs
by Dr. David Abrahams

Experimental (Notation)Designs and Their Meaning

R  O  X  O
"To understand is to perceive patterns."
Isaiah Berlin, Historical Inevitability

There are three types of experimental designs. They are:

          * Pre-experimental designs
          * True experimental designs and
          * Quasi-experimental designs.
Pre-experimental designs lack random assignment to the program group and the control group.This design illustrates some inherent weaknesses in terms of establishing internal validity. The better designs are called true experimental designs and quasi-experimental designs. True experimental designs are more complex and use randomization and other techniques to control the threats to internal validity. Quasi-experimental designs (Trochim, 2006) are special designs for use in the approximation of true experimental control in nonexperimental settings. The closer your nonequivalent group approximates a true experimental population the stronger the internal validity.


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