Dr Kerry Hempenstall https://www.education.gov.au/system/files/documents/document-file/2020-12/hempenstall-kerry.pdf#:~:text=Evidence%2Dbased%20practice%20and%20educational%20research%20Dr%20Kerry,that%20the%20adoption%20of%20evidence%2Dbased%20practice%20(EBP)

“Summary from Kerry

More so than any generation before them, the child born today should benefit from rapid advances in the understanding of human development, and of how that development may be optimised. There has been an explosion of scientific knowledge about the individual in genetics and the neurosciences, but also about the role of environmental influences such as socio-economic status, early child rearing practices, effective teaching, and nutrition.

However, to this point, there is little evidence that these knowledge sources form a major influence on policy and practice in education. There is a serious disconnect between the accretion of knowledge and its acceptance and systematic implementation for the benefit of this growing generation. Acceptance of a pivotal role for empiricism has been actively discouraged by many advisors to policymakers, whose ideological position decries any influence of science. There are unprecedented demands on young people to cope with an increasingly complex world. It is one in which the sheer volume of information, and the sophisticated persuasion techniques, to which they will be subjected may overwhelm the capacities that currently fad-dominated educational systems can provide for young people.

A recognition of the proper role of science in informing policy is a major challenge for us in aiding the new generation. This perspective does not involve a diminution of the role of the teacher, but rather the integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction.

Main submission

Evidence-based practice and educational research Dr Kerry Hempenstall

“It’s hardly a revelation to argue that the adoption of evidence-based practice (EBP) in some other professions is far advanced in comparison to its use in education. That’s not to say that the resistance displayed by some teacher organizations towards the adoption of EBP has not been evident in the early stages of its acceptance by those professions, such as medicine and psychology. However, as these principles have been espoused in medicine and psychology since the early nineties, a new generation of practitioners have been exposed to EBP as the normal standard for practice. This has occurred among young practitioners because their training has emphasized the centrality of evidence in competent practice.

In education, unfortunately, there are few signs of this sequence occurring. Most teachers-in-training are not exposed to either the principles of EBP (unless in a dismissive aside) or to the practices that have been shown to be beneficial to student learning, such as the principles of instructional design and effective teaching, explicit phonological instruction, and student management approaches that might be loosely grouped under the behavioural or cognitive-behavioural banner. Education policies have begun to espouse EBP, but rarely define adequately what it means or how it might be implemented.

In my view, until educational practice includes EBP as a major determinant of practice, then it will continue to be viewed as an immature profession. It is likely that the low status of teachers in many western countries will continue to be the norm unless and until significant change occurs.

What does evidence-based practice in education mean?

Teaching has suffered both as a profession in search of community respect and as a force for improving a nation’s social capital, because of its failure to adopt the results of empirical research as the major determinant of its practice. There are a number of reasons why this has occurred, among them a science-aversive culture endemic among education policymakers and teacher education faculties.

There are signs that major shifts are occurring. There have been strong moves in Great Britain and the USA towards evidence-based practice in education in recent years. Indeed, the movement was further advanced by the edict from the US government’s Office of Management and Budget (Zient, 2012) that requires the entire Executive Branch to use every available means to promote the use of “rigorous evidence in decision-making, program administration, and planning”.

Evidence-based practice has influenced many professions in recent years. A simple Google search produces over 73,000,000 hits. Among them, in varying degrees of implementation, are professions as diverse as medicine, psychology, agriculture, speech pathology, occupational therapy, transport, library and information practice, management, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and health care.

Several problems do require attention. The generally low quality of much educational research in the past made the process of evaluating the evidence difficult, particularly for those teachers who have not the training to discriminate sound from unsound research designs. Teacher training itself has not empowered teachers with the capacity and motivation to explore how evidence could enhance their effectiveness.

Education has a history of regularly adopting new ideas, but it has done so without the wide-scale assessment and scientific research that is necessary to distinguish effective from ineffective reforms.

“More typically, someone comes across an idea she or he likes and urges its adoption… often the changes proposed are both single and simple – more testing of students, loosening certification requirements for teachers, or a particular school improvement model” (Levin, p.740).

