Research School Network: What’s so special about Guidance Reports? This blog explains why you should bring the EEF’s Guidance Reports to the top of your reading list

So much research is published that it can be hard to keep up. It is also hard to know what is worth keeping up with. In this blog our Director, Tom Martell, explains why you should bring the EEF’s Guidance Reports to the top of your reading list.

So far, the EEF has published over a dozen Guidance Reports providing clear and actionable recommendations based on the best available evidence. Each report is packed with ideas that can empower teachers to become evidence-informed about a range of high priority issues. This blogs highlights three features of Guidance Reports that makes them stand out from the crowd.

Independent

When taking advice, you want to know that the provider is focused on your best interests. However, this can be hard to judge; just ask anyone buying a used car.

One of the EEF’s strengths is that its independence was baked in at its birth and they continue to guard it jealously. They were given a large cheque from the Department for Education and 15 years to achieve an ambitious aim: improve outcomes for all students, especially the most disadvantaged. The EEF is insulated from political interference, short-term performance measures and the need to turn a profit. Therefore, they can – without fear or favour – focus on helping teachers make better use of research evidence. This model is now being explored in other countries and fields outside of education.

Rigorous

The EEF is renowned for its approach to rigorous research.

Many types of research can be useful – from case studies and surveys, to experiments and meta-analyses – but it is important to pair your research question with the right kind of research. A crucial family of questions in education is ​‘is x better than y’. For these kinds of questions we need experiments. Ideally, comparable groups are formed through randomisation and then try out different approaches before comparing the results.

It matters how we measure the success of the intervention. It is rarely enough to just ask participants what they thought of interventions. A striking finding from the EEF’s studies is that teachers overwhelmingly like interventions, yet the evidence is clear that most things are no better than what teachers were already doing. That’s why in addition to finding out the perspectives of participants, it is important to also look at some harder outcomes, such as scores on suitable assessments.

With and for teachers

I’m a big fan of research evidence – I think it has unique potential to improve our schools in a scalable and cumulative manner. However, generating rigorous evidence is tricky so it is important to collaborate with expert researchers. But this is not enough: we need teachers’ complementary expertise.

Multiple colleagues from Shotton Hall Research School have been fortunate to support the development of Guidance Reports. Our favourite stage happens after the evidence review when the combined expertise of researchers and teachers is used to interpret the evidence and develop the recommendations. The discussion is typically technical and slow, yet the complementary expertise undoubtedly strengthens the reports.

You can access the latest Guidance Reports here. You can also join our Newsletter, by signing up here, where we share new reports and accompanying tools as they are developed.