Research, translated for the classroom.

Short, evidence-honest briefings on what the latest education research really means for teaching. Free to download and share.

Oracy and historical thinking in Year 7

Early signal

Oracy and historical thinking in Year 7

In one trainee teacher's Year 7 class of 31, a structured debate pulled all but five learners into speaking aloud and the class changed its collective vote on the motion, after she gave them personas, named roles and paired rehearsal. A hopeful signal about oracy and historical thinking, not a measured trial.

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Retrieval practice and the maths achievement gap

Developing

Retrieval practice and the maths achievement gap

In two 13-week university maths courses, adding a short, unaided recall test at the end of every lesson was followed by the usual link between learners' starting knowledge and their results months later disappearing, while matched classes without the test kept that link firmly in place.

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Scaffolding professional vision in trainee teachers

Developing

Scaffolding professional vision in trainee teachers

A controlled study of 104 trainee teachers found that being given video models and prompts while they practised classroom "noticing" raised their motivation, but made no reliable difference to how mentally loaded the task felt. Only specific habits, taking notes and using prompts to manage the process, actually eased that load.

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Online paired reading and fourth-grade readers

Early signal

Online paired reading and fourth-grade readers

A signal about digital delivery, not proven superiority: over one term, 22 fourth-graders paired stronger and weaker readers together for 36 lesson hours of online paired-reading practice, and researchers reported improved reading fluency, comprehension and reading self-concept afterwards, but with no comparison class, an ordinary term's progress cannot be ruled out.

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Game-based learning and reading catch-up in Grade 3

Early signal

Game-based learning and reading catch-up in Grade 3

A signal about local games and struggling readers, not a tested method: after eight weeks of community-game reading lessons run by their own class teacher, all 36 learners in one Philippine Grade 3 class moved from below the pass mark to a class average of 'satisfactory' on a validated reading test, but there was no comparison class, so an ordinary term's progress cannot be ruled out.

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How primary teachers describe formative assessment

Early signal

How primary teachers describe formative assessment

A signal about belief and habit, not a tested method: in one Australian survey, 141 primary teachers described formative assessment in positive terms, occurring in both formal and informal, and both planned and unplanned forms, and the study's own authors call for strengthening more deliberate practice.

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Dialogic talk in the genre writing cycle

Early signal

Dialogic talk in the genre writing cycle

A signal about where talk shifts from teacher-led to learner-led, not proof it improves writing: interviewed about a national genre-writing programme, teachers of Years 5 and 6 described talk moving from teacher-led discussion of a shared text towards learner-led paired and group talk while jointly writing a new one, several linking this shift to EAL learners contributing more, but this is 26 teachers' own interview accounts, not classroom observation or a measure of children's writing.

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Building a slide up versus showing it all at once

Early signal

Building a slide up versus showing it all at once

A single experiment found that revealing a slide's images piece by piece, in time with the narration, helped Japanese university learners learn more and look at the relevant image sooner and longer than learners who saw the whole slide from the start, but it is one small study with adult learners, not yet tested in school classrooms.

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AI and the age gap in formative assessment

Early signal

AI and the age gap in formative assessment

A survey of 60 Kazakhstani English teachers found younger teachers reporting far higher use of every formative-assessment practice, including digital and AI tools, than colleagues aged 46 and over; the researchers argue AI could help close that gap, but they never tested whether it actually does.

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An AI-drafted study-skills curriculum

Early signal

An AI-drafted study-skills curriculum

A feasibility signal, not evidence of impact: when one US medical school sent 120 new medical learners an eight-week AI-drafted study-skills programme by email, PDF and podcast, two-thirds completed the follow-up survey and those who engaged more also rated it more useful, but engagement and perceived benefit were both self-reported on the same survey, with no comparison group and no measure of any actual change in study habits or grades.

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Wait time and the quality of classroom talk

Developing

Wait time and the quality of classroom talk

Not a new technique, a pause: when teachers hold silence after a question, and especially after a learner's first answer, for about three seconds rather than one, answers get longer, better reasoned and more widely shared. The pattern has held up for forty years across many classrooms, but the evidence behind it is older and softer than the size of the claim suggests.

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