Author Professor Harvey Goldstein, School of Education, University of Bristol
In public discourse it has become common to claim that a programme or policy is “evidence informed”. Indeed, it is often felt sufficient merely to state that a particular decision is “evidence informed”, rather than describing the nature and quality of the underlying evidence.
The move to base public policy decisions on the best scientific evidence is certainly welcome and has been inspired and developed by initiatives such as the Cochrane Review in medicine and the Campbell Review in the social sciences, which rely upon systematic reviews of research. In this brief article I would like to explore the contemporary scene and how evidence is used or misused. (more…)