ABSTRACT
An increasingly large body of research has been generated in the last two to three decades, many claiming to offer new insights and new evidence on how to improve education. With the push for evidence-informed policy and practice, schools and policy makers are now increasingly encouraged and supported to use and engage with research evidence. This chapter provides information on where to look for good quality evidence, the limitations of such evidence and the challenges in interpreting the evidence in published research. It offers some interesting examples this kind of research. This chapter encourages research consumers to read research evidence with a critical eye and to acknowledge that all research involves compromise. There is no perfect research. But if we want to improve pupils’ educational outcomes, we look for the best bets, that is research that makes the least compromise. All things being equal, the best evidence is one that is generated from a large randomized sample using objective measures. But to encourage greater us of evidence, researchers have a responsibility to make their research accessible to practitioners. This means presenting research in clear, transparent and easy to understand language.
