Reassessing RCTs as the ‘gold standard’: synergy not separatism in evaluation designs

Hanley, Pam; Chambers, Bette; Haslam, Jonathan

doi:10.1080/1743727x.2016.1138457

Cited by 30 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…These findings generally highlight how important it is that we understand the most effective ways of supporting linguistically diverse pupils' emergent literacy skills in ECEC settings. Intervention studies are considered by many to be among some of the most powerful ways of identifying 'what works' in supporting key aspects of children's development (Connolly 2009;Hanley, Chambers & Haslam 2016). It is precisely because such studies enable the researcher to examine causal relationships between what the practitioner is doing in the classroom context and key outcomes that we have adopted the approach hereafter reported in this document.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective intervention to support oral language skills in English as an additional language in the early years

Murphy

Karemaker

Sylva

et al. 2019

TEANGA

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Increasingly, children enter Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings with English as an additional language (EAL) and for many of these linguistically diverse children, their knowledge and skills in the English language is less-well developed than native-speaking (NS) peers. Much research over the past few decades has indicated how important early language and emergent literacy development is within ECEC settings, as children’s skills in these domains underpins later literacy development and academic achievement. Furthermore, many children from linguistically diverse backgrounds tend to have less well-developed vocabulary knowledge and struggle with aspects of literacy later on. In this paper we present the findings of a Professional Development (PD) intervention study aimed at helping teachers to develop and implement effective strategies that support oral language skills in both EAL and NS pupils. We discuss these findings in relation to two other oral language interventions where the focus was on working directly with pupils. We argue that whereas evidence suggests interventions working directly with pupils can be more effective on improved child language outcomes, we need to focus more energy on developing good PD for Early Years Practitioners to support them in their critical roles in children’s educational development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective intervention to support oral language skills in English as an additional language in the early years

Murphy

Karemaker

Sylva

et al. 2019

TEANGA

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“…Hanley, Cambers, and Haslam (2016), for instance, provide a very good 'short history of evidence-based education'. Spybrook, Shi, and Kelcey (2016, 255), in their introduction also refer to the first conference entitled 'Randomised Controlled Trials in the Social Sciences' held at the University of York in 2006 which has since become an annual event that 'brings in high-profile education researchers from various countries to discuss challenges and strategies for conducting high-quality RCTs in education'.…”

Section: Motivation For the Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This issue also covers a range of methodological approaches, including systematic reviews and meta-analysis (Green et al 2016;Higgins and Katsipataki 2016), advancements of methods for dealing with the complexity involved in interventions by either improved models (Schweig and Pane 2016;Spybrook, Shi, and Kelcey 2016) and/or integrated approaches (Hanley, Cambers, and Haslam 2016;Peterson 2016).…”

Section: Getting These Together and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measuring and comparing only 'hard learning outcomes' may also be misleading. Therefore, Hanley, Cambers, and Haslam (2016) argue against privileging particular paradigms in designing effective evaluations: 'Perhaps it is time for the bluntness of the 'what works?' agenda to evolve into one that also establishes who it works for, through what means, and in what circumstances' (296).…”

Section: Contributions For Partmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The topics covered ranged from language teaching (Anwaruddin 2016), health profession education (Green et al 2016), science and maths teaching (Hanley, Cambers, and Haslam 2016) and voluntary summer learning programmes (Schweig and Pane 2016).…”

Section: Getting These Together and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Is the educational ‘what works’ agenda working? Critical methodological developments

Pampaka

Williams

Homer

2016

International Journal of Research & Method in Education

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Evaluation of Bug Club: a randomised control trial of a whole school primary aged reading programme

Carroll¹,

Hurry²,

Grima

et al. 2020

The Curriculum Journal

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Literacy levels for children leaving primary school, internationally, remain a cause for concern. There is a limited evidence base for whole school reading programmes and resources in the first two years of primary school compared to studies of interventions for children with reading difficulties. This study used a longitudinal randomised control trial (RCT) design to evaluate the efficacy of Bug Club; a whole school reading programme. Data from1273 pupils in Years 1 and 2 from 30 schools in the United Kingdom were analysed. A new cohort of 1425 Year 1 pupils was recruited in the second year. Over two terms, the experimental group made 1.75 more standardised points progress in reading compared to the control group, a small but significant effect. A replication study in the second year did not elicit the same significant gains. Over five terms, experimental pupils were 11 months ahead on age equivalent reading scores, relative to their chronological age. This study is the first of its type to evaluate the efficacy of a whole school reading programme in the United Kingdom. The findings contribute to an emerging understanding of what pupil progress might be expected as a result of a whole school reading programme.

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Reassessing RCTs as the ‘gold standard’: synergy not separatism in evaluation designs

Cited by 30 publications

References 28 publications

Effective intervention to support oral language skills in English as an additional language in the early years

Effective intervention to support oral language skills in English as an additional language in the early years

Is the educational ‘what works’ agenda working? Critical methodological developments

Evaluation of Bug Club: a randomised control trial of a whole school primary aged reading programme

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