“Most management decisions are not based on the best available evidence. Instead, practitioners often prefer to make decisions rooted solely in their personal experience. However, personal judgment alone is not a very reliable source of evidence because it is highly susceptible to systematic errors – cognitive and information-processing limits make us prone to biases that have negative effects on the quality of the decisions we make.” (Barends, Rousseau, & Briner, 2014, p.8)

This absence of a scientific perspective has precluded systematic improvement in the education system, and it has impeded growth in the teaching profession for a long time (Carnine, 1995; Hempenstall, 1996; Marshall, 1993; Stone, 1996). Years ago in Australia, Maggs and White (1982) wrote despairingly "Few professionals are more steeped in mythology and less open to empirical findings than are teachers" (p. 131).

Since that time, a consensus has developed among empirical researchers about a number of effectiveness issues in education, and a great deal of attention (Gersten, Chard, & Baker, 2000) is being directed at means by which these research findings can reach fruition in improved outcomes for students in classrooms. Carnine (2000) noted that education appears to be impervious to research on effective practices, and he was one of the first to explore differences between education and other professions, such as medicine that are strongly wedded to research as the major practice informant.

“Evidence-based practice involves conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the best available evidence in making decisions (Sackett 2000). Individuals, both laypeople and professionals, typically use some form of evidence in making decisions—if only their past experience. EBP raises the issue of what that evidence is and, in particular, how strong it might be (Barends, et al 2014; Sackett 2000). Evidence-based practitioners seek to improve the quality of the evidence used and condition their decisions and practices on the confidence that the evidence warrants. Importantly, effective EBP practice requires a commitment to continuous practice improvement and lifelong learning (Straus et al 2005).” (Rousseau & Gunia, 2015, p. 5)

“Evidence based practice seeks to improve the way decisions are made. It is an approach to decision making and day to day work practice that helps educators – be it teachers, heads of department or senior leaders to critically evaluate the extent to which they can trust the evidence they have at hand. It also helps educators to identify, find and evaluate additional evidence relevant to their decisions.” (Jones, 2016, p.6)

History

In an initiative similar to that taken in medicine during the 1990’s, the American Psychological Association (Chambless & Ollendick, 2001) introduced the term empirically supported treatments as a means of highlighting differential psychotherapy effectiveness. Prior to that time, many psychologists saw themselves as developing a craft in which competence arises through a combination of personal qualities, intuition, and experience. The result was extreme variability of effectiveness among practitioners.

Their idea was to devise a means of rating therapies for various psychological problems, and for practitioners to use these ratings as a guide to practice. The criteria for a treatment to be considered well-established included efficacy through two controlled clinical outcomes studies or a large series of controlled single case design studies, the availability of treatment manuals to ensure treatment fidelity, and the provision of clearly specified client characteristics. A second level involved criteria for probably-efficacious treatments. These criteria required fewer studies, and/or a lesser standard of rigor. The third category comprised experimental treatments, those so far without sufficient evidence to achieve a higher status.

The American Psychological Association’s approach to empirically supported treatments could provide a model adaptable to the needs of education. There are great potential advantages to the education system when perennial questions are clearly answered. What reading approach is most likely to evoke strong reading growth? Should "social promotion" be used or should retention in one's grade be the norm when a year is failed? Would smaller class sizes make a difference? Should summer school programs be provided to struggling students? Should kindergarten be full day? What are the most effective means of providing remediation to children who are falling behind? Even in psychology and medicine, however, it should be noted that 15 years later there remain pockets of voluble opposition to the evidence-based practice initiatives.

The first significant indication of a similar movement in education occurred in the USA with the Reading Excellence Act (The 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, 1998) that was introduced as a response to the unsatisfactory state of reading attainment in the USA. It acknowledged that part of the cause was the prevailing method of reading instruction, and that literacy policies had been insensitive to developments in the understanding of the reading process. The Act, and its successors, attempted to bridge the gulf between research and classroom practice by mandating that only programs in reading that had been shown to be effective according to strict research criteria would receive federal funding. This reversed a trend in which the criterion for adoption of a model was that it met preconceived notions of “rightness” rather than that it was demonstrably effective for students. Federal funding was to be only provided for the implementation of programs with demonstrated effectiveness - evidenced by reliable, replicable research.

Reliable replicable research was defined as objective, valid, scientific studies that: (a) include rigorously defined samples of subjects that are sufficiently large and representative to support the general conclusions drawn; (b) rely on measurements that meet established standards of reliability and validity; (c) test competing theories, where multiple theories exist; (d) are subjected to peer review before their results are published; and (e) discover effective strategies for improving reading skills (The 1999 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, 1998).

A term sometimes used as a synonym for evidence-based is research-based. It is important that the definition of research-based be analysed, as in some contexts it represents a weaker standard. The definition of evidence-based includes the criterion that a program has been tested in the appropriate population and has been found to be effective. Sometimes research-based programs have not met this criterion, but have simply been constructed, based on components that have been shown to be effective in other validated programs.

