Research Matters / Moving to Evidence-Based Professional Practice

Schools have recently begun to place increased emphasis on the use of rigorous research evidence in guiding instructional decisions. These efforts have been partly inspired by the No Child Left Behind Act's insistent call for the use of “scientifically based” research. As educators, however, we are driven by a much more powerful force than legislative mandates: We sincerely want to know that our actions will help students succeed. How can we harness the power of scientific research on behalf of the students we serve?

What We Know

Turning education into an evidence-based field is easier to advocate than to achieve, particularly in an environment of competing claims about what works. Unfortunately, studies have shown that research findings rarely play a key role in helping teachers improve their professional practice (Kohlmoos & Joftus, 2005). The following factors hamper research use by educators.

• Too few rigorous and relevant studies. Every educator searching for research to help improve practice has encountered the frustrating fact that programs, practices, and policies in education are rarely subjected to rigorous evaluation. In part, this is the result of the limited resources currently devoted to education evaluation. For example, a 2004 survey of state education departments' evaluation activities concluded that “most states infrequently evaluate their programs, if at all” (Raymond, Bortnik, & Gould, 2004, p. vii). In addition, much of the existing research in education simply does not meet the needs of educators. Recently, in a U.S. Department of Education-commissioned focus group representative of education policymakers, many respondents “criticized existing research for its overly theoretical and academic orientation” (Huang, Reiser, Parker, Muniec, & Salvucci, 2003, p. 16). As one veteran school superintendent exclaimed, “There may be less than one percent of the existing research that's really meaningful to teachers.... Teachers need strategies, practices. Give them things that can help teaching and learning” (p. 16).
• Difficulty in locating and applying existing research. Unfortunately, studies are often published in inaccessible sources. Even when relevant and rigorous research is available, educators find the studies hard to use because they are often written in dense scientific language and presented in unappealing formats (Rickinson, 2005). Further, few research studies help educators draw implications for their own practice (Kohlmoos & Joftus, 2005). Surprisingly, the same challenge exists in the medical field, which many people hold up as an example for education to emulate in building evidence-based practice. A recent in-depth interview study of the research needs of health care policy professionals found that most studies fall short because they do “not draw inferences or provide implications for policymakers and can be used to support many different positions” (Sutton & Thompson, 2001).
• Distrust of research. The scarcity of useful research and the difficulty in applying it to practice, as well as its frequent use to promote a variety of political agendas, all contribute to skepticism on the part of educators regarding the value of education research. For example, in Huang and colleagues' (2003) education policymaker focus group, many respondents criticized the “political and marketing bias and contamination” found in some research. Further, the professional culture of some schools and districts contributes to the reluctance to use research as a guide to practice. Corcoran (2003), in his study of three urban districts seeking to promote evidence-driven improvement, noted that a significant difficulty was the “inability of district and school staff to put aside old patterns of decision-making that focused on philosophy or the ‘goodness’ of an option, rather than evidence of its effectiveness” (p. 7).

What You Can Do