Evidence-based education is an approach to all aspects of educationâ€"from policy-making to classroom practiceâ€"where that is based on randomized trials, as with the testing of new drugs in evidence-based medicine. When several of these studies are compared, and their conclusions combined, we get a meta-study or meta-analysis. This is significantly more reliable than the results of individual studies due to the difficulty in controlling variables and individual bias.. "Evidence-based teaching" refers to the teaching aspects.
Sources of evidence
There are numerous researchers and institutions that produce analysis of the existing evidence, below are some.
What Works Clearinghouse
"What Works Clearinghouse" evaluates educational programs by evidence, rates the quality and quantity of the evidence and estimates the effectiveness. It's operated by the federal National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE). The 10 interventions below are currently the interventions with both the highest effectiveness rating of strong evidence of a positive effect with no overriding contrary evidence.
Metastudies of Marzano and Hattie
Two sources of meta-analyses in education include: Visible Learning from a team in New Zealand under John Hattie and Classroom Instruction that Works from a Colorado, USA team under Robert Marzano.
According to the Marzano study, there are ten classroom methods which have been shown to work significantly better than many others:
- using analogies and similes
- identifying similarities and differences;
- note making and summarising;
- developing a growth mindset;
- repetition and practice;
- graphical organisers and methods;
- cooperative learning;
- setting goals in advance
- providing feedback (formative assessment);
- hypothesis testing;
- activating prior knowledge;
- advance organisers.
Although Hattie's work does not exactly mirror this list, the main reason is that the New Zealand study looks at everything related to education, including family effects and changes to the curriculum, while the Colorado study looked only at classroom methods. There are, however, no incompatibilities and most of Marzano's top-ten appear high on Hattie's list.
Hattie points out that there is no shortage of effective methods - almost anything you try in education seems to have a small beneficial effect. He therefore uses a scale of effect size which measures by how much the learning is improved. As an effect-size of 0.4 is the average for all interventions (and also the effect of a hard working, well organised and enthusiastic teacher), he suggests that methods with an effect size above 0.4 should be used as a priority. This ties with Marzano, whose list starts at an effect size of 0.59 for Advance Organisers and increases up the list.
The Coalition For Evidence-Based Policy Congressional Top Tier Programs
The Coalition For Evidence-Based Policy, which is a non-partisan, non-profit organization advocating the use of well conducted randomized controlled trials in policy, has recognized three educational programs as "Top Tier". Programs classified as "Top Tier" must have been proven to be effective in randomized controlled trials that were well designed and implemented.
Effective professional development
For students' results to reflect these high effect-sizes, teachers need to develop the skills of their use. According to several studies, the time taken to do this lies somewhere between the learning of new facts and the development of a musical or sporting skill. While facts can be learned with a few repetitions, skills may need several hundred hours to develop. The evidence is that teachers start to become skilled with a particular method after about 10 repetitions with improvement plateauing after 6 months to 2 years of use. Continuing professional development (CPD) needs to reflect these findings. Teaching staff need the opportunity to learn about and then practice these skills. The role of CPD managers is to ensure that the time is available and the process takes place, not to instruct the teachers to follow directions. Where staff self-select their training either from external providers or from a range of sessions on a training day, they do not have the chance to develop their skills. Training, development and discussion of a smaller list of high-effect-size methods will be more effective. This process is sometimes referred to as supported experimentation or peer mentoring.
Implications for teachers
Teachers have more effect on the outcomes for their students than anyone else. The difference in outcomes for 2 teachers in the same college is significantly greater than the average of teachers in a 'good' rather than a 'weak' school. The main reason why some schools do better is that they have a higher percentage of teachers who use high effect-size methods. While individual teachers can improve their students' results using these methods in isolation, it is far more effective if they are adopted department or college-wide so that the discussions, observations and sharing-of-practice can take place easily.
References
External links
- The Evidence Based Teachers Network (EBTN)
- Institute for Effective Education (IEE)
- Best Evidence Encyclopedia