However, the components are only the ingredients for success in evidence-based programs, and copying some or all components might not lead to success. Having all the right culinary ingredients doesn’t guarantee a perfect soufflé. There are other issues, such as what proportion of each ingredient is optimal, when should they be added, how much stirring, heating, cooling are necessary? Errors in any of these requirements lead to sub-optimal outcomes.

Take, for example, literacy programs. “Yet there is a big difference between a program based on such elements and a program that has itself been compared with matched or randomly assigned control groups” (Slavin, 2003). Because a program has some/all of the elements doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be effective. Engelmann (2003) points to the logical error of inferring a whole based upon the presence of some or all of its elements. Engelmann is critical of merely “research-based” programs, that is, programs constructed only to ensure each respected component is somewhere represented. He points out that this does not guarantee effectiveness.

So for a true measure, we must look also for empirical studies showing that a particular combination of theoretically important elements is indeed effective in practice.

In England, similar concerns about approaches lacking in evidence produced the National Literacy Strategy (Department for Education and Employment, 1998) that mandated teaching approaches based upon research findings. For example: “There must be systematic, regular, and frequent teaching of phonological awareness, phonics and spelling” (National Literacy Strategy, 1998, p.11).

In practice, this edict suffered from strong resistance from within the education industry (e.g., teacher education, publishers, whole language protagonists, teacher professional associations) and did not achieve its objectives. Following the influential Rose Report (2006), a new even more directive approach was instituted across the nation, and was known as the Primary National Strategy (2006).

In Australia, the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (2005) also reached similar conclusions about the proper role of educational research. The Australian Government’s Review of Funding for Schooling Panel (2011) bemoaned the current lack of evidence-basis for educational programs and the absence of evaluation of the programs’ effects on learning (Nous Group, 2011).

Slavin (2002) argued that the decision to require evidence prior to program adoption would reduce the pendulum swings that had characterized education thus far, and could produce revolutionary consequences in reducing the wide range of educational achievement differences across our community wrought by teacher and program variability.

The National Research Council's Center for Education (Towne, 2002) suggested that educators should attend to research that (a) poses significant questions that can be investigated empirically; (b) links research to theory; (c) uses methods that permit direct investigation of the question; (d) provides a coherent chain of rigorous reasoning; (e) replicates and generalizes; and (f) ensures transparency and scholarly debate. The Council’s message was clearly to improve the quality of educational research, and reaffirm the link between scientific research and educational practice. Ultimately, the outcomes of sound research should inform educational policy decisions, just as a similar set of principles had been espoused for the medical profession. The fields that have displayed unprecedented development over the last century, such as medicine, technology, transportation, and agriculture have been those embracing research as the prime determinant of practice (Shavelson & Towne, 2002).

So, evidence-based practices are: “ … practices that are supported by multiple, high-quality studies that utilize research designs from which causality can be inferred and that demonstrate meaningful effects on student outcomes” (Cook & Cook, 2011, p. 73).

Similarly, in Australia in 2005, the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy asserted that “teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment need to be more firmly linked to findings from evidence-based research indicating effective practices, including those that are demonstrably effective for the particular learning needs of individual children” (p.9). It recommended a national program to produce evidence-based guides for effective teaching practice, the first of which was to be on reading.

“Recommendation 5: The committee recommends that the Minister take up with Universities Australia the need to encourage a more rigorous and evidence-based approach to the preparation of trainee teachers in regard to literacy and mathematics method” (p.64).

In all, the Report used the term evidence-based 48 times. Unfortunately, in Australia, this potentially game-changing report has never been adopted by any government.

So, the implication is that education and research are not adequately linked in Australia. Why has education been so slow to attend to research as a source of practice knowledge? Carnine (1991) argued that the leadership has been the first line of resistance. He described educational policy-makers as lacking a scientific framework, and thereby inclined to accept proposals based on good intentions and unsupported opinions. Professor Cuttance, director of the Melbourne University's Centre for Applied Educational Research was equally blunt: “Policy makers generally take little notice of most of the research that is produced, and teachers take even less notice of it.” (Cuttance, 2005, p.5).

