“the next phase must focus on improving classroom practice”
Of course, education policy, governance, and funding matters. But policy can only create the conditions for success. Ultimately, student learning depends on what teachers know and are able to do. That’s the animating idea behind “The Practice Project.”
Each paper in the series translates evidence from cognitive science, education research, and the accumulated wisdom of accomplished educators, thinkers, and writers into practical guidance for teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders. Rather than prescribing new policies, adjudicating arguments, or promoting educational fashions, the papers in this initiative focus on the craft of teaching itself.
Significantly, this series is a joint effort of AEI and researchED, a UK-based outfit that is well-known overseas but remains something of a cult item here in the US. It’s an international community of teachers, researchers, and school leaders committed to improving evidence-based classroom practice through research and the dissemination of professional knowledge. I’ve been a fan since attending my first researchED conference in Philadelphia in 2018. In the years since, I’ve presented at their conferences in England, Canada, and Chile. I’ve been to several others not as a speaker but simply as an attendee.
Indeed, many of the contributors to this series are people I’ve met through the researchED community. I’ve seen them teach, discussed their work at the pub afterward, and watched teachers pack their sessions because they had something genuinely useful to say. The goal of “The Practice Project” is to make that expertise available to educators who may never have the opportunity to attend a researchED conference in person.
