Resources by Institute for Effective Education

Effective programmes for primary science

Published in 2012, this review focused on examining which  science programmes had been proven to help primary school students to succeed.  To find out, the University of York’s Institute for Effective Education, Johns Hopkins University and Durham University completed a research review on the topic. The review...

Effects of a summer maths programme on algebra readiness

In 2015 WestEd released a study examining the effects of the Elevate Math summer mathematics programme on seventh-grade (Year 8) students’ algebra readiness, general mathematics achievement, and perceptions of mathematics. Elevate Math is a four-week programme that pupils attend for 19 days in the summer...

Fractions face-off reviewed

In 2015 the What Works Clearinghouse released a review confirming the findings of a study of the Fractions Face-Off! Programme. The review found that students who were severely at risk for low mathematics achievement made significant gains using two versions of Fractions Face-Off! as compared to a set of...

How much homework is too much?

Published in 2015, a recent study of 7,451 teenagers in Spain examined the correlation between time spent on homework and academic achievement in mathematics and science. Results showed that homework done by the student independently for 60-70 minutes a day yielded the best results. The students had a mean age of...

Impact of a CPD course for science teachers

Published in 2012, by the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences,  this paper detailed how researchers examined...

In-person verses online collaboration in science

In an article published in 2014 in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, researchers studied whether online collaborative learning was more effective than in-person collaborative learning in middle school science classes in relation to students’ understanding of science concepts.

In the study...

More time needed for multiplicative reasoning trial

In 2015, the Department for Education published a new report describing a randomised controlled trial of a pilot of the Multiplicative Reasoning Project (MRP). MRP focuses on developing teachers' understanding and capacity to teach topics that involve multiplicative reasoning to Key Stage 3 (KS3) students. The...

Neuromyths in education

A study published in 2012 showed that possessing greater general knowledge about the brain does not appear to protect teachers from believing in “neuromyths” – misconceptions about neuroscience research in education. A study in Frontiers in Psychology found that teachers who are interested in the application of...

Positive start for science teaching intervention

An article published in 2014 in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching describes the first-year results from a new curricular and professional development intervention. The project was created as a collaboration between a US university and a large urban school district to implement a new fifth grade (...

Preschool fade out

Published in 2015, a working paper from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia investigated the persistence of effects of early childhood interventions and asked whether these effects fade systematically. The study found that “by the end of kindergarten [Year 1] children who attended preschool...