Teacher training needs to be reformed to ensure research evidence makes a difference in the classroom, the winner of an international research prize has said.
Larry Hedges, who received the 2018 Yidan Prize for education research, used his acceptance speech to call for increased funding for education research and development.
The American professor, who pioneered the use of meta-analysis in education, told yesterday’s awards ceremony in Hong Kong: “In the 20th century, medical practitioners moved from learning from their own observations based on treating their own patients to reliance on large-scale research evidence derived from scientific medical research.
“I think we can do this in education, too.”
He said one strategy being tried in America was a law that meant some government educational funding could be used only for interventions, products and services whose effectiveness was backed by scientific evidence.
This was similar to restrictions placed on the use of medical products, he explained.
Asked by Tes how to ensure that the findings of academic research were taken up by teachers in their day-to-day work, Professor Hedges acknowledged “it’s a challenge”.
He said: “Ultimately, we need to create a culture of research evidence in education where practitioners understand that they can draw on research evidence to enhance their practice.
“How we get from here to there is a long road, but I can tell you the creation of such a culture of evidence begins with more emphasis on research in the training of teachers and education administrators.”
In his acceptance speech, Professor Hedges said that creating an evidence culture in education would require “significantly expanded” resources, with much of it coming from the private sector.
He added: “It is reasonable to expect companies that profit from selling educational products to invest some of their own resources if the public demands research-based products.”
Professor Hedges continued: “Large pharmaceutical companies routinely spend up to 20 per cent of their revenues on research and development. Technology companies routinely spend 10 per cent, and even major automobile companies invest 4-6 per cent of their revenues in research, and that’s 200 times as much as the US does in education.
“Some might argue that developing automobiles or drugs ranks above education in societal priorities, but if we as citizens of the world believe that the education of our children is a crucial responsibility, we can invest as much in education research and development as the Volkswagen company does.
“That would be about 15 times what we do now. I hope that we will chose do so.”
The Yidan Prize for education, founded by Chinese technology billionaire Charles Chen Yidan to improve the world through education, presents two laureates with awards worth almost $4 million every year.
Professor Hedges won this year’s award for education research, while Anant Agarwal, founder and CEO of the non-profit online learning platform edX, received the award for education development.
