Evaluations of practice have often adopted experimental or quasi‐experimental approaches and have focused heavily on outcomes of innovative programmes. This creates problems in replicating studies and effectively creates obstacles to the sharing of good practice. In this paper, ideas from Pawson and Tilley's (1997) approach to Realistic Evaluation are used. The approach explores contexts, mechanisms and outcomes of programmes, so that the particular characteristics of a setting are accounted for in drawing conclusions about programme effectiveness. As examples, two earlier studies reported in Support for Learning are reexamined from the perspectives of Realistic Evaluation. It is suggested that Realistic Evaluation might be an appropriate framework to assess innovation in education and may also provide opportunities for researchers and practitioners to work together.

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The Government Standards Fund made resources available to schools in 2000 to help reduce the number of exclusions and, as a result, many schools established inclusion centres with this purpose in mind. In this article Dawn Preece and Paul Ti m m i n s describe literature and research that support the value of these centres and identify features of a support centre that students felt contributed to their inclusion in school. The results of an evaluation canvassing the perceptions of students attending one such centre are presented and discussed.

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