A recent study highlighted other potential hurdles within organisations. The Callen et al. (2017) study identified 3 barriers that policymakers must overcome in order to use the evidence that development researchers produce. First, their ability to interpret evidence was found to be lacking. Neither the policy makers nor their department staff were adept at analysing or interpreting data. Though they reported a belief in the potential value of consulting research, their organisational culture demanded decisions too quickly to enable careful analysis. Further, there was no value placed on research at the senior levels, many of whom were resistant to any change. Finally, decisions about the value of employing research findings tended to depend on whether the research-based finding were consistent with the policy-makers prior beliefs.

Carnine (1995) pointed to teachers’ lack of training in seeking out and evaluating research for themselves. Most teacher training institutions have not developed a research culture, and tend to view teaching as an art form - in which experience, personality, intuition, and creativity are the sole determinants of practice. For example, he estimated that fewer than one in two hundred teachers are experienced users of the ERIC educational database.

“The findings indicated that ...evidence-based interventions including explicit instruction, cognitive strategy instruction, content enhancements, and independent practice opportunities were reported infrequently. … Finally, universities, school districts, and educational service centers are encouraged to provide sustained professional development in strategies that contribute to independent learning and RTI to reduce the research to practice gap in special education.” (Ciullo et al., 2016, p. 44-45)

“Key Findings regarding teacher educators’ views on education

• They are far more likely to believe that the proper role of teacher is to be a "facilitator of learning" (84 percent) not a "conveyor of knowledge" (11 percent).
• Asked to choose between two competing philosophies of the role of teacher educator, 68 percent believe preparing students "to be change agents who will reshape education by bringing new ideas and approach to the public schools" is most important; just 26 percent advocate preparing students "to work effectively within the realities of today's public schools."
• Only 24 percent believe it is absolutely essential to produce "teachers who understand how to work with the state's standards, tests, and accountability systems."
• Just 39 percent found it absolutely essential "to create teachers who are trained to address the challenges of high-needs students in urban districts." Just 37 percent say it is absolutely essential to focus on developing "teachers who maintain discipline and order in the classroom."
• The vast majority of education professors (83 percent) believe it is absolutely essential for public school teachers to teach 21st century skills, but just 36 percent say the same about teaching math facts, and 44 percent about teaching phonics in the younger grades. (Farkas & Duffett, 2011, p. 8-9)

Conclusion

Given the above, it is clear that if we are to advance Australia's educational system, changes are required at the levels of policy, state and national administration, teacher education, schools and school districts - and most crucially - what occurs in classrooms across the nation.”

_______________________________________________

Now after seeing Kerry’s studies, see some from recent researchers - publishing from 2020 to 2025.”

Why is it important for teachers to use evidence-based practices? (2023)

“Evidence-based practices should be implemented in the classroom because they allow teachers to provide students with a high-quality curriculum and instruction that can improve educational outcomes for students.

Classroom Activities/Strategies/Guides

Charles Dickens once wrote, “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” While he wasn’t specifically referring to the education world, the sentiment can still be applied to educational practices. Evidence-based practice, or EBP for short, is a teaching theory that refers to teaching methods, strategies, and interventions researched and proven to be effective through rigorous scientific studies and empirical evidence. Some of the educational research may include controlled trials, experimental studies, and systematic reviews of literature. 

Evidence-based practices should be implemented in the classroom because they allow teachers to provide students with a high-quality curriculum and instruction that can improve educational outcomes for students. There are several different types of evidence-based practices that can be implemented, and the implementation process may be easier than one might assume.

As with all practices, there are benefits and challenges to using evidence-based practices in education. For example, the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) conducted studies to see how often Australian teachers are using evidence-based teaching strategies and the effectiveness of those strategies. But for most, the benefits tend to outweigh the challenges—making the time and effort all worth it.

What is Evidence-Based Practice in Education?

It may or may not be surprising to hear education has not always held to evidence-based practices. Traditional practices tend to rely more on personal experience and opinion. While there should be some personal experience and opinion in the classroom, much of the core of education should rely on research-based methods, strategies, and practices that support students with quality, proven instruction.

The Glossary of Education Reform explains the shift toward evidence-based education this way: “Historically, educators had to rely largely on personal experience, professional judgment, past practices, established conventions, and other subjective factors to make decisions about how and what to teach—all of which could potentially be inaccurate, misguided, biased, or even detrimental to students. With the advent of modern data systems and research techniques, educators now have access to more objective, precise, and accurate information about student learning, academic achievement, and educational attainment.”

There are advantages and disadvantages to all teaching strategies; however, because the advantages seem to outweigh the disadvantages, the use of evidence-based practices is becoming more important in schools. 

