How do you know which educational research to trust? Here are the questions to ask

I have previously drawn attention to differences in expert opinion over the usefulness of statistical significance testing, particularly in regard to randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Now it's time to look at what can go wrong with RCTs, and the questions you need to ask when judging the trustworthiness of the associated research findings. What ...
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Could coaching your teaching teams do more harm than good? It depends on what kind of manager you are…

 There is very little correlation between the time a manager spends coaching an employee and their performance, according to new research. In fact, it's been suggested that some very hands-on managers actually do more harm than good. These surprising findings came from recent research conducted by a research company, Gartner, and are reported ...
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Can't convince your colleagues about the value of evidence? You may be a victim of the backfire effect

One of the challenges faced by school research leads is the need to engage with colleagues who have different views about the role of evidence in bringing about improvement. In fact, it's not just the role of evidence that's likely to be debated – you might even face differing views about the evidence itself. In 2010, two researchers – Brendan Nyha...
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Classroom Fad or Fix: Do we need to look a little closer at Lesson Study?

What is it? Lesson Study is a continuous professional development (CPD) programme, based on an approach widely used in Japan. Teachers work together in small groups – usually threes – to investigate, plan and then teach 'research lessons' that meet a shared learning goal. Colleagues observe each other in these lessons and give feedback on...
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How to stop research interventions that don't seem to work: 10 key steps

In early December, there was a strange alignment between the real-world and Twitter when the issue of evidence-based practice in education was discussed in three conversations: The Coalition for Evidence-Based Education talked about the notion of strategic abandonment (thank you @DrCarolineCreaby)Later in the evening, #DebatED discussed "wheth...
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