This document discusses teaching, research, and evidence-based practice in education. It begins with an introduction of the author and their background in teaching psychology and research. Several questions are posed about how to measure learning, what success looks like, and whether educational research has any hope. Research and its impact on frontline teachers is discussed, with questions around how much research actually reaches teachers and the impact it has. Evidence-based practice and its potential to undermine teachers' moral authority is debated. Challenges to implementing research like teachers' resistance to new ideas and "practice ready" scholarship are addressed. Ways to measure the impact of educational interventions and what effective teaching looks like are considered throughout.

1. Teaching and Research:
strawberries and cream?
Jamie Davies

2. Head of Quality and Teacher of A Level Psychology,
Wyke Sixth Form College (10 years).
Senior Lecturer MSc in the Teaching of Psychology,
Glyndwr University (2 years).

3. Is evidence based practice the way forward?
How can we measure learning?
What does success look like?
Is there any hope for educational research?

4. RESEARCH TEACHING

5. How much pedagogical research
actually makes its way to
frontline teachers and what
impact is it actually having?

6. Barends, E., Rousseau, D. M., & Briner, R. B. (2014). Evidence-Based Management, The Basic Principles. In Search of Evidence,
Center for Evidence-Based Management
Evidence-based practice is about making decisions through the
conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence from
multiple sources by:
Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question
Acquiring: systematically searching for an retrieving the evidence
Apprising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of the
evidence
Aggregating: weighting and pulling together the evidence
Applying: incorporating the evidence into the decision-making process
Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken.
To create a positive impact on your learners.

7. ‘practice ready’ scholarship - academic writing being
for other academics and researchers rather than
teachers.
teachers are antagonistic to new
ideas

10. Total hours worked by type of school and role. (N=1,004)
DFE: Teachers’ workload diary survey 2013 (February 2014), Pg. 14

11. What would improve the quality of teaching and pupil learning? (N=1,004)
DFE: Teachers’ workload diary survey 2013 (February 2014), Pg. 21

12. “education
is not a
science it is
a moral
project”
Evidence-based education is no panacea, and could undermine the
moral authority of teachers. TES. Kevin Rooney, 18/10/15.

13. “…scientific research has
little if any thing to tell us
about how we educate
our young. In a context
where many educators are
filled with uncertainty and
anxiety about the purpose
of education EBE has filled
a vacuum at a time when
many within education are
looking for a sense of
certainty, authority and
moral purpose”
Evidence-based education is no panacea, and could undermine the
moral authority of teachers. TES. Kevin Rooney, 18/10/15.

14. Learning styles
Dekker S, Lee NC, Howard-Jones P and Jolles J (2012) Neuromyths in education:
Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions among teachers. Front. Psychology
3:429. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429
contacted 242 teachers in the UK and Holland,
asking them to complete an online survey
containing 32 statements about the brain
learning styles was the most prevalent
misconception: 82% of the teachers in their
sample believed that it is true
belief in neuromyths was correlated positively
with general knowledge about the brain

15. Access to research
Time to reflect and experiment in class
Financial constraints
Fear
Lack of awareness of new research
Opportunities!

17. What does an
effective teacher
look like?

18. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/research-and-development-network-school-based-research-on-pedagogy

19. 80 per cent of what happens in the
classroom remains unseen and unheard by
teachers – only the pupils are aware of it.
“So why would I give a damn about reflective
teaching?” he said. “I don’t want to think
about the 20 per cent we see. I want to think
about the 80 per cent that goes on that we
don’t see.
Hattie, 2016

20. www.metproject.org/reports.php

21. What does an
effective teacher
look like?

24. If you do A, it
will improve B
We did A and
it improved B

25. Would B have improved
anyway?
Was it really A?
Did B really improve?
Will it work again?
counterfactual
attribution
generalisation
interpretation
Coe, R. (2015) How do we know what works? researchED.

