Understanding the Quality Use of Research Evidence in Education: What It Means to Use Research Well

This book focuses on the question of how to understand quality use of research evidence in education, or what it means to use research evidence well.

Internationally there are widespread efforts to increase the use of research evidence within educational policy and practice. Such efforts raise important questions about how we understand not just the quality of evidence, but also the quality of its use. To date, there has been wide-ranging debate about the former, but very little dialogue about the latter. Based on a five-year study with schools and school systems in Australia, this book sheds new light on:

• why clarity about quality of use is critical to educational improvement;
• how quality use of research evidence can be framed in education;
• what using research well involves and looks like in practice;
• what quality research use means for individuals, organisations and systems; and
• what aspects of using research well still need to be better understood.

This book will be an invaluable resource for professionals within and beyond education who want to better understand what using research evidence well means and involves and how it can be supported.

Mark Rickinson is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Australia. He currently leads the Monash Q Project, a five-year partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation to improve the use of research in Australian schools.

Lucas Walsh is a Professor of Education Policy and Practice, Youth Studies, in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. He is currently a Chief Investigator on the Monash Q Project and Director of the Monash Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice.

Joanne Gleeson is a Senior Research Fellow with the Monash Q Project in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research is focused on educational evidence use and improving adolescents’ career identity, employability and education-work transitions.

Blake Cutler is a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant with the Monash Q Project in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Their doctoral study explores how educators’ social justice efforts to support queer young people are shaped and influenced by research use.

Connie Cirkony is a Lecturer in Science Education at the University of Tasmania and was a Research Fellow with the Monash Q Project. Her research is focused on science, STEM and sustainability education as well as evidence-informed policy and practice.

Mandy Salisbury is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and was a Research Assistant with the Monash Q Project. Her doctoral study is focused on Early Childhood educators’ use of evidence.