Remedial teachers are in the habit of keeping careful records of pupils' progress and most can point to striking successes as well as to unaccountable failures. Research attempts from outside the classroom to monitor the work have produced a range of studies. Others scrutinize results over longer periods, while a small number throw light on the efficacy of different methods of teaching. Potentially the results should clearly contribute important information as to the worthwhileness of remedial endeavours, but in fact the overall picture they give is quite difficult to evaluate. J. E. Collins in a fully documented and very influential research into remedial education published in 1961 approached the question on the basis of existing studies and also used specially designed experiments of his own. His final conclusion was that research evidence 'has done little to justify remedial education' though he admitted that children's short-term gains from it could be considerable.