POLICY AND PRACTICE Choosing evidence


What is the recipe for using evidence successfully?


and practices. However, having better evidence is not enough. Ultimately, we must become more sophisticated consumers of information. My experience as a teacher, researcher, and technical assistance provider has convinced me that making sound choices in education depends on asking three fundamental questions consistently: What works? How do


you know? So what? ● What works? Our actions should be guided by the principle that the best approaches to use in education are those that are most likely to get the desired results. Asking this question compels us to reject opinion, ideology, marketing, and popularity and instead ask whether the proposed educational approach works. Improvement approaches should not simply sound good, but rather, should work well.


What we know


● Making choices is a complex and challenging process.


● Providing educators with reliable and useful evidence can support effective choices.


● Sound judgment, driven by critical questions, can improve decision-making.


● How do you know? In the US it is rare to encounter an education programme or practice that does not claim to be “research based”. We must go beyond these claims and, in a spirit of healthy scepticism, demand the compelling evidence that a programme does work. The “consumer-reporting” projects mentioned above can provide


support in answering this question. ● So what? This question is focused on signifi cance. It suggests a series of critical questions that go beyond looking for generalised demonstrations of the effectiveness of a programme or practice. Questions of this type include: Will the programme be effective with my pupils or work in my context? Given the level of demonstrated effectiveness, is this programme or practice worth the resources required to adopt and implement it? Are there better alternatives? What kind of help will I receive so that this programme gets the same effects in my setting as it has elsewhere? Iyengar concludes her book by observing, “Science can assist us in becoming more skilful choosers, but at its core, choice remains an art.” As with all else in education, the best results for pupils will emerge when educators combine the best available evidence with keenly honed professional insights and judgments, and a set of


questions that help them to avoid their own decision-making biases.


About the author Steve Fleischman is deputy executive offi cer of Education Northwest (www.educationnorthwest.org), a not- for-profi t organisation based in Portland, Oregon. The organisation conducts research, evaluation, technical assistance, training, and strategic communications activities to promote evidence-informed education policy and practice.


Further reading


Iyengar S (2010), The Art of Choosing. New York, NY: Hachette Book.


Lehrer J (2009), How We Decide. Boston, MA: Houghton Miffl in.


Lockwood AT, and Fleischman S (2010), Choosing a School Turnaround Provider. Lessons Learned, 1(3), 1–4. Portland, OR: Education Northwest.


Nelson SR, Leffl er JC, and Hansen BA (2009), Toward a Research Agenda for Understanding and Improving the Use of Research Evidence. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.


winter 2012 Better: Evidence-based Education 21


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