Is the science of learning really a science? What can teachers and students learn from the research evidence on effective studying and learning? What aspects of cognitive psychology could affect teachers and students in the next ten years?   These are some of the questions Stuart Kime posed to Professors Anne Cleary and Matt Rhodes from Colorado State University when they recorded this podcast early in 2019. Anne and Matt’s new book – A Guide to Effective Studying and Learning: Practical Strategies from the Science of Learning – is published by OUP and is available now.   We discussed their new book, and covered the following topics: Is the science of learning really a science? Does neuroscience have lessons for classroom practice? How is knowing something different to understanding? What is spacing and how does it help learners learn? What research in cognitive psychology should all teachers know about? What developments in cognitive psychology do you think will influence the way teachers teach and students learn in the next ten years? If you were in charge of the education system for the USA and could make any three changes, what would they be? And why? All of our podcasts can be found in our podcast archive, and we have a host of free eBooks, videos and webinars in our Resource Library!

In this episode of the Trialled and Tested podcast, 'Efficacy, evidence and evaluation', Jamie Scott from Evidence Based Education speaks to Eleanor Stringer and Matthew van Poortvliet from the Education Endowment Foundation to find out more about their approach to identifying projects to fund, scaling-up promising projects and running evaluations.   Here’s a full account of the questions put to Eleanor and Matthew: 2:02 - What does the EEF look for when considering which projects to fund? 3:15 - How much initial evidence do you need to get EEF funding for a project? 3:58 - What are the different stages of the EEF evaluation pipeline? And why and how might you scale-up a project from efficacy to effectiveness? 6:45 - Examples of scale-up projects 9:20 - Are EEF evaluation projects typically coming out of academic institutions or schools? 11:19 - Why have some trials been re-trialled? 14:08 - How does the evidence behind the ‘Embedding Formative Assessment’ project differ from other professional development programmes that might not have been trialled? 16:41 - How does the EEF respond to criticism of the approach to project evaluation, especially a perceived preference for randomised controlled trial designs? 21:55 - Some EEF trials have found results that conflict with previously-published findings – does this point to a replication problem in education research? 24:43 - How has the work the EEF has done since its inception improved the scientific endeavour of evaluation? 26:33 - What do you hope is the lasting impact of EEF project evaluations? 28:09 - Why are certain approaches or strategies not included in the EEF toolkit, despite there being strong evidence behind them?   Remember to subscribe to the Trialled and Tested podcast feed, wherever you get your podcasts, as this is the last episode that we'll also share through our EBE feed... Don't miss out!

Over the last year, Evidence Based Education and Suffolk County Council have been working in partnership to deliver a robust, cost-effective and enjoyable Research Support Partnership (RSP) programme to train staff from schools and academies throughout Suffolk. The aim of the programme has been to develop a network of capable Research Leads across the county. The training proved a real success among participants (even those who were sceptical at first!). On the last day of training, I spoke to some of the participants to put together a digestible summary of what a participant or sponsor might expect from an RSP. I wanted to know how it challenges participants and, ultimately, how it equips Research Leads to make better decisions with better information. Listen below to the short conversations with four members of the group. For more about the Research Support Partnership, check out this webpage and contact us with your enquiry, or watch this video featuring our RSP work at Mulgrave School, Vancouver.

What does the evidence on learning, memory and aging tell us about how to keep our minds sharp and active as we grow older? How can physical activity improve cognitive function? Do we decline as we age, or simply change? In the latest episode of The Evidence Based Education podcast, UCLA Psychology Professor Alan Castel talks to our Director of Education Stuart Kime about his new book, Better with Age, and offers practical tips for staying mentally sharp as the years pass. We cover a wide range of fascinating and highly relevant topics, including metacognition, memory, cognitive load and teaching, and Alan offers deep insight from his years of research into this important subject. Alan Castel's book is available from all good booksellers, and can be very conveniently found on Book Depository here. [Ed.: No aspersion cast... no implication that Book Depository is not, indeed, a very fine bookseller!]

We’ve teamed up with the Education Endowment Foundation to bring you a new podcast – Trialled and Tested! This first episode is on metacognition and self-regulated learning. We'll post this inaugural episode on the EBE podcast too, but to make sure you have access to future episodes, do search for Trialled and Tested in iTunes, Spotify or Google Store and make sure you subscribe there. In this first episode, and in future episodes, we’re going to explore a specific piece of information or guidance within the EEF suite of resources and try to bring that to life through discussion with others. In addition, we’ll be providing brief updates from the network of Research Schools around England, to find out what they’re doing to support the use of evidence to improve teaching practice. In this first episode, EBE’s own Jamie Scott talks to Alex Quigley and Megan Dixon to ask what is metacognition and self-regulation and how can approaches be implemented in the classroom? In addition we hear from Caroline Creaby and Roger Higgins from Sandringham and Norwich Research Schools. Alex Quigley: Start to 26:55 Megan Dixon: 26:55 to 37:52 Caroline Creaby and Roger Higgins: 37:52 to end If you enjoy this podcast you might also like this podcast where EBE Director of Education Stuart Kime talks to Robert and Elizabeth Bjork about their work on desirable difficulties

