Over the last ten years, the EEF has funded over 150 projects and identified approaches and programmes that support teaching and learning.
Building on what we have learnt, going forward funding rounds will focus on themes and questions, identified through gaps in the existing evidence base and approaches that are likely to be particularly beneficial for pupil progress, especially for socio-economically disadvantaged pupils.
Research themes for early 2022
The EEF will focus its first funding round in 2022 – expected to open in February – on three priority areas, which have been identified using existing EEF evidence reviews as having gaps in the evidence base and with potential to benefit disadvantaged pupils: Early Language, Early Years and Key Stage 1 Maths Teaching and Cognitive Science.
Future funding rounds will focus on priority areas beyond these three themes, with a second round due to be announced later in 2022.
Gathering feedback from schools
Within these three themes, the EEF wants to find out more about the research questions that schools, researchers and others working in education would find it most valuable to answer.
School leaders, teachers and others interested in sharing their views can answer a short survey on each of the three priority themes through the links below:
- Early Language
- Early Years and Key Stage 1 Maths Teaching
- Cognitive Science
Respondents will be asked to indicate:
- Which areas within these themes are you interested in more evidence being generated about.
- How relevant a number of more granular topics within these themes are to you.
- Whether there are any other areas that the EEF should be considering.
Feedback from the surveys will feed into the EEF’s prioritisation of its research commissioning within these three themes. It will be used along with input from subject expert groups and existing evidence about which elements are most likely to have a positive impact on socio-economically disadvantaged pupils. The surveys will close on Friday 28th January.
Partnering with the Youth Endowment Fund to build the evidence base on improving attendance
As part of its refreshed approach to commissioning research, the EEF is working with the Youth Endowment Fund to build evidence on what works in improving pupil attendance.
There’s good evidence that children being absent from school and being excluded has a negative impact on their educational attainment. It could also put them at higher risk of becoming involved in violence. Attendance is also an immediate priority for schools, with pupil absences rising after the disruptions to learning caused by the pandemic.
The two What Works Centres plan to run a joint funding round in Spring 2022 to find out which approaches can improve attendance at school, have the best impact on educational achievement and work best at reducing the risk of children becoming involved in violence, without detriment to other pupils.
Both organisations expect to publish a rapid evidence review in February that will identify evidence gaps in this area and inform the programmes and approaches they might fund.