Research School Network: Using Research Evidence: Activities for PD Simple activities for PD inspired by the EEF’s new ​‘Using Research Evidence – A Concise Guide’

Mark Miller is Director of Bradford Research School

The recently published Using Research Evidence: A Concise Guide is a handy new resource for teachers trying to make sense of research. As Kirstin Mulholland and Harry Madgwick say when introducing the guide, ​“finding time to access, engage with and question research evidence sources can be difficult.” The guide helps us to:

• Understand research evidence
• Identify different forms and uses of research evidence
• Examine research evidence
• Consider how research evidence can be used to inform and develop practice.

But to make the most of the guide, we need to use it, not just file it away. The guide contains a useful set of reflection questions to support, and in this post we suggest some activities for professional development that can be used to further enhance the impact of the guide.

CLAIMS adjusting

The CLAIMS acronym gives a simple way of examining research quality:

There are certainly examples of ​‘bad’ evidence that we can unpick in PD, but it might not be a valuable use of time. It might be better to use this to test claims of evidence that we are using to inform our practice. This is not about ripping things apart, but about being honest about what we can and can’t say about the evidence.

So this activity is all about identifying next steps for communicating and exploring the evidence:

Conclusions: Can we articulate the rationale for how they arrived at the conclusion?
Limitations: What doesn’t this study tell us? Can we find other research that does tell us? Do these limitations matter for us?
Applicability: Can we be confident that this can apply to us? What is different in terms of context: country; age and phase; lab vs school environments? How much can we generalise?
Independence: Are we happy about the neutrality of the evidence?
Methods: Are these transparent? Could we summarise them clearly in one paragraph?
Sample population: What was the study population and how representative is that of a wider population/​our specific context?

If any of these questions are hard to answer, then it will be hard to understand, communicate and articulate findings from the evidence.

Getting beyond the Surface

Even when we have ​‘reliable’ evidence, we need to avoid seeing that as the complete picture. We don’t want one piece of evidence to be the final say. P7 of the guide lists some important considerations. Here are some activities we might use which help us to exemplify them.

Build a rich evidence picture: A study group activity, where groups of 3 or 4 each read a different paper and come together to compare findings. Where is there alignment? Where is there conflict? Are there consistent ​‘best bets’?

Look for variation in findings: Share two studies with similar focus but a point of difference e.g. age, subject, findings. What specific conclusions can we make about the focus and what points can we learn about research in general?

Focus on ​‘how’ as well as the ​‘what’: Read an EEF Evaluation and identify the ​‘active ingredients’ of the intervention. Now, examine to what extent these were delivered with fidelity and how that might have impacted on the final results/​process evaluation.

Maintain criticality: Read this blog in Growth Mindset where Harry Fletcher-Wood tracks how his mind has changed following the evidence. Share examples from your own practice. Which areas might a fresh look at the evidence enhance?

Integrate research evidence with professional judgment: Share Bradford Research School’s Working Memory: Research Into Practice. Read the section on Providing Memory Aids and identify examples of own practice that are aligned with the evidence. This illustrates the idea that some approaches are not ​‘proven’ by research evidence but aligned with it.

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