Evidence-based practices provide educators with reliable, research-based tools that have many benefits over some of the more traditional practices. Evidence-based practice is more objective because its basis is research evidence rather than personal opinion. Traditional practices are often based on personal experience or anecdotal evidence rather than scientific studies and research findings. Because of this, evidence-based practice tends to be more rigorous due to the in-depth levels of analysis and evaluation it goes through during a systematic review. 

The Importance of Evidence-Based Practice in Education

Evidence-based practice in education is important because it promotes a culture of continuous improvement for both the teacher and the student. Evidence-based education is continually evolving and refining based on new research and data, which often encourages teachers to continually evaluate and fine-tune their teaching strategies. As students see teachers go through the process of evaluation and adjustment, they see good examples of flexibility and growth mindset in action. 

Evidence-based teaching has been found to have a positive impact on student achievement in many ways. It increases engagement, provides better retention and transfer of knowledge, improves overall academic performance, and even enhances social-emotional development as well. With all of these impacts combined, evidence-based practices actually have more improved long-term outcomes than traditional practices.

When school leaders implement more evidence-based teaching into their system, educators can help ensure students are receiving high-quality instruction. School improvement leads to student improvement. As teachers strive to help students reach their full potential, schools may also see increases in high school graduation rates, higher college enrollment, and better career outcomes.

The Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities stated, “The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy has pointed to, and urged us to follow, a direction similar to that taken recently in Great Britain and the USA toward evidence-based practice.” The advantages of evidence-based methods are being recognized globally, which points to further evidence of its importance in each and every classroom. 

Types of Evidence-Based Practices in Education

There are several types of evidence-based practices that can be analyzed and combined to provide a well-rounded, well-researched approach to teaching. Each type of practice offers a different focus of application, such as the school, the student, and the teacher.

Curriculum

Schools must prioritize evidence-based curriculum in their classrooms, starting from the beginning in kindergarten. The curriculum is a core part of the what of education, and therefore it must be founded on data and evidence rather than just opinion and experience.

For example, when it comes to choosing a highly effective reading curriculum for kindergarten students, one of the first steps is to base the curriculum on recent research. The science of reading has vast amounts of research that should be taken into consideration when creating a reading curriculum for all grade levels.

Some of the advantages of evidence-based curriculum include improved alignment with standards, more efficient use of resources, increased teacher effectiveness, and improved student outcomes. However, evidence-based curriculum also has the potential disadvantages of causing teachers to be too narrowly focused on academic outcomes and possibly overly reliant on research, resulting in overlooking or undervaluing their own expertise or judgment.

Interventions

When it comes to students who may be struggling with a certain concept or idea, evidence-based intervention is a vital step for student success. Intervention is the time to lean on proven strategies to get students back on track for progress and growth.

For example, when it comes to reading interventions, the Florida Department of Education identified “scientifically researched and evidenced-based reading instructional and intervention programs that incorporate explicit, systematic and sequential approaches to teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and text comprehension and incorporate decodable or phonetic text instructional practices.” That list of resources aims to help teachers decide what interventions may work best in their given situations.

Evidence-based interventions have been effective in improving student outcomes in a variety of areas, such as academic achievement, behavioral outcomes, and social-emotional learning. These interventions are also extremely advantageous to teachers because they help with decision-making in more high-stakes situations. However, sometimes evidence-based interventions can cause people to potentially feel less flexible to tailor intervention to meet the unique needs of individual students.

Professional Development

Teachers should not have to feel the weight of this responsibility themselves. There are a number of professional development opportunities that can help teachers with methodology, data collection, learning styles, decision-making, education programs, and more. There are many professional development opportunities founded in and explain more about evidence-based education. 

Evidence-based professional development can improve teacher effectiveness by making teachers more confident in their ability to meet the needs of their students and to better use the research-based practices in their classroom. However, there is also the potential that this type of professional development can overwhelm educators with an influx of data, research, and training that may take away time, attention, and focus from actual teaching. 

Identifying and Selecting Evidence-Based Practices

Identifying evidence-based practices can be done in a few simple steps. After identifying a problem or area of focus, a thorough research review should be conducted, and the quality of the research should be evaluated. This, combined with a careful consideration of any other factors, like student demographics, school culture, and available resources, will help educators select the most effective practice.

There are a few things to consider when finally selecting a certain evidence-based method to implement. First, make sure the resources are up to date and reputable. Resources from peer-reviewed journals, professional organizations, and government agencies from within the past five to 10 years typically provide updated, high-quality evidence. Also, comprehensive resources such as systematic review and meta-analyses offer a more complete and reliable evaluation of a particular topic because they look at multiple studies to get an overall picture of the topic or practice in consideration.

