ABSTRACT
The role of school leaders in research is underestimated, and often not considered reliable enough for impact studies. And teachers themselves may feel that their experiences and observations should have precedence over research evidence. These perceptions act as a barrier for teachers’ research engagement and knowledge development. This chapter presents findings from aggregated trials led by schools themselves which have implications for strengthening the areas of research knowledge in teacher training courses. The results of these aggregated trials suggested encouraging indications where school leaders reported increased understanding of research evidence through practical research implementation in real school settings. The additional benefits of school leaders’ research engagement were observed in a minimum level of pupil dropout and a great deal of information on the mechanism of complex reading interventions. Teachers conducting design-based research projects in their teaching practice is perhaps a promising approach to promote the use of research evidence. This model of embedding research evidence in school teaching practice needs further evaluation.
