---
title: "Evidence-based education"
chunk: 2/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_education"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:25:34.880785+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Tier 1 – Strong Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented randomized controlled experimental studies.
Tier 2 – Moderate Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental studies.
Tier 3 – Promising Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented correlational studies (with statistical controls for selection bias).
Tier 4 – Demonstrates a Rationale: practices that have a well-defined logic model or theory of action, are supported by research, and have some effort underway by state educational agencies (SEA), local educational agencies (LEA), or outside research organization to determine their effectiveness.
In 2016 the Department for Education in England published the White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere. It states its intention to support an evidence-informed teaching profession by increasing teachers' access to and use of "high quality evidence". It will also establish a new British education journal and expand the Education Endowment Foundation. In addition, on October 4, 2016, the Government announced an investment of around £75 million in the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund, to support high-quality, evidence-informed, professional development for teachers and school leaders. A research report in July 2017 entitled Evidence-informed teaching: an evaluation of progress in England
concluded this was necessary, but not sufficient. It said that the main challenge for policy makers and researchers was the level of leadership capacity and commitment to make it happen. In other words, the attitudes and actions of school leaders influence how classroom teachers are supported and held accountable for using evidence informed practices.
In 2017 the British Educational Research Association (BERA) examined the role of universities in professional development, focusing especially on teacher education and medical education.
Critics continue, saying "Education research is great but never forget teaching is a complex art form." In 2018, Dylan Wiliam, emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London, speaking at researchED stated that "Educational research will never tell teachers what to do; their classrooms are too complex for this ever to be possible." Instead, he suggests, teachers should become critical users of educational research and "aware of when even well-established research findings are likely to fail to apply in a particular setting".

== Reception ==

=== Acceptance ===
Since many educators and policy makers are not experienced in evaluating scientific studies and studies have found that "teachers' beliefs are often guided by subjective experience rather than by empirical data", several non-profit organizations have been created to critically evaluate research studies and provide their analysis in a user-friendly manner. They are outlined in research sources and information.
EBP has not been readily adopted in all parts of the education field, leading some to suggest the K-12 teaching profession has suffered a loss of respect because of its science-aversive culture and failure to adopt empirical research as the major determinant of its practices. Speaking in 2017, Harvey Bischof, Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), said there is a  need for teacher-centred education based upon what works in the classroom. He suggested that Ontario education "lacks a culture of empiricism" and is vulnerable to gurus, ideologues and advocates promoting unproven trends and fads.
Neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg, University of Wisconsin–Madison, stated that "A stronger scientific ethos (in education) could have provided a much needed defense against bad science", particularly in the field of early reading instruction. Other influential researchers in psychopedagogy, cognitive science and neuroscience, such as Stanislas Dehaene and Michel Fayol have also supported the view of incorporating science into educational practices.

=== Critics and skeptics ===
Skeptics point out that EBP in medicine often produces conflicting results.  Others feel that EBE "limits the opportunities for educational professionals to exert their judgment about what is educationally desirable in particular situations".
Some suggest teachers should not pick up research findings and implement them directly into the classroom; instead they advocate for a modified approach some call evidence-informed teaching that combines research with other types of evidence plus personal experience and good judgement; "practice that is influenced by robust research evidence".
Others say there is "a mutual interdependence between science and education", and teachers should become better trained in research science and "take science sufficiently seriously" to see how its methods might inform their practice.
Straight talk on evidence has suggested that reports about evidence in education need to be scrutinized for accuracy or subjected to Metascience (research on research).
In a 2020 talk featured on ResearchED, Dylan Wiliam argues that when looking at the cost, benefit and practicality of research, more impact on student achievement will come from a knowledge-rich curriculum and improving teachers' pedagogical skills.

=== Philosophical concerns ===
Some of the criticisms about evidence-based approaches to education relate to concerns about the generalisability of educational research, specifically that research findings are context dependent and that it is difficult to generalise findings from one context to another using a positivist approach. Counter to this position is a view that education researchers have a responsibility to consider the practical value of their research.
There has also been some discussion of a philosophical nature about the validity of scientific evidence. This led James M. Kauffman, University of Virginia, and Gary M. Sasso, University of Iowa, to respond in 2006 suggesting that problems arise with the extreme views of a) the "unbound faith in science" (i.e. scientism) or b) the "criticism of science" (that they label as the "nonsense of postmodernism"). They go on to say that science is "the imperfect but best tool available for trying to reduce uncertainty about what we do as special educators".

==== Meta-analysis ====