A £9.8 million project has been launched to gather global evidence on the most effective teaching methods to help disadvantaged children.

The five-year project will bring together education systems and teachers from different countries to share knowledge about the best ways to tackle common challenges and boost attainment.

This could include how to teach reading, or how to engage parents in their children’s learning.

The project has been announced by the Education Endowment Foundation and the BHP Billiton Foundation - a charity funded by mining company BHP Billiton.

It will cover four areas:

• Developing the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit
• Testing different teaching and learning approaches across different countries. A new global trials fund is aimed at accelerating the discovery of new evidence that is relevant both globally and to English schools
• Building a global network of evidence hubs, similar to EEF’s Research Schools
• Establishing EEF-style organisations in partner countries to act as evidence brokers and encourage the adoption of evidence-based policy at a national level.

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the EEF, said: “We know that every day, teachers worldwide are striving to improve the learning outcomes of their students.

“But they cannot do it alone. Some of the challenges teachers face are unique, but schools face many common challenges too.

“With the BHP Billiton Foundation’s support, we’ll be able to give teachers and schools across the world access to reliable information and the support they need to make the best decisions about what’s most likely to transform their students’ life chances.”

The EEF has already been working with global organisations. For example, in 2014 it began working with school systems in Australia to develop an Australian version of the Teaching & Learning Toolkit.

In February 2017, a Scottish version of the Toolkit was developed to strengthen the use of evidence underpinning the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

The toolkit has also been translated into Spanish and Portuguese for Latin American and Caribbean teachers.

Karen Wood, chairman of the BHP Billiton Foundation, said: “Enabling teachers to make evidence-based decisions which improve learning in their classrooms is at the core of this important partnership.”