ABSTRACT
This is a concept which became fashionable in the late 1990s and has remained a buzzword, a mantra even, into the twenty-first century. It is based partly on a medical model of how practice should be (understandably) based on the best available evidence. Thus ‘evidence-based medicine’ involves the careful use of current medical evidence in making decisions about the treatment of patients. Practitioners use their own personal, clinical experience alongside the best available evidence from systematic, published research. An influential speech by David Hargreaves in 1996 argued that education should follow this medical model and therefore improve the way in which research can make an impact upon teaching practice.
