Read all about it: what does the research REALLY say?

September 14, 2018

Even if a piece of education research is flawless (which itself is relatively unlikely), experience suggests that it's unlikely to be reported completely accurately, despite journalists' best efforts. Why does this happen?

I gave a presentation on this really, and have included the slides (below). The presentation is a completely updated version of part of a chapter I wrote for a book (referenced in the slides).

I don’t the slides are completely useful on their own, because when I was giving the presentation I talked about other research not shown on the slides, and drew out inferences and provided more examples of the things I was talking about, and more anecdotal evidence than is apparent from the slides.

If you think your conference would benefit from a talk on the subject, then please get in touch. In any event, I hope you find the slides useful.

Read all about it - how research is reported in newspapers, by Terry Freedman from Terry Freedman

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Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.

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I submitted my review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine, an educational magazine in the UK. The first review is what the magazine published. The second one is what I actually wrote! In substantive terms there is little difference between the two, but you may find it interesting to see what the editor altered.

Filming in progress by Terry Freedman.jpg

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