What does Good Education Research Look Like?
By Lyn Yates
Open University Press pound;17.99

In the 1996 Teacher Training Agency annual lecture, Professor David Hargreaves reopened an important debate. Medicine is considered an evidence-based profession (though it may be less firmly anchored in research findings than many people believe), in that general practitioners and hospital consultants base much of their practice on such scientific evidence as exists.

But what about teaching? To what extent do teachers craft their classroom practices on what has been discovered by systematic enquiry?

Evidence-based Practice in Education is a collection of 14 essays that explores this fascinating topic. The writers are mainly academics, though some are from departments of government. The book is divided into three parts: what evidence-based practice is thought to be; what happens in fields such as medicine and education; and key questions about the whole issue.

Ted Wragg is emeritus professor in the school of education, Exeter Universitynbsp;nbsp;nbsp;

Read Ted’s reviews in full innbsp;this week’s TES Friday magazine