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…

Low- and middle-income countries have made significant progress getting children into school, but student learning and achievement are often dreadfully low (Berry, Barnett, & Hinton, 2015; Pritchett, 2013). Approximately 250 million children across the world are not acquiring basic reading and math skills, even though about half have spent at…

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of formative assessment on prospective teachers' academic achievement, attitudes towards educational measurement and self-regulation skills. In the study, quasi-experimental design including non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group. There are 40 prospective teachers in each one of the…

The "'Literacy Octopus' Dissemination Trial" aimed to test the impact on pupil outcomes of disseminating research summaries and evidence-based resources to schools. The materials aimed to support teaching and learning of Key Stage 2 literacy and were created by leading organisations with experience of engaging schools in evidence use.…

Background: Educational interventions are often complex, and their outcomes could be due to factors not focused on in the impact evaluation. Therefore, educational evaluations using a randomised control trial (RCT) design approach need to go beyond obtaining the impact results alone. Purpose: Process evaluation is embedded in the evaluation design…

In this paper we present a mobile application for self-assessment. The work describes the main features of the application and focuses on its acceptance by students and the increase on their learning, through its usage in real testing settings. The application supports the retrieval of questions based on a number of criteria and it was evaluated…

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are increasingly used to evaluate educational interventions in the UK. However, RCTs remain controversial for some elements of the research community. This paper argues that the widespread use of the term "gold standard" to describe RCTs is problematic, as it implies that other research methods are…

Powerful Learning Conversations (PLC) sought to improve the feedback that teachers give to pupils in Year 9, by training them to apply techniques used in sports coaching. It is based on the idea that feedback in sports coaching is often provided immediately after a task is performed, and delivered in a way that children are more likely to respond…

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship of formative tests to early learning ability of students in the science learning style. This research used an experimental method with a 2 x 2 factorial design. The participants comprised all the students in class VII of the Islamic Junior High School State of Kolaka, a total of 343…

This paper describes a randomised controlled trial conducted with 10 secondary schools in England to evaluate the impact and feasibility of Fresh Start as an intervention to help new entrants with low prior literacy. Fresh Start is a synthetic phonics programme for small groups of pupils, here implemented three times per week over 22 weeks. The…

One of the objectives of this paper is to investigate the pedagogical impact of both the mobile testing system PeLe (Norway, HiST) and the enquiry-based learning approach on language skills development in the context of mobile-assisted learning. The research aims to work out a methodological framework of PeLe implementation into the language…

The Evidence-based Literacy Support-"Literacy Octopus" Trial tested a range of dissemination interventions and resources, all of which aimed to engage schools in using evidence-based materials to improve teaching and learning in Key Stage 2 literacy. Four delivery partners provided interventions. These included light-touch,…

This report evaluates a developmental project designed by School 21 and the University of Cambridge to improve Year 7 students' oracy skills. The project involved developing an Oracy Skills Framework, which sets out the physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional oracy skills required by students for education and life. Other components…

Quest is a whole-year group approach to teaching English in Key Stage 3. Pupils are grouped according to their current level of reading comprehension, typically with smaller classes for the lowest attaining groups. Key components of the programme include: an emphasis on collaborative (or 'co-operative') learning; a requirement that participating…