A design-based approach to experimental design: Investigating hypotheses about how framing influences transfer

In this paper we present an approach to experimental design that is heavily influenced by practices from design-based research, illustrating it with our ongoing work to investigate hypotheses about how framing influences the transfer-of-learning. When one is interested in designing experiments that do not just test hypotheses about causal effects but also develop hypotheses about new kinds of causal mechanisms, we claim that it is particularly valuable to use the design-based research practices of iteratively designing new learning ecologies in particular contexts and creating explanatory accounts that coordinate multiple measures. Also, experimentally-inspired practices of comparing theoretically contrasting interventions in parallel and systematically streamlining designs to distinguish between critical and less critical design elements have promise for being usefully adapted within design-based research studies themselves.