Educators and leaders are increasingly turning to research evidence to help identify promising approaches and practices that have the potential to make a difference to pupils and communities.
However, we know from our experiences of working in schools and teacher professional development that lots of products and resources are now badged as ‘evidence’, but that finding time to access, engage with and question research evidence sources can be difficult!
Leaders can be bombarded with information about programmes and resources making impressive claims, but many of these come from companies with vested interests in selling their products or services.
So, when faced with the vast quantities of evidence available, how do we know which sources are trustworthy and relevant to the problems we are trying to solve?
The EEF’s concise guide on using research evidence includes information on what research evidence is – and is not – as well as the advantages and potential limitations of different forms of research.
We hope this guide helps those involved in school improvement and the design and delivery of teacher professional development to reflect upon the role research evidence plays in educational improvement and professional development activities, to consider:
what evidence we are using, as well as
why and how we apply it.
Through this, we can harness collective knowledge of what has worked in the past to make meaningful differences to teaching and learning in the future.
Build a rich evidence picture
Consider multiple studies from a range of sources to identify themes and trends. Try to avoid ‘cherry picking’ research that confirms your existing beliefs and instead take a broader view of the evidence base.
Where possible, drawing from systematic reviews and meta-analyses which combine multiple previously published studies can help with this, such as the EEF’s guidance reports, evidence reviews and the Teaching and Learning Toolkit and Early Years Toolkit.
Look for variation in findings
The ‘devil is in the detail’, so when engaging with research evidence consider the variation in findings across different studies and what might drive this. For example, are there groups of pupils for whom the approach is more – or less – successful?
Focus on the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’
Look carefully at how approaches are implemented to decide if the ingredients that make an approach effective could be applied to your context.
Maintain criticality
Be open to new ideas, whilst being critical about claims being made. Look for warning signs in a claim – such as those which seem too good to be true, or vague references to impact (e.g., ‘this programme has huge impacts’).
The EEF concise guide offers a list of red flag warning signs which might make you sceptical about the reliability of the evidence you are reading. These can be remembered using the acronym, CLAIMS.
Integrate research evidence with professional judgement
Build confidence that a particular programme or practice will address the defined problem by ‘sense checking’ this with your own insights and professional expertise.