scholarly journals The Case for Pragmatic Evidence-Based Higher Education: A Useful Way Forward?

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip M. Newton ◽  
Ana Da Silva ◽  
Sam Berry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Practice Change ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
What Works ◽  
Practical Teaching

Arguments for and against the idea of evidence-based education have occupied the academic literature for decades. Those arguing in favor plead for greater rigor and clarity to determine “what works.” Those arguing against protest that education is a complex, social endeavor and that for epistemological, theoretical and political reasons it is not possible to state, with any useful degree of generalizable certainty, “what works.” While academics argue, policy and practice in Higher Education are beset with problems. Ineffective methods such as “Learning Styles” persist. Teaching quality and teacher performance are measured using subjective and potentially biased feedback. University educators have limited access to professional development, particularly for practical teaching skills. There is a huge volume of higher education research, but it is disconnected from educational practice. Change is needed. We propose a pragmatic model of Evidence-Based Higher Education, empowering educators and others to make judgements about the application of the most useful evidence, in a particular context, including pragmatic considerations of cost and other resources. Implications of the model include a need to emphasize pragmatic approaches to research in higher education, delivering results that are more obviously useful, and a pragmatic focus on practical teaching skills for the development of educators in Higher Education.

scholarly journals The Learning Styles Neuromyth Is Still Thriving in Medical Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip M. Newton ◽  
Hannah Farukh Najabat-Lattif ◽  
Gabriella Santiago ◽  
Atharva Salvi
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Sensory Preference

Learning Styles theory promises improved academic performance based on the identification of a personal, sensory preference for informational processing. This promise is not supported by evidence, and is in contrast to our current understanding of the neuroscience of learning. Despite this lack of evidence, prior research shows that that belief in the Learning Styles “neuromyth” remains high amongst educators of all levels, around the world. This perspective article is a follow up on prior research aimed at understanding why belief in the neuromyth of Learning Styles remains so high. We evaluated current research papers from the field of health professions education, to characterize the perspective that an educator would be given, should they search for evidence on Learning Styles. As in earlier research on Higher Education, we found that the use of Learning Style frameworks persist in education research for the health professions; 91% of 112 recent research papers published on Learning Styles are based upon the premise that Learning Styles are a useful approach to education. This is in sharp contrast to the fundamental principle of evidence-based practice within these professions. Thus any educator who sought out the research evidence on Learning Styles would be given a consistent but inaccurate endorsement of the value of a teaching technique that is not evidence based, possibly then propagating the belief in Learning Styles. Here we offer perspectives from both research and student about this apparent mismatch between educational practice and clinical practice, along with recommendations and considerations for the future.

Health for all Children

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Perinatal Period ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Case Identification ◽  
What Works ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Child Health Programme ◽  
Health Programme

This book provides an evidence-based review of the child health programme (CHP) in the UK, for children from pregnancy to the age of 7 years. The book takes account of different government policies and different models of delivery of the CHP in the four UK administrations. It utilizes research from all over the world, but references the evidence to UK policy and practice. The aim is to summarize evidence about ‘why’ and ‘what works’ in health promotion and health surveillance with children and families, and where possible give guidance on ‘how’ to implement and quality assure a programme—but it does not conclude on ‘who’ should provide the service. The review starts in pregnancy, and considers evidence of how environmental exposures and maternal stress during pregnancy affect the developing fetus, and summarizes evidence of effectiveness for interventions during pregnancy and the perinatal period. The growing body of evidence for effectiveness in health promotion and primary prevention is appraised, and recommendations made to support services based on the principle of proportionate universalism. Evidence supporting secondary prevention, screening, and case identification through opportunistic surveillance is reviewed, together with the arguments for delivery of enhanced support to families with extra assessed needs and targeted services for families with specific risk factors. To conclude, evidence-based recommendations are made for the organization and quality assurance of the CHP, and areas highlighted where more research evidence is needed to support practice. Learning links to online training and resources are provided for each chapter.