Along with the things to consider in this process, there are things to avoid as well. For example, using outdated or irrelevant evidence is an obvious practice to avoid. Also, educators should be careful not to ignore conflicting evidence. Finally, educators should avoid either extreme of considering personal beliefs and experiences in the classroom. While they shouldn’t rely too much on personal beliefs and experiences, they also should not ignore them.

Implementing Evidence-Based Practices in the Classroom

Once teachers have identified and selected evidence-based practices they want to use in their classroom, planning and preparation are critical steps in implementing these practices. Teachers should gather resources such as curriculum materials or any technology needed for implementation. Then, teachers can create their plan around the learning objectives, timelines, specific activities, teaching strategies, and the evaluation process that coincide with the evidence-based practice.

It is also important teachers seek training and support throughout this process. Attending professional learning opportunities and developing a support network of colleagues, administrators, or experts will ensure teachers are not going through this process alone. 

Monitoring and evaluating these practices as they are being implemented is a key step for effective teaching. This may involve collecting data on student outcomes and making adjustments as needed.

Conclusion

The benefits of evidence-based practice in education have a long-lasting effect on students. As we use research to improve our schools and curriculum, we are improving the lives of our students. This may seem overwhelming at first based on the vast amount of research and evidence circulating about education, but with the right steps, resources, and support,  teachers can feel confident walking into their classrooms each day. Voyager Sopris Learning^® values evidence-based practices and offers resources to support teachers in their pursuit of enhancing student performance.”

Voyager Sopris Learning. (2023). What Are Evidence-Based Practices in Education?

https://www.voyagersopris.com/vsl/blog/what-are-evidence-based-practices-in-education#:~:text=Evidence%2Dbased%20practices%20should%20be,improve%20educational%20outcomes%20for%20students.

Predictors of teachers' appreciation of evidence-based practice and educational research findings (2021)

“Abstract: Teachers' reception of educational research is considered important for improving teaching and student learning. Yet, it is a challenging task requiring teachers to have access to scientific sources, the skill and time to find and exhaust such resources, and the capacity to interpret retrieved information. If such essential conditions are not met, teachers have hardly any chance to engage in research reception and, consequently, may question the value and relevance of research findings to their practice.

Prior research has suggested that teachers are indeed critical of educational research findings and rarely refer to them. Based on data from the field trial (N = 674) and main study (N = 2,549) of a national extension study of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 in Germany, this study explored the role of (a) teachers' access to scientific sources, (b) perceived lack of skill and time to search for research findings, and (c) their familiarity with research methods/statistics as potential predictors of their appreciation of evidence-based practice, and perceived irrelevance of educational research findings.

Structural equation models demonstrated that perceived lack of skill and time to find research findings, in particular, substantially affected participants' irrelevance perceptions. The more participants assessed their sourcing skill and time to be too constrained to engage in research reception, the more they judged research findings to be irrelevant to their practice. Though source access and familiarity with research methods/statistics indicated only small or even no effects, they strongly correlated with participants' perceived lack of sourcing skill and time. Better source access and greater familiarity were associated with less concern about one's skill and time resources to search for relevant research findings.

These findings potentially underline the relevance of strengthening both teachers' access to scientific sources and individual capacities to understanding research contents.

Implications for teacher education

Enabling teachers to access educational research knowledge carries three implications: First, there are opportunities to access scientific sources and teachers are aware of these; second, they have the skill and time resources to refer to relevant research findings; and third, they are able to  make use of the retrieved contents (Niemi, 2008; Rousseau & Gunia, 2016; van Schaik et al., 2018).

Drawing on our data, one's perceived lack of skill and time to exhaust scientific sources and to find relevant research findings plays a particularly crucial role. Participants who perceived a lack of sourcing skill / time were more inclined to judge research findings as irrelevant and, consequently, might be less willing to engage in research reception (Dagenais et al., 2012; Hemsley-Brown & Sharp, 2003; van Schaik et al., 2018).

Concurrently, source access and familiarity with research methods / statistics were strongly correlated with a perceived lack of sourcing skill / time. Though both may have only small direct effects on teachers' appreciation of evidence-based practice and research findings, they may help to mitigate such concerns. In future research, it would be interesting to examine to what degree improved access and familiarity with research methods can help to remedy perceived time constraints. Prior research has already focused on developing future teachers' competence to reason about scientific evidence and, hence, steps have been made to train individual capacities for research reception (e. g., Trempler et al., 2015; Wenglein et al., 2015).

