Room A403
Moderator: Anders Holm
Discussant: Tarjei Havnes

This workshop will build on Tarjei Havnes’ morning presentation about the ideal experiment. Anders Holm will tell about VIDA as a randomized controlled trial, which implies that researchers can use VIDA to infer the causal effect of the interventions on child outcome (as far as they are adequately measured). Two important questions emerge in this respect: Can we say something about why it works? And can we say something about how implementation works as a mediating variable?  Without additional assumptions the answer is no! One randomization means that we can infer one causal relation. This is usually not realized by many practitioners and a discussion of the implication of randomization and how one should proceed is therefore warranted.

Following the brief presentation by Anders Holm, workshop participants will first consider and discuss the implication of randomization as well as ways to proceed in a project like VIDA and later sum up on these reflections in plenum. Based on the participants’ reflections, Tarjei Havnes and Anders Holm will draw comparisons to international research and experiences from VIDA as well as offer wider theoretical perspectives. 

Participants register for a workshop in the morning of the conference during conference registration and coffee. Workshop seats (50) will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.