The best evidence syntheses (BESs) bring together research evidence about ‘what works’ for diverse (all) learners in education. Recent BESs each include a number of cases that describe actual examples of professional practice and then analyse the findings. These cases support educators to grasp the big ideas behind effective practice at the same time as they provide vivid insight into their application.
This case provides educational leaders and policy makers with six criteria for the development of policy and curriculum documents. The criteria are elaborated and supported with examples. If documents incorporate a sound, evidence-based theory about how to achieve their intent, make connections with readers’ prior understandings, include misconception alerts, and are cognisant of memory capacity, then they are more likely to have a positive impact on student outcomes.
This case promotes the use of “smarter” tools to support educational improvement.