1. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Professor Chris Husbands • Director, Institute of Education • www.ioe.ac.uk • director_ioe
Can (and should) research and
practice shape schooling?
Prof Chris Husbands,
Director, IOE
York, July 2014

2. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
1. What is research for?
2. What does research tell us (and what doesn’t it tell
us)?
3. How well does research travel?
Three questions

3. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
“….if the research confirms our own views it is deemed to
be stating the obvious and therefore not necessary. if it
goes against that prejudice, we prefer to trust common
sense, rather than research especially because the latter
is usually expressed with the provisos inevitable in a field
as inexact as social science“
Brian Kay, HMI, 1978
Research is not always welcome…

4. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
1847: Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, a Viennese obstetrician deduced that by not
washing their hands between patients, doctors caused puerperal fever,
the leading cause of maternal death in hospitals. Introducing
handwashing reduced the death rate to 1 percent.
1865: Simmelweiss dies in a mental hospital after alcoholism and mental
illness following vilification by doctors who refused to accept his
findings
2004: Atul Gawande found that doctors washed their hands only half as
often as they should between patients.
…and not just in education…

5. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
5
A race for the answers: research and practice

6. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Oh the confusion for readers

7. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
…and not just the Daily Express

8. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Student potential is not fixed
Children with disabilities have the potential to achieve
School performance is not determined by location
Gender does not determine achievement by subject
School improvement
School development planning
…taken for granted?...
…all of these are the results of research, which changed minds and
practices

9. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
“….systematic inquiry made
public“
First principles: what IS research?

10. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
“It is teachers who in the end
will change the world of the
school by understanding it’“
Lawrence Stenhouse, 1981
…and using research

11. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu

12. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu

13. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
…RCTs
...Meta-analysis
...Action Research
...Mixed methods
Supply: generating better research...

14. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
14
“educational research needs to be redirected
towards the construction of a relatively
systematic body of propositional knowledge
which shapes the professional practice of
teachers” (Hargreaves, 1997)
Supply: what educational research might do...

15. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
15
“ a need to ensure that decisions
about educational policy are
informed by the practices of
research, although the relationship
cannot be a linear one” (Sebba,
2003)
Supply: and some of the complexity….

16. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
16
Three quite different worlds – the world of research, the world of
policy, the world of practice. They are driven by quite different
kinds of incentives, habits, cultures. People in any one of them
don’t necessarily understand the other two and so the effort to
link them has to be a very deliberate effort that takes into
account those different worlds.... You can assess whether
polices are consistent with the best available evidence...
Ben Levin, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkr-xjL8OiQ
…which exists in the worlds of education...

17. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
…evaluate the impact of a policy
…map the performance of part of the system
…understand the costs and benefits of aspects
of education
...explain the context in which education occurs
Not all education research aims to improve classrooms…

18. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
• “promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and
physical development... of pupils and... society” (1988
Education Act)
• “To open the mind, to correct it, to refine it” (Cardinal
Newman)
• To enhance academic attainment as a way of
improving life chances
Demand: there is debate about what education is for…

19. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
• EEF survey: only 4% of schools using Pupil Premium funding to
improve quality of feedback to pupils, despite evidence in EEF
toolkit that this is the most promising and cost effective option
• Field, 2007: worldwide evidence that holding poorly
performing pupils back a grade is ineffective...but it is used
widely despite the evidence
…schools and evidence…

20. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Example 1: evidence on setting by attainment
…findings are often challenging…
Gove (2007)
“Each pupil should be given the opportunity to learn in accordance with their
particular aptitude and ability…we believe that setting by ability is the only solution to
achieving this ambition”
Cameron (2006)
"I want to see setting in every single school. Parents know it works. Teachers know it
works. Tony Blair promised it in 1997. But it still hasn't happened. We will keep up the
pressure till it does."
Jacqui Smith (Schools Minister, 2006)
"Labour has encouraged setting, and there is now more setting than in 1997."

21. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
…findings are often challenging…
Mortimore,Ireson Hallam, Hack, Clark and Plewis (1999)
research suggests that setting in mathematics, accompanied by curriculum
differentiation, may be a means of raising the attainment of the more able pupils. The
effect is not great, however, and there are some costs in terms of the progress of
pupils whose attainment is low at the end of primary school. The impact on pupils’
self-concept may be important in the longer term, influencing later attainment in the
subject and decisions about choice of subjects after the age of 16. These factors must
also be taken into account when formulating policy on ability grouping in schools.

22. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Example 2: review of research on homework
…and findings are often not clear cut…
Hattie (2008)
• homework effect size of d=0.29 [rated below d=0.4 hinge point]
• effect size at primary d = 0.15 and at secondary d = 0.64
Fuchs et al (2004)
Positive impact of homework on test performance in Mathematics
but not in reading

23. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Paschal
et al
(1984)
…and findings are often not clear cut…
(meta-analysis of 15
quantitative studies)
Homework had positive effect on achievement, esp in
certain grades. Specifically, traditional, daily, and
graded homework had the greatest impact on student
achievement in fourth and fifth grades.
Mikk
(2006)
(association between
homework and maths
achievement in 46
countries)
Student achievement lower where homework
counted toward grades
Swank
(1999)
(paired study of test
scores between fourth
graders in control and
test group).
.
No differences in math achievement scores
between students in the two homework groups.
…but these are correlational studies…

24. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
De Jong,
Westerhof,
and
Creemers
(2000))
…and findings are often not clear cut…
(multi-level
analysis)
Homework explained only 2.4 percent of
difference in achievement between an
experimental and control group (students
given homework and those not). Frequency
of homework and time spent on it not
related to achievement
Trautwein
and Koller
(2003)
(review of
longitudinal
studies )
Homework reinforces differences in
attainment related to home circumstance
…no research exists on the relationship between dog food
consumption or washing machines and homework…

25. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Research on types of homework is generally restricted to
• descriptions of the purpose of homework
• How often homework of each type is set.
…but what about the quality of homework set...
Research on the effects of the different sorts of homework is rare, but
Rutter, Maughan, Mortimore, and Ouston (1979) found higher levels of
student achievement in schools in which more homework was routinely
assigned than schools where regular homework was not expected

26. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
“There is no meaningful sense in which it could be stated that “the research
says X about homework” in a simple soundbite” (Tom Sherrington, 2013).
AND
 providing information about ‘what research says’ does not change
behaviour
 research is not clear about what homework to set for a given group to
achieve specific outcomes
What does all this tell us?

27. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
“There is no meaningful sense in which it could be stated that “the research
says X about homework” in a simple soundbite” (Tom Sherrington, 2013).
BUT
 all these research studies generate systematic thinking about homework
 context matters (phase, subject, location, culture)
 rigorous thinking about professional practices matters
What does all this tell us?

28. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Two challenges
Why is it difficult to use
research to improve
practice?
And how can it be made
easier?

29. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Evidence and observation

30. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Evidence and observation

31. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Evidence and risk
What is the probability that a woman who tests positive for breast cancer actually has
breast cancer? Consider a population in which 1% of women have breast cancer, and a
mammography test which has a 90% chance of returning a correct result. That is, if a
woman has cancer then there is a 90% chance the test will be positive, and if a woman
does not have cancer then there is a 90% chance the test will be negative. Suppose a
particular woman tests positive; what is the probability that she has breast cancer?

32. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
This graphic illustrates the
same information. Each of
the 1000 women is
represented by an icon. The
women in the box are those
that test positive for breast
cancer, and the 9 red women
in the box are those that test
positive and actually do have
cancer.
Evidence and risk

33. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
First Law of Education Research: If something is too good to be true, its not
true
Second Law of Education Research: It is more complicated than it seems
Third Law of Education Research: There is always counter-evidence
Three laws of education research
…cultures of “systematic doubt” (Vansina, 1978)

34. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Travelling fruitfully
• Good company
• Terrain and boundaries
• “Good character”
Travelling with integrity
• “certain basic integrity”
• does not mean “nothing happens to facts
when they travel”….”
• some become simpler and lose information,
others add information,become more
complex”
Can facts travel?
Once facts leave home it is difficult to keep them safe
Howlett, P and Morgan, M., eds (2011) How Well Do Facts Travel? The Dissemination
of Reliable Knowledge.

35. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
1. Clarify what research cannot do….so as to be clearer about
what it can do
2. Understand the inquiry: what is the question to which any piece
of research is the answer..
3. Engage with the method as well as the findings...how
systematic... why, how, when, where
Six principles for improving research use

36. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
4. Be critical: analyse research: beat it up, grill it, analyse it : ask
what is the basis for the findings and the claims. If it’s too good
be be true, it’s not true.
5. Build peer review (educational audit) into our teaching: can we
explain why we are doing things in this way?
6. Research use and evidence based teaching will not happen by
accident or individually – develop research use leadership roles
in departments and schools
Six principles for improving research use

37. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
http://headguruteacher.com/2013/05/28/the-kegs-cpd-market-place/
Teaching ideas in motion – in Essex

38. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Teaching ideas in motion – in Hampshire

39. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Teaching ideas in motion – in Bradford

40. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Teaching ideas in motion – EEF toolkit

41. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Teaching ideas in motion – in children’s care

42. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Schools in which research knowledge grows
High expectations with a
clear understanding of
what excellence looks like
A culture of coaching,
mentoring and support
Evidence, data and insight
to inform practices
An inquiry orientation:
teaching as clinical practice
Technologies as ambient
External research and
development partners
The
setting
Practice
Links
Provision Cultures

43. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
There are alternatives, of course

44. Professor Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education, University of London
www.ioe.ac.uk  @director_edu
Professor Chris Husbands • Director, Institute of Education • www.ioe.ac.uk • director_ioe
Can (and should) research and
practice shape schooling?
Prof Chris Husbands,
Director, IOE
York, July 2014