26. learning is

27. Students are busy: lots of work is done
Students are engaged, interested and motivated
Students are getting attention: feedback,
explanations
Classroom is ordered, calm and under control
Curriculum has been ‘covered’ (i.e. presented to
students in some form)
Students have supplied correct answers (whether or
not they really understood them, could reproduce
them independently or knew them already)
Improving Education: A triumph of hope over experience
Professor Robert Coe (2013)

29. How do we measure the
impact of our
interventions?

30. How to make it look as if your intervention has worked
1. Wait for a bad year or choose underperforming class to start with.
Most things self-correct or revert to expectations (you can claim the
credit for this).
2. Take on any initiative, and ask everyone who put effort into it if they
feel it worked. No-one wants to feel their effort was wasted.
3. Define ‘improvement’ in terms of perceptions and ratings of
teachers. DO NOT conduct any proper assessments – they may
disappoint.
4. Conduct some kind of evaluation, but don’t let the design be too
good – poor quality evaluations are much more likely to show
positive results.
5. If any improvement occurs in any aspect of performance, focus
attention on that rather than on any areas or schools that have not
improved or got worse (don’t mention them!).

31. What does
success look
like?

33. So … how can we measure
the impact of our
interventions when we
design educational
research?

34. Value Added?
Observed Student Engagement?
Headline Outcomes?
Observations?
Progression?
Self-reports?

35. • Don’t ignore the evidence just because it is
imperfect: understand the limitations and help to
improve it
• Simple, superficial knowledge of research evidence
may not improve decision making: deep, integrated
understanding is required
• Routinely monitor the effectiveness of your
practice
• Evaluate the impact of any changes you make
Coe, R. (2015) How do we know what works? researchED.

36. different interventions work for
different students at
different times

40. What impact does the research
have on the student?

41. Show us your personality (but not too much)
Remember that we do appreciate you
Tell us when we’ve done well
Show us that you care
Don’t shout at us
'Show us that you care': a student's view on what makes a perfect teacher.

45. 337 meta-analyses
200,000 effect-sizes
180,000 studies
~50 million students
Hattie: Influences On Student Learning (1999)
Hattie, J. (1999). Influences on student learning. Inaugural lecture given on August, 2, 1999.

46. Influences On Student Learning. Hattie (1999)
https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/education/hattie/docs/influences-on-
student-learning.pdf
 An effect size of 0.5 is equivalent to a one
grade leap at GCSE
 An effect size of 1.0 is equivalent to a two
grade leap at GCSE
 ‘Number of effects’ is the number effect sizes
from well designed studies that have been
averaged to produce the average effect size.
 An effect size above 0.4 is above average for
educational research

47. Influences On Student Learning. Hattie (1999)
https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/education/hattie/docs/influences-on-
student-learning.pdf

49. 1) Be clear about the
difference you want to
make
2) Involve others and
distribute leadership
3) Talk about learning to
build trusting
relationships
4) Embrace and persist
with challenge
5) Collaborate with peers
6) Be flexible and
adaptable
7) Emphasise
development over
judgement
8) Take the time you need
9) Draw on external
expertise – don’t go it
alone
10) Work towards cultural
change
National College for Teaching and Leadership
https://nctl.blog.gov.uk/2015/02/16/10-tips-for-successful-school-led-research-projects/

52. http://staffrm.io

53. evidenceforthefrontline.com @evidenceftf

54. RESEARCH TEACHING

55. Instead of taking tests,
students will show learning
through creative projects.
The role of teachers will be
to guide students in the
areas where they need
guidance as innovators.
How do you get students to
be innovative? You let them.
You get out of their way.

57. [We need to] teach
students to be savvy
consumers and producers
of research
Sternberg, 2012

58. [We need to] teach
students to be savvy
consumers and producers
of research
Sternberg, 2012
Students
Teachers
Researchers
Policy Makers
educational
^

59. [We need to] teach
students to be savvy
consumers and producers
of research
Sternberg, 2012
Students
Teachers
Researchers
Policy Makers
educational
^
http://jamiedavies.co
@jamiedavies
Thank You