This paper describes the context, processes and issues experienced over 5 years in which a RCT was carried out to evaluate a programme for children aged 7-8 who were struggling with their reading. Its specific aim is to illuminate questions about the design of complex teaching approaches and their evaluation using an RCT. This covers the early…

The significance of a process evaluation for understanding randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of complex teaching interventions in a classroom setting is discussed in relation to the evaluation of the Integrated Group Reading (IGR) programme trial. This process evaluation is based on realist principles and draws on different data sources. The…

To plan cluster-randomized trials with sufficient statistical power to detect intervention effects on student achievement, researchers need multilevel design parameters, including measures of between-classroom and between-school differences and the amounts of variance explained by covariates at the student, classroom, and school level. Previous…

Current educational discourse holds that effective pedagogy requires engagement through active student participation with subject matter relating to them. The lack of testing of lessons in series is recognized as a potential weakness in the evidence base, not least because standard parallel designs cannot capture serial interaction effects (cf.…

This report presents findings from exploratory, descriptive meta-analyses of effect sizes reported by the first 82 EEF evaluations that used a randomised controlled trial (RCT) or clustered RCT impact evaluation design published up to January 2019. The review used a theoretical framework derived from literature with five overarching themes to…

This document summarises key findings from the quantitative strands of a review of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) evaluations that had reported from the establishment of EEF in 2011 up to January 2019. The quantitative strands summarised include meta-analyses of effect sizes reported for attainment outcomes and descriptive analyses of…

This document provides supplementary statistical tables to support the review of Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) evaluations. This includes: (1) Descriptive (univariate) tables for all explanatory variables; (2) Tables for the meta-analyses of primary ITT effect sizes; (3) Tables for the meta-analyses of secondary ITT effect sizes; (4) Tables…

RAND Europe evaluated the implementation of a technology-based intervention that made use of the Microsoft Immersive Reader (IR) in UK classrooms for eight- and nine-year-old pupils. This is the first evaluation of this intervention that uses a randomised control trial (RCT) design, following promising findings related to the use of IR from a…

Teacher professional development and in-class mentors were used to support structured inquiry with math manipulatives. Twenty-four primary schools (n = 6,628 students) were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups as an experimental field trial to examine the effectiveness of this instructional approach in a scaled-up application in…

Almost 20% of English pupils still experience difficulties with reading despite the use of a predominantly phonics-based approach that works well for most children, but not for all; therefore, other approaches need to be explored. The Integrated Group Reading (IGR) programme involves an inclusive approach to targeted teaching led by class teachers…

Although children with developmental language disorder demonstrate poor inferential comprehension, few studies have evaluated the effect of interventions to improve inferencing. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a small-group intervention designed to improve oral inferential comprehension of narrative discourse. Thirty-seven 5- to…

Peer acceptance is an important facilitator for the success of inclusive education. The aim of the current study is twofold: (1) to examine how classroom goal orientation is associated with children's acceptance of peers with learning difficulties; and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of a storytelling programme with drama techniques on…

Background: The Scandinavian countries have a long history of implementing social interventions, but the interventions have not been examined using randomised controlled trials until relatively recently compared with countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of randomised…

In this digital era, a fundamental challenge is to design digital reading materials in such a way that they improve children's reading skills. Since reading books is challenging for many fifth graders--particularly for those genetically susceptible to attention problems--the researchers hypothesized that guidance from a digital Pedagogical Agent…

Efficacy of games as learning medium is of interest to researchers and the gaming industry. A critical metric for learning is knowledge retention and very few studies have conducted in-depth comparisons of: a) game versus no-game learning, b) collaborative versus individual learning. Towards this, the study reported in this article will present…