Professor Roel J. Bosker,
University of Groningen,
The Netherlands

From educational effectiveness to evidence based education

The study of effective schools and effective teachers once started as a quest for improving education for students living in challenging circumstances. These students are, more than other students, highly dependent on high quality education. The facts and figures underpinning this observation will be presented during the lecture. The research on this issue has gradually shifted from correlational studies to the golden standard design of cluster randomized controlled trials. The reasons for this shift is that both scientist and practitioners want to be sure about causality claims in pursuing the idea of evidence based education. Although it is often times argued that true experiments in education are hardly feasible, a series of examples such as studies on vocabulary development with digital reading books, on anti-bullying programmes, on school wide programs such as Success for All will be presented that will illustrate the opposite.