This study may encourage such efforts by showing that at least some familiarity with basic concepts of research methods / statistics can have positive effects on teachers' perceptions of the value and relevance of educational research findings. Moreover, once such capacities are strengthened, teachers may also feel more competent in research reception and consider it to be less of a burden, which could also increase the chances of them turning to research knowledge now and then.

So far, scant attention has been paid to teachers' skills to actually find and retrieve scientific evidence and their access options. Training student teachers in how to use research findings should go hand in hand with training them in competent sourcing skills. Such knowledge is of high importance because opportunities to consult scientific sources may be very different when one is a teacher student at university versus an in-service teacher at school. At university, teacher students commonly have access to a broad range of scientific sources and are expected to use them. Sourcing activities during teacher training often occur in a setting in which scientific resources are not only more available but are also more preselected (e. g., through coursework). After leaving university, it may be difficult for teachers to access sources of primary scientific evidence.

 Sourcing activities then become even more important, but also more demanding and more time-consuming, since teachers need to invest greater efforts to identify and carefully select relevant sources. Consequently, future teachers need to be equipped to not only evaluate and use educational research findings but also to effectively search and derive them from relevant sources beyond university. To this end, improving the accessibility of research knowledge remains an important measure to lower the bar.

Simplified source access can mitigate the problem of scarce time resources and additional efforts to approach research knowledge. This also underlines the importance of initiatives to make research findings more accessible for teachers and to present them in a way that facilitates their interpretation (Hattie, 2011; Petty, 2009; WWC, 2020). Furthermore, it may stress the significance of school-related factors that potentially promote evidence-based practice, such as support and a culture for using evidence to improve practice (e. g., enabling access to research resources; Niemi, 2008; van Schaik et al., 2018).”

Eva Thomm, Christine Sälzer, Manfred Prenzel, and Johannes Bauer. (2021). Predictors of teachers' appreciation of evidence-based practice and educational research findings.  35 (2–3), 173–184 https://doi.org/10.1024/1010-0652/a000301

______________________________________________

AI Overview

“Dr. Kerry Hempenstall is known for his work in educational research, particularly focusing on evidence-based practice in education. He has authored publications on this topic, emphasizing the importance of grounding teaching practices in scientific evidence to improve student outcomes. His work often critiques approaches that prioritize subjective experiences or untested methods over research-backed strategies. 

Here's a more detailed look: 

• Evidence-Based Practice (EBP):

Dr. Hempenstall's work centers around the concept of EBP, which advocates for using research findings to inform educational decisions and practices.

• Critique of Non-Evidence-Based Approaches:

He has critiqued approaches that prioritize intuition, tradition, or anecdotal evidence over scientific research in education.

• Focus on Teacher Education:

Dr. Hempenstall's research has also explored the role of teacher education and the need to prepare teachers to implement evidence-based practices in their classrooms.

• Specific Examples:

He has examined the effectiveness of various teaching methods and has highlighted the importance of understanding how to address the needs of diverse learners, including those in urban districts.

• Importance of Accountability:

His work also touches on the importance of teachers understanding state standards, tests, and accountability systems.”

“Philosophy of educational research

What is science and research? And what characterizes educational research? These questions lie behind the simpler questions we may ask ourselves in the heat of research preparation or in the middle of a research cooperation process: “Is it worth it to spend so much time on this activity? Does this study lead to more applicable knowledge about education?” Such questions may be even more intrusive today than forty years ago when I was preparing my first study, since the landscape of research methodology has become much more diversified than in my student years.

Methodological approaches which then seemed self-evident may now stand out as one of several options. As an example, qualitative methodologies were tried out for the first time by some of the universities in the WB 06/04 project, which had long traditions within quantitative methodology. The growing complexity in the field of educational research calls for analysis of different scientific options with its possibilities and limitations. The meaning and applicability of the key aspects constituting the scientific quality of a research project need to be examined. In the two following articles Tone Kvernbekk (2013a and b) focuses the attention on a selection of key concepts within the educational sciences; categorization, justification and the distinction between observation and theory. She cites different interpretations and applications and offers a critical analysis Comparative Classroom Studies towards Inclusion 33 of their applicability and limitations. The concept of evidence- based practice has currently become a trade mark of different educational programmes and approaches, however, not without controversy among researchers as well as practitioners.”

