How to Engage in Pseudoscience With Real Data: A Criticism of John Hattie’s Arguments in Visible Learning From the Perspective of a Statistician

This paper is a forum contribution that appeared in issue 51-2 in French. Due to the “positive buzz” it garnered following its publication, the MJE editorial team has made its translation available to our English readers. The original version can be accessed here: http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/9394.Cet article est paru en français dans l’édition 51-2. En raison de la réception très favorable des lecteurs lors de sa publication, l’équipe éditoriale de la RSÉM permet aux lecteurs anglophones d’en lire une version en anglais. L’article original est disponible à l’adresse suivante : http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/9394

Bone marrow subtractively stained for CD34 (blue) and CD 141 (brown).

<p>CD34 is visualised in small microvesssels (capillaries) and is less intensely expressed in large microvessels (sinuses) which exhibit patchy blue and brown staining. Scale bar = 50 μm.</p

Pipeline of image processing and QC methods, both semi-automatic and manual.

<p>* The quality of registration is commented on in Lobachev et al. [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0168173#pone.0168173.ref025" target="_blank">25</a>]. ** 3D rendering does not affect the data.</p

Iliac crest bone marrow stained with hemalum-eosin.

<p>Undecalcified section embedded in Technovit^® 9100. The quality of the section is equivalent to a decalcified paraffin section. Note the variable density of haematopoiesis within directly adjacent adipose tissue areas. Scale bar = 100 μm.</p

The first of 21 serial sections immunostained for CD34 plus CD141 with regions of interest R1 to R4.

<p>Scale bar = 1 mm.</p

Semi-automatic QC.

<p>(a) R 1 containing 4 small regions for semi-automatic QC of volume data processing. The region visualised in (b) is coloured red. Scale bar = 100 μm. (b) Sequence of QC visualised from left to right in upper and lower part of panel: original scan (1), HSV conversion of scan of current serial section (2), HSV conversion of next serial section (3), interpolation between both serial sections: in this case the fourth of seven images is shown (4), final result of all filtering operations of interpolated images (5), areas different between interpolated images and result of filtering coloured red (6). Scale bar = 25 μm.</p