Evidence Matters: Towards informed
professionalism for educators
Andrew Morris (2009)
Warming-up Questions
 What is evidence?
A thing or things helpful in informing a judgment or conclusion;
Something indicative
 Can you think of a situation that depends on reliable and
convincing evidence for making vital decisions?
Importance of Evidence
 Surprise: Medical practice did not become evidence based till
1990s.
 Evidence based practice saves lives
 Road safety trialing and development in the Netherlands
resulted in cut of child road deaths
 Evidence needs to be built up in a long time: 300 hundred
years to convince medical professionals to wash hands
 However, questions remain:
 What evidence are you looking for?
 Do you have an agenda to favor certain evidence?
Evidence in Education
 Different people need different evidence
 Parents want evidence so as to help their children to learn best
 Authorities want evidence to make policies
 Teacher to improve pedagogy
 However, in many cases, educators do not, and can not, do
things based on evidence, but rather on experience, demands
by authority, social and economic factors, inspection-driving
notions of quality, etc.Thus, evidence has never played a
dominant role in educational judgments.
 Surely, there is an inevitable desire for maximum certainty!
Doubts and Arguments
 Some say it is unrealistic to expect social sciences to produce
the kinds of scientific evidence demanded by educational
practices (because of some failed attempts)
 Doubts do not diminish likelihood of steady improvement in
practice arising from consistent use of sound research
evidence. E.g., negative effects of summative assessment and
positive outcomes of more formative assessment.
 A need to differentiate areas of education in which scientific
evidence holds away from other areas in which political
considerations are paramount.
Typology of Evidence (P. Davies)
In order of salience, policy makers tend to use in practice:
 Expert evidence
 Opinion-based evidence
 Ideological evidence
 Media evidence
 Internet evidence
 Lay evidence (citizens’ experiences)
 Street evidence
 Cabbies evidence
 Research evidence
Isn’t it demoralising when researchers see this? Why is it the
case that research can hardly impact on policy?
What’s Good Evidence?
 There is a shortage of comprehensive, convincing evidence
base to inform teachers about pedagogy.
 Guidance relies on views and experience rather than on
convincing evidence
 Examples of high-quality evidence
 Most evidence collected through randomised controlled trials
 Experimental studies
Showing a favourable attitudes towards these ‘scientific’ methods
Managing Knowledge
There is an information overload, and thus, we need to
 Sift information through assessment
 Classify them
 Appraise them
Through organised agencies (research centres), more a reality
in health and social care than in education.
There is, however, a growing interest in managing knowledge
in education.
A Major Argument
The certainty needed by decision-makers depends on
establishing a pattern of results replicated in multiple
independent studies and on secondary work to classify, sift
and synthesise findings for practical use. A certain body of
sound evidence is needed from which policy makers and
practitioners can draw before they encounter problems in
implementing change (p. 19).
Discuss the implications of this argument for stakeholders in
education, such as policy makers and practitioners.