Johnsen, B. H. (2013). Development towards the inclusive school: Practices, research and capacity building. In B. H. Johnsen (Ed.), Research project preparation within education and special needs education (pp. 17–36/pp. 15–34 in print edition). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org./10.23865/noasp.124 License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

“Teacher engagement with academic research and teacher attitudes towards EBP in schools (2023)

Because of the potential of teachers’ attitudes towards EBPs to influence the frequency that they are implemented in schools, it is important to understand the factors that shape them. Teacher research engagement has been proposed as a factor that might be implicated in teacher attitudes towards EBP.

It is plausible that teachers who engage with research to support pupil outcomes hold more positive views towards the adoption of EBP because they appreciate the value of research evidence to inform educational practice (Kallitsoglou 2020). Typically, teacher research engagement takes two major forms (Brown, Schildkamp, and Hubers 2017).

The first refers to action research or practitioner-led research where teachers carry out research to understand and inform practice. The second form refers to teacher engagement with existing research that is conducted externally by researchers and academics. Because EBP is often operationalised as use of academic type of research evidence generated by researchers, the study focuses on teacher engagement with academic research.

The study draws on earlier research by two leading education organisations in the UK, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to operationalise research engagement with academic type of research: teacher direct use of externally produced academic research that includes researcher-led resources such as articles, reports, books or summaries based on academic research and on-line evidence platforms or databases (Nelson et al. 2017).

This type of engagement is to be differentiated by teacher/school generated resources (e.g. teachers’ own ideas or action research) and professionally generated resources (e.g. CPD training). In a sample of teachers in secondary and primary schools in England, it was found that research engagement with academic research was reflected in teachers’ positive attitudes towards academic research, appreciation of its value to inform school practice, and higher research use and research knowledge (Nelson et al. 2017).

Several studies suggest that many teachers have a positive attitude towards academic type of research (Alvunger and Wahlström 2018; Baildon and Ong 2022; Gaussel et al. 2021; Nelson and Campbell 2017; Thomm et al. 2021). However, use of academic research among teachers is not as common as use of other types of resources. Teachers’ own professional networks (Cain 2015; Procter 2015), personal resources (Cook and Cook 2013), and informal personal knowledge and wisdom (Cain 2015; Hedges 2012) have been cited as the main sources used in education-decision making.

To make research evidence more accessible to teachers, a few countries have set up knowledge-broker initiatives that provide teachers with easily accessible summaries of research on educational practices. These include the UK EEF (Nelson and Campbell 2017), the US What Works Clearinghouse (Purper 2016), and the Australian Evidence for Learning (Vaughan, Deeble, and Bush 2017). However, teachers do not always use them (Cooper, Klinger, and McAdie 2017; Purper 2016) or do not use them as often as teacher or school generated resources (Nelson and Campbell 2017). For instance, findings from England showed that while most teachers had positive views, only one in four used academic research or evidence from online evidence platforms such as the EEF Learning and Teaching Toolkit to inform teaching (Nelson et al. 2017). Another US-based study of Head Start and Early Head Start teachers found that early childhood practitioners had little knowledge of federal websites designed to disseminate EBPs, like the What Works Clearinghouse (Purper 2016). Instead, most teachers primarily relied on the Internet and general websites, including About.com or Pinterest, as a teaching resource. Likewise, a Canada-based study examined primary school teachers’ awareness of EBP for classroom assessment and found that teachers did not know what resources were available to them (Cooper, Klinger, and McAdie 2017).

Research knowledge and familiarity with research methods has been linked to teacher capacity to access and use evidence from research studies. For instance, a literature review showed that having the research skills and knowledge to understand academic research and its outcomes is one of the factors that can facilitate teacher use of academic research (van Schaik et al. 2018). A recent study of a large sample of secondary education maths teachers sampled from German schools showed a strong association between familiarity with research methods/statistics and capacity to access research evidence (Thomm et al. 2021). Additionally, a few studies suggested that a positive attitude towards research knowledge is an important condition for transferring findings into practice (Hemsley-Brown and Sharp 2003; Lysenko et al. 2014; van Schaik et al. 2018). Finally, engagement with research and developing an understanding of empirically supported interventions were related to more openness towards using EBPs in a sample of trainee psychologists (Aarons, Green, and Miller 2012).”

Kallitsoglou, A., & Mahmud, A. (2023). Teacher attitudes towards evidence-based practices for social, emotional and mental health difficulties in school and association with teacher academic research engagement. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 28(4), 263–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632752.2023.2276024

_______________________________________________

Ahh, some wonderful developments!