Teacher journal clubs: How do they work and can they increase evidence-based practice?

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an important way of spreading evidence-informed practice (EIP) in schools. But despite widespread calls for more for teachers, most forms of CPD do not work. A review by Yoon et al. (2008) found 20 effect sizes reported from studies capable of identifying causal impacts, eight of which showed an effect on attainment, 12 of which showed no effect. Another review by Blank and Alas (2009), which used statistical techniques to combine 31 findings from different studies, found positive effects from maths CPD but no effect from science CPD. Education Endowment Foundation trials show equally mixed results (Hanley et al, 2016; Worth et al., 2015; McNally et al., 2014). Why is CPD so often ineffective? Most CPD is premised on the idea that informing teachers of research findings, or techniques informed by them, will allow teachers to implement these ideas in the classroom, which will then feed through into improved student attainment (see Figure 1)