Effective evidence-based teaching

Last month an event co-hosted by the London Leadership Strategy (LLS) and the Coalition for Evidence-based Education sought to answer the question: “What role do school networks play in effective knowledge mobilisation?”

School networks including Teacher Development Trust (TDT), Challenge Partners and Whole Education considered how best to take research evidence into the system. What was clear from the outset was that schools in these networks have a desire to use research evidence but that this evidence must be useful, applicable to the contemporary school context and easily accessible.

It was equally clear that researchers must not and cannot, “bash” teachers for not using evidence. Too many documents on the use of research in education start from the premise that we need to make teaching evidence-based; that teachers have to be forced into using research evidence. In truth many of them do.