scholarly journals The role of educational research in transforming educational policy and practice

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Natasa Vujisic-Zivkovic
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Educational Policy And Practice

The paper discusses the role of educational research in transforming educational policy and practice. Our aim was to critically illuminate the possibilities, range and limitation soft he evidence-based concept of education reform. This concept implies an intensive re-examination of the epistemology of educational science, with the emphasis on studying the causal and consequential relations in education. It demands methodological rigour in educational research, culminating in the random sample experiment. It is also perceived that there is the problem of systematic dissemination and application of the obtained scientific findings in educational practice. On the other hand, the critics of this concept have observed that it is neo-positivist, mono-methodological, since it favors quantitative research, and as such insufficient for explaining and understanding educational phenomena and the contexts in which educational innovations are studied. At the same time, during the last decade, there has been another reconsideration of the role of scientific in forming of practitioners in their everyday work, as well as of the relation between research and the development of educational policy. Finally, philosophers of education again insist on the moral instead of on instrumental nature of educational practice. Theoretical analysis of the concept of evidence-based transformation of education has been supplemented by an analysis of social and institutional conditions in which the modern science of education develops.

scholarly journals Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice: Predicting What Will Work Locally

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 1045-1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn E. Joyce ◽  
Nancy Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Randomized Controlled Trials ◽  
Implementation Science ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Improvement Science ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
What Works

This article addresses the gap between what works in research and what works in practice. Currently, research in evidence-based education policy and practice focuses on randomized controlled trials. These can support causal ascriptions (“It worked”) but provide little basis for local effectiveness predictions (“It will work here”), which are what matter for practice. We argue that moving from ascription to prediction by way of causal generalization (“It works”) is unrealistic and urge focusing research efforts directly on how to build local effectiveness predictions. We outline various kinds of information that can improve predictions and encourage using methods better equipped for acquiring that information. We compare our proposal with others advocating a better mix of methods, like implementation science, improvement science, and practice-based evidence.

scholarly journals Early Intervention and Evidence-Based Policy and Practice: Framing and taming

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Edwards ◽  
Val Gillies ◽  
Nicola Horsley
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
What Works ◽  
Evidence Based Policy ◽  
Intervention Policy ◽  
The Way

In this article, we highlight some critical matters in the way that an issue is framed as a problem in policymaking and the consequent means of taming that problem, in focussing on the use and implications of neuroscientific discourse of brain claims in early intervention policy and practice. We draw on three sets of analyses: of the contradictory set of motifs framing the state of ‘evidence’ of what works in intervention in the early years; of the (mis)use of neuroscientific discourse to frame deficient parenting as causing inequalities and support particular policy directions; and of the way that early years practitioners adopt brain claims to tame the problem of deficient parenting. We argue that using expedient brain claims as a framing and taming justification is entrenching gendered and classed understandings and inequalities.

scholarly journals Effective Teaching Strategies and Behaviors of Legal Translation Lecturers in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-340
Author(s):  
Robert Martínez-Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Effective Teaching Strategies ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Quality In Higher Education

Framed within the current accountability policies in higher education, under the strains of global competition and the internationalization of universities worldwide, this article examines effective teaching as a pillar of teaching quality in higher education among legal translation lecturers. By linking certain teaching and learning styles to the different dimensions of effective teaching (instructional, organizational, and emotional), the teaching profile of legal translation lecturers in Spain at undergraduate level is analyzed. In addition, student-centered teaching approaches are connected to the use of classroom strategies and methodological resources that characterize effective teaching. The findings of this study, obtained through the distribution of the tamufq questionnaire (Teaching and Assessment Methodology of University Faculty Questionnaire) among legal translation lecturers at undergraduate level in Spain, suggest that those lecturers who adopt a post-positivist approach in their classroom display a greater variety of teaching behaviors and strategies associated with both effective curriculum implementation and higher quality teaching than those who are closer to traditional, positivist approaches. These findings may be particularly useful in the design and implementation of continuous professional development courses and pedagogical training of lecturers.

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