On Saturday 30th June, the International School of Geneva Institute of Learning and Teaching hosted the inaugural Research Informed Practice In Education (RIPE) conference in Geneva.  EBE Directors, Stuart and Jack, were in attendance as part of the organising committee and to present their session – The Elephant In The Room – which you can listen to via the player on this page or download to your device. In The Elephant in the Room session they suggest that the success and failure of increases and refinements in evidence-based practices in education systems depends, to a large extent, on improvements in the understanding and practice of effective implementation. They discuss the importance of implementation when adopting and enacting research-based interventions and professional development. In the presentation they draw upon examples from behavioural Science, the theoretical framework for implementation developed by the Education Endowment Foundation and examples from the development and delivery of the Assessment Lead Programme. The slides are downloadable here, which you can reference as you listen to the 15 minute presentation via the player below or as a podcast on iTunes and Android.   All of our podcasts can be found in our podcast archive, and we have a host of free eBooks, videos and webinars in our Resource Library!

The Festival of Education is so jam-packed with amazing speakers and topics that you just can’t fit them all in. If you’ve been before, you’ll know that deciding which sessions to attend is agonising. Worse still is not being able to attend at all! So, this festival, we’re teaming up with the organisers to offer a free Festival podcast so that you can hear from more Festival speakers and what they’ll be talking about – whether you’re lucky enough to be there or not. And, in true Festival fashion, there is music to enjoy too! Check out the Festival of Education Day 2 podcast which features Nick Rose, Karen Goldberg, Holly Joseph, Jonathon Haslam, Tom Rees, Daisy Christodoulou and the Foo Fighters. All of our podcasts can be found in our podcast archive, and we have a host of free eBooks, videos and webinars in our Resource Library!

The Festival of Education is so jam-packed with amazing speakers and topics that you just can’t fit them all in. If you’ve been before, you’ll know that deciding which sessions to attend is agonising. Worse still is not being able to attend at all! So, this festival, we’re teaming up with the organisers to offer a free Festival podcast so that you can hear from more Festival speakers and what they’ll be talking about – whether you’re lucky enough to be there or not. And, in true Festival fashion, there is music to enjoy too! Check out the Day 1 podcast which features Susie Dent, Rob Coe, Iesha Small, Craig Barton, Claire Hill, Rebecca Foster, David Weston, Nasima Riazat, Lily Eastwood, Kyle Bailey, Harry Fletcher-Wood and Alex Quigley.   All of our podcasts can be found in our podcast archive, and we have a host of free eBooks, videos and webinars in our Resource Library!

For the second in this series of short podcasts, I spoke to Professor Peter Tymms of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University. He told me about four major research pieces he has done, the outcomes, and the advice he would give to teaching staff, based upon what he learned though that research. If you would like to read more about Peter’s research, or to contact him, click here and use the contact form on his page. To access Professor Merrell’s guidance document, click here. Peter also talks about Nancy Falchikov; her 2000 study is available as a PDF here. Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon, also mentioned, has some of her publications archived by CEM here.

Many people who are well known for their work in education have such interesting backgrounds and stories to tell, although many of us don’t get to hear them. The aim of this podcast series is to learn a bit more about these people. We sit down for a chat to find out a bit more about them – what was their experience of school? How did they come to work in education? What they’re currently working on etc. And in every episode we ask for three favourite pieces of music. Whatever we discuss, every podcast episode ends with the same question: If you were in charge of the education system for a day, what one policy or structural change would you make?   Professor Rob Coe is a former Teacher, and is now Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring and Professor of Education at Durham University. We work very closely with Rob and his team at Durham University, and while he is fairly well-known in education circles, it's fair to say that he's not someone people know much about. In this interview, we chat about his time at school, rowing at Oxford, having Dylan Wiliam and Guy Claxton as PGCE tutors, free schools (but not as we know them now), the birth of the EEF toolkit and more! As it's a long old episode, we've divided it into three parts for you, to be released on 16th, 17th and 18th March. In Friday's first part, we covered school, sport and wanting to be Bertrand Russell. In yesterday's section, you can learn more about Rob's university and rowing career, as well as his PGCE and step into teaching. And today, in the final part, we discuss how far we’ve come since his Manifesto for Evidence-Based Education (the philosophy rather than us!), establishment of the EEF, the birth of ‘the toolkit’, current research and his answer to the big question... If you haven’t already, do check out the previous episodes of Knowing Me Knowing Ed-U with Daisy Christodoulou, Alison Peacock, Geoff Barton and Sugata Mitra. Do you have suggestions for future guests of Knowing Me Knowing Ed-U? Who would you like to hear from? Let us know at info@evidencebased.education.