Research can provide valuable information to inform teaching practice. Knowing how to use it in your school or early childhood education and care (ECEC) service can, however, be challenging.
The Australian Education and Research Organisation (AERO) recommends several resources to help education professionals better understand what the research says and how to make decisions about its rigour and relevance. These resources include:
- The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership's (AITSL's) ‘Informing teaching: Navigating and translating education best practice’ Spotlight, which provides an overview of topics to consider when engaging with education research to inform practice. The article covers key considerations related to how robust research is. It explores issues such as reliability, validity, study design, sampling, significance and implementation.
- AERO’s Research Reflection Guide, which provides questions that stimulate reflection on research evidence about a particular policy, program or practice. The questions can help practitioners and policymakers decide whether to implement the approach in their context, and how to do so effectively.
- AERO’s Standards of Evidence, which provides guidance on evaluating the rigour and relevance of research evidence. Practitioners and policymakers can use the Standards of Evidence to determine the strength of existing research evidence on a particular policy, program or practice in their context.
- AERO’s key concepts, which provides definitions for common research terms, including those used in AERO’s publications and resources.
How to use these resources
These resources can be used in a variety of ways as part of ongoing professional learning throughout your career in education.
- New to education research? Begin by reading AITSL's ‘Informing teaching: navigating and translating education best practice’ Spotlight. This spotlight offers an overview of what to consider when interrogating any piece of education research. Also consider reading the research articles recommended in AERO’s Tried and tested guides or using AERO's Research Reflection Guide to help decide whether and how to implement what you have learned.
- Familiar with education research? Try applying AERO’s Standards of Evidence. Start with research articles you have previously read or research articles recommended in AERO’s Tried and tested guides.
- Part of a professional learning community? Start an academic research reading group to deepen your understanding of a particular evidence-based practice. Begin the group by reading AITSL’s ‘Informing teaching: navigating and translating education best practice’ Spotlight, before moving on to research articles recommended by AERO in its Tried and tested guides. The group could also use AERO's Research Reflection Guide as a discussion protocol.
No matter whether you are a confident, research-informed practitioner, or you want to brush up on your research interpretation skills, there are resources available to help you engage with research and enhance your practice.