Review of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson

Authors

  • Daniel H. Robinson University of Texas at Arlington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/er.v33.4636

Abstract

Using evidence to make the case for using evidence, Pearson's latest book takes examples from a wide range of disciplines to demonstrate the importance of considering evidence in decision making.

Author Biography

Daniel H. Robinson, University of Texas at Arlington

Daniel H. Robinson is professor and interim chair of the Department of Higher Education, Adult Learning, and Organizational Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. He served as associate dean of research at UTA from 2020 to 2024. He received his PhD in educational psychology in 1993 from the University of Nebraska where he majored in both learning/cognition and statistics/research. He has taught at several universities including the University of Texas at Austin (1999-2012), and Colorado State University (2012-2015). He is the Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Psychology: Educational Psychology and editor of Monographs in the Psychology of Education: Child Behavior, Cognition, Development, and Learning, Springer Publishing. He has previously served as editor of Educational Psychology Review (2006-2015), associate editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology (2014-2020), and as an editorial board member of nine journals. He is the co-author with Howard Wainer of Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness (Cambridge, 2025) and co-editor (with Michael Mayrath and John Behrens) of The Handbook of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education: Integrating Research into Practice (Springer, 2026). Dr. Robinson was a Fulbright Specialist Scholar at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand in 2011.

References

Brady, A. C., Griffin, M. M., Lewis, A. R., Fong, C. J., & Robinson, D. H. (2023). How scientific is educational psychology research? The increasing trend of squeezing causality and recommendations from non-intervention studies. Educational Psychology Review, 35, 36–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09759-9

Lysenko, L. V., Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Dagenais, C., & Janosz, M. (2014). Educational research in educational practice: Predictors of use. Canadian Society for the Study of Education, 37(2), 27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/canajeducrevucan.37.2.06

Wainer, H., & Robinson, D. H. (2025). Testing and the paradoxes of fairness. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009576857

[Book reviewed] Pearson, H. (2026). Beyond belief: How evidence shows what really works. Princeton University Press.

Downloads

Published

2026-05-06

How to Cite

Robinson, D. H. (2026). Review of Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, by Helen Pearson. Education Review, 33. https://doi.org/10.14507/er.v33.4636

Issue

Section

Book reviews