What is it about?
With the push for evidence-informed policy and practice, schools and policy makers are now increasingly encouraged and supported to use and enagage with research evidence, but how do we know that this evidence is reliable. This paper addresses the question of the validity of evidence that informs policy and practice drawing on data from over 5,000 studies on a range of topics and argues that more needs to be done to ensure better quality control of published research.
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Why is it important?
Much of the evidence that informs policy and practice in education is flawed. This is a serious problem if teaching practices and important policy decisions are made based on such flawed evidence. Lives may be damaged and opportunities missed.
Perspectives
This article is written to raise awareness of the need for researchers to be ethical in their conduct of research as their work can have important implications on the lives of children. Reporting bias, for example, is rife and making bold claims about the outcomes that are not substantiated by data can mislead users and policy makers who often do not have the time nor the skills to analyse research findings. I hope that this article will encourage journal editors and researchers to make it their responsibility to ensure that the research findings are truthfully reported are warranted by the data. It is also hoped that policy makers are aware not not all evidence is good evidence.
Beng Huat See
Durham University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evaluating the evidence in evidence-based policy and practice: Examples from systematic reviews of literature, Research in Education, November 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0034523717741915.
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