This document discusses the limitations of focusing solely on "what works" in education and proposes alternative questions. It outlines three key questions: 1) What are our underlying values in education? 2) What paradigms or concepts do we operate under? 3) What can research add to teaching? The document then examines different educational paradigms and their strengths/weaknesses. It also explores the relationship between research and classroom practice, noting teachers can be research-aware, informed, or active. Throughout, it argues applying research too rigidly can overlook education's complex realities and the importance of teacher judgment.

1. WHY ‘WHAT WORKS’ MAY
BE THE WRONG QUESTION

3. AIMS …
Three questions to ask:
1. What are our underpinning values?
2. What are the paradigms (concepts)
we operate under?
3. What can research add to teaching?

4. VALUES …
Why do we do
what we do?

5. VALUES …
What is the
purpose of
education?
Why do we
educate
children?
Who should
we educate?
Who should
pay for this?
What should
we teach
them?
What are the core
values that drive
our practice?

6. PURPOSE …
Biesta, G. (2010) What is education for? Good education in an age of measurement: ethics, politics,
democracy (pp. 11–27). Boulder, C: Paradigm Publishers

7. PURPOSE …
Biesta, G. (2015) What is Education For? On Good Education, Teacher Judgement, and
Educational Professionalism, European Journal of Education, Vol. 50, No. 1, 2015
What is the problem? Perhaps the briefest way to put it is to say that the
point of education is not that students learn. Formulating the issue in this way
is relevant because many discussions about education (in policy, research and
practice) keep using the language of learning in this abstract and general sense.
In contrast I wish to suggest that the point of education is that students learn
something, that they learn it for a reason, and that they learn it from someone.
Whereas the language of learning is a process language that, at least in English,
is an individual and individualising language, education always needs to
engage with questions of content, purpose and relationships.
Ofsted’s definition reads: “Learning is defined as an alteration in long-
term memory. If nothing has altered in long-term memory, nothing has
been learned.” This definition is not fit for purpose; it is one-dimensional,
individualistic and, though it may be appropriate for psychological
laboratory experiments, it is not appropriate for education. We need, and
I offer, this educational definition: “Learning refers to significant
enhancements in knowledge, capabilities, values, attitudes or
understanding (including but going beyond the acquisition of factual
knowledge) by individuals, groups, organisations or society.”
Coffield, F (2019) Times Educational Supplement , 7 problems that Ofsted must fix. Jan 31st. online.

8. PISA trends (and targets)
Note: the PISA 2018 data will be released in December 2019

9. Maths trends (TIMSS) - Year 5 Maths trends (TIMSS) - Year 9
Science trends (TIMSS) - Year 5 Science trends (TIMSS) - Year 9

10. PARADIGMS …
Positivism Interpretivism
Critical
Realism
Laboratory Life HistoryField / Classroom
physics geology biology medicine psychology education sociology
Hopkins, P (2018) The Perils of Positivism.

11. PARADIGMS
What are the
positives of
each
approach?
What are the
negatives of
each
approach?
Which of these
“make sense”
in education?
What Qs can
we ask?

12. RESEARCH TO CLASSROOM
www.learningscientists.org (2018)

13. PARADIGMS
How much like
a lab can a
classroom be?
How much
does this
matter?
Is there a
tension
between the
individual and
the group?
How much is
transferable?

14. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Aware
Research Informed
Research Active

15. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Aware
Bassey, G (1990) cited in Hitchcok and Hughs (1998) A qualitative introduction to school based research, London, Routledge

16. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Aware

17. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Informed

18. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Informed
Charted College of Teaching IMPACT
journal v2 (2018)
www.learningscientisits.org (2018) Kaufman, A and Kaufman, J (2018)
Pseudoscience” the conspiracy against
science. Cambridge. MIT Press.

19. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Informed
De Bruyckere, P (2018)
The Ingredients for Great Teaching,
Sage: London

20. POWER OF EVIDENCE?
The overemphasis
of quantitative
over qualitative
(cf evidence
based medicine
[Greenhaigh].
Wrigley (2018) The power of evidence: reliable science or a set of blunt tools
The dangers of
the application of
Randomised
Controlled Trials
in social science
and
misunderstanding
of scientific
method.
Oversimplification
of the model in
order to make it
work e.g linear
and steady
progress in
development.

21. GOLD STANDARD?
RCTs are widely regarded as the “gold standard” for measuring the efficacy of
interventions (Pocock, 1983)
Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) - UK
National Centre for Educational Research (NCEE) - USA
Typical effect size of educational interventions 0.25 > ES > 0.50
Hattie meta-analysis of 800 studies =- ES (av) = 0.40
RCTs tend have smaller effective sizes 0.16 to 0.23 (Cheung and Slavin, 2016)
The prevision of RCTs is a problem if the ES is small
So, ES of 0 within CI of -0.25 to +0.25 is ineffective (is it +ve sig, -ve sig or neutral)
RCTs are not a panacea and must be recognised as appropriate methodology for
certain but not all research questions. RCTs tend to a more positivist approach
(looking for a causal connection)
It’s hard to allocate people randomly to trails, to control dropout or to to control
homogeneity in the populations - to control variables in a complex, messy
educational setting. This makes applying the results of an RCT from the normative
to the individual difficult.
Connolly, Biggart,
Miller, O’Hare,
Thurston (2017)

22. THE TEACHER AND RESEARCH …
Research Active

23. Pring, R (2015:71) False Dualisms and Political Control in Philosophy of Educational Research, Bloomsbury: London.

24. SchoollevelClassroomlevel

25. Pollard, A (2015:302) Reflective Teaching in School. Bloomsbury. London

26. A cyclical model
What do I (or others) observe
about the practice in my
setting?
What does
wider research
says about this
practice?
How this research
reflect my setting?
What should I
change?

27. In education, “What works?” is rarely
the right question, because everything
works somewhere, and nothing works
everywhere, which is why in education,
the right question is, “Under what
conditions does this work?”
Wiliam, D (2016) On Mr Barton's Maths Podcast: http://
www.mrbartonmaths.com/blog/dylan-wiliam-author-researcher-trainer-and-
assessment-for-learning-expert/

28. If educational theory goes beyond
its proper limits, if it pretends to supplant
experience, to promulgate ready-made
formula that are then applied mechanically, it
degenerates into dead matter. If on the other
hand, experience disregards pedagogical
thinking, it in turn degenerates into blind
routine or else is at the mercy of ill-informed or
unsystematic thinking. Educational theory
essentially is the most methodical and best-
documented thinking available, put at the
service of teaching.
Paul Fouconnet, in Emile Durkheim (1925) Moral Education p.2

33. A FEW THINGS TO START WITH …
Ed. Ian Gilbert
Carl Hendrick and
Robin MacPhearson
Daniel T.
Willingham
Paul Dix
Pedro De
Bruyckere
Graham Nutall
John Hattie Lucy Rycroft-Smith Marc Smith Geoff Petty

34. WHY ‘WHAT WORKS’ MAY
BE THE WRONG QUESTION
PAUL HOPKINS - UNIVERSITY OF HULL
E: P.HOPKINS@HULL.AC.UK T: @HULLPGCE @HULLPRIMARYPGCE