scholarly journals Systematic Reviews: What have they got to offer evidence based policy and practice?

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Nagyova
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Evidence Based Policy

The Perilous Road from Evidence to Policy: Five Journeys Compared

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNETTE BOAZ ◽  
RAY PAWSON
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Peer Education ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Evidence Based Policy

Comprehensive reviews of the available research are generally considered to be the cornerstone of contemporary efforts to establish ‘evidence-based policy’. This article provides an examination of the potential of this stratagem, using the case study of ‘mentoring’ programmes. Mentoring initiatives (and allied schemes such as ‘coaching’, ‘counselling’, ‘peer education’ and so on) are to be found in every corner of public policy. Researchers have been no less energetic, producing a huge body of evidence on the process and outcomes of such interventions. Reviewers, accordingly, have plenty to get their teeth into and, by now, there are numerous reports offering review-based advice on the benefits of mentoring. The article asks whether the sum total of these efforts, as represented by five contemporary reviews, is a useful tool for guiding policy and practice. Our analysis is a cause for some pessimism. We note a propensity for delivering unequivocal policy verdicts on the basis of ambiguous evidence. Even more disconcertingly, the five reviews head off on different judgemental tangents, one set of recommendations appearing to gainsay the next. The article refrains from recommending the ejection of evidence baby and policy bathwater but suggests that much closer attention needs to be paid to the explanatory scope of systematic reviews.

The State of Evidence-Based Policy Evaluation and its Role in Policy Formation

2012 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
pp. R41-R52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Davies
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
The Uk

This paper argues that evidence-based policy has clearly made a worldwide impact, at least at the rhetorical and institutional levels, and in terms of analytical activity. The paper then addresses whether or not evidence-based policy evaluation has had an impact on policy formation and public service delivery. The paper uses a model of research-use that suggests that evidence can be used in instrumental, conceptual and symbolic ways. Taking four examples of the use of evidence in the UK over the past decade, this paper argues that evidence can be used instrumentally, conceptually and symbolically in complementary ways at different stages of the policy cycle and under different policy and political circumstances. The fact that evidence is not always used instrumentally, in the sense of “acting on research results in specific, direct ways” (Lavis et al., 2003, p. 228), does not mean that it has little or no influence. The paper ends by considering some of the obstacles to getting research evidence into policy and practice, and how these obstacles might be overcome.

scholarly journals A caution about causation

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Henderson ◽  
Petrea Redmond ◽  
Eva Heinrich
Keyword(s):  
Educational Technology ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Educational Technology Research ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Technology Research ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Effect Model ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Face

Educational technology research, like all education research, is dominated by explicit or implicit claims of causation.  The dominance of cause-effect models in research is not surprising, and for many it is unnoticed and unquestioned. However, regardless of the cause-effect model being applied or the methodology in measuring it, we are unable to detect cause-effect directly. It is in this context that we need to be cautious in our interpretations of educational technology interventions and their implications for the future. Claims of causation are unlikely to decrease in the face of the increasing calls for “evidence-based” policy and practice. With this in mind it is even more important to consider how we can resist deterministic or mechanical claims of cause and effect. This dilemma should not stop our drive for evidence based approaches, but it is a reminder that we need to take care in the rigour of our research, and equally, in the way we describe it. 

Evidence producing organizations: Organizational translation of travelling evaluation ideas

Evaluation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Tove Elvbakken ◽  
Hanne Foss Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Evaluation Practice ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Policy Fields

In the 1990s and 2000s, the evidence wave in evaluation practice gained momentum first in medicine later in other policy fields. The evidence idea inspired actors in Scandinavia where evidence producing organizations were established. The aim of our study is to better understand these organizations and explore their characteristics in Denmark and Norway. We compare their organizational structures, stance towards ministries, resources and governance frameworks and analyse organizational change across time. Although the ideas of evidence-based policy and practice are common in the two countries, the organizations and context for evidence producing activities differ. Furthermore, in policy fields outside medicine the evidence movement is struggling to maintain support and resources.

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