The methodological limitations education researchers face in the evaluation of reformed instruction have led to debates as to the evidence advancing evidence-based practices. To conduct more effective research, methodological pluralism in the evaluation of educational reforms can be used to complement the strengths and limitations of a corpus of…

Over a decade ago, Borko (2004) raised the awareness of the education research community to the critical need for studies of teacher professional development (PD) programs. She states on page 13: "My challenge to the educational research community is this: We have much work to do and many questions to answer in order to provide high-quality…

Increasing faculty use of active-learning (AL) pedagogies in college classrooms is a persistent challenge in biology education. A large research-intensive university implemented changes to its biology majors' two-course introductory sequence as outlined by the "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education" final report. One goal…

Previous research has linked inquiry-based science instruction (i.e., science instruction that engages students in doing science rather than just learning about science) with greater gains in student learning than text-book based methods (Vanosdall, Klentschy, Hedges & Weisbaum, 2007; Banilower, 2007; Ferguson 2009; Bredderman, 1983;…

Pearson Education contracted with Empirical Education Inc. to conduct five randomized experiments to determine the effectiveness of its "Scott Foresman Science" ("SFScience") curriculum and associated materials. This report addresses the experiment in Federal Way Public Schools in Washington State. The primary purpose of this…

This publication provides advice for schools exploring the possibility of introducing Triple Science GCSEs. It focuses on strategies for raising attainment generally but within the context of Triple Science. The document is split into six sections: The introduction, titled "Preparing to Implement Triple Science Courses," introduces some…