How can we figure out which scientific models suits our education styles?
Researchers work very hard to investigate what works and what doesn’t work for enhancing educational effects.
Their theories and findings look very convincing, however, it is another question whether educators can really implement it and whether it is feasible approach for them or not. Some approaches may be costly, some may take too long, some may not have that much of an impact in comparison to other approaches. Is there a way to find out, what types of approaches are suitable in your context?
British organization, Education Empowerment Foundation (EEF) is offering their tools to visualise the cost, impact and time required to actualize the approaches which are presented by researchers. Perhaps their “Teaching and Learning Toolkit” may support you find out what is the most suitable and feasible approach for you.
What is Teaching and Learning Toolkit?
The Toolkits are designed to support teachers and school leaders who are making decisions about how to improve learning outcomes.
EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit
Teaching and Learning Toolkit offers mainly three dimensions of various scientific approaches:
- Implementation cost
- Evidence strength
- Impact (months)
On the website, there is a list of various educational approaches and presents their evaluation on the above three aspects.
How is this helpful?
This toolkit allows the users to get an overview on the cost they need to spend per student and how much return can be expected. It would be a valuable guide to consider the school policy, educational practice, what could be done within the budget, etc…
Considerations
Although this toolkit gives us an overview of scientific approaches and allow us to work on evidence based or evidence informed education, EEF do state that this tool shall not be used by isolation and that there are several variables to be taken into account. For example,
- the time when the study was conducted
- the context of the research
- how close the study setting was to the actual classroom,
- whether the study was conducted independently or with a rigorous methodology
Despite the fact that there are various points to be taken into account for the actual implementation, this tool is illuminating in the sense that it covers diverse studies and it allows us to make clear comparison from the aspect of cost, impact and duration. It would also be a strong support for educators to obtain insights with time efficiency.
How about using this toolkit to discuss your school policy or education approach at your school? 🙂
