Daniel Muijs argues that being evidence-informed is important for improving education and promoting social justice. While research has found effective teaching practices and what makes effective schools, the evidence base differs across areas and must be applied appropriately to local contexts. Ofsted aims to make its inspection process more evidence-informed by conducting research on key areas like lesson observations, educational effectiveness, and curriculum design to help develop valid criteria and measures. The ultimate goal is for both schools and the education system as a whole, including inspection processes, to be more informed by rigorous research.

1. An evidence-informed system – an
evidence-informed inspectorate
Daniel Muijs
Head of Research, Ofsted
@ProfDanielMuijs
An evidence-informed system - Research Schools Network national conference - July 18 Slide 1

2. Being evidence informed is a moral duty
 Some things work better than others
 We have evidence on what works
 Using this evidence is a social justice issue
 But:
 we don’t know everything
 evidence needs to be translated into school and classroom contexts
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3. Do we have evidence on what works?
 We do!
 A lot of evidence on effective teaching
 Robust findings in a number of key areas
 Significant evidence on effective schools
 But:
 We don’t know everything – evidence base differs among areas
 Evidence needs to be translated into school and classroom contexts
 Evidence may be contextual: ‘what works where, under what
circumstances’ (Dylan William)
 But again, some things work under most circumstances, some under
few
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4. The education landscape
 Positive steps…
 Research schools
 Research leads
 Bloggers
 Edutwitter
 Conferences
 Investment in rigorous research
 Mediating organisations (e.g. TDT, EEF, CCT)…
 …and publications
An evidence-informed system - Research Schools Network national conference - July 18 Slide 4

5. The education landscape
 But still a way to go…
 Fads
 Naïve understanding of research
 Not using what we know
 Anti-empiricism
 Investment not systematic
 Mixed engagement
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6. What more can we do?
 Invest further in intermediation
 Ensure that research is baked-in to the profession (time!)
 Support!
 Collaborate!
 Advocate!
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7. Evidence-informed inspection
 Not just teachers, but the system as a whole needs to be
research-informed
 E.g. ITE, policy and of course inspection
 Evidence-informed inspection at Ofsted
 Evaluating what we do
 Research to inform our activities
 An intelligent inspectorate:
 Valid measures
 Aggregation of insights
 A skilled workforce
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8. Evidence-informed inspection
 Valid measures:
 Conducting research into lesson observation, what happens on
inspection, evaluation programme
 Aggregation of insights
 Providing a bird’s eye view of education and social care
 A skilled workforce
 Working with the inspectorate in all our project
 We have a large-scale research and evaluation programme
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9. The research programme
 Two-year programme (18-19) agreed with our executive board
 Around 20 research and evaluation projects
 Cross-remit
 Linked to strategic priorities, e.g. curriculum, education
inspection framework 2019
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10. Our approach to research
 No one method – mix of qualitative and quantitative
approaches depending on project needs
 Co-construction with inspectors throughout the projects
 Each project co-led by a research lead and an HMI lead
 HMIs collaborate on instrument development, lead on visits, and
provide key insight
 Work collaboratively with researchers
An evidence-informed system - Research Schools Network national conference - July 18 Slide 10

11. Research and inspection
 Informing the new inspection framework: some examples
 Educational effectiveness
 Curriculum
 Observation
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12. Educational effectiveness
 We conducted a review of educational effectiveness research
 Evidence reviewed on
 Teaching
 Leadership
 Other school-level factors (e.g. behaviour, culture)
 Strength of evidence in different remits
 Informing development of criteria
 Shadowing of inspections
 This will feed into review of criteria
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13. Observation
 International seminar held looking at six international models
 What can Ofsted learn from international best practice in the use of
lesson observation for the evaluation and improvement of teaching
quality?
 What changes should Ofsted consider in revising its inspection
framework?
 Findings suggest that we need to look at our practice, but not
follow international models
 Support for school- rather than classroom-level approach
 Models to be developed and tested in Autumn
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14. Curriculum
 Large-scale research programme on curriculum
 Three phases to date
 Phase 1: 40 schools visited in the summer term 2017
 Key findings:
 schools often lacked knowledge and expertise in curriculum design
 no common language around curriculum
 curriculum narrowing
 teaching to the test
 curriculum access not always for all
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15. Primary and secondary curriculum
 Phase 2 – 23 schools visited, selected on the basis that they
were particularly invested in curriculum development
 How do curriculum leaders perceive knowledge within their
curriculum? Is there a common curriculum language shared by
leaders?
 HMI and researchers carried out a two-hour discussion forum
with curriculum experts at each school. Numbers participating
varied between two members of staff to 10 experts
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16. Final words
 We have a moral duty to be evidence informed, as a profession
and as a system.
 Research-informed means exactly that: informing, not
determining! This is true for inspection as well as schools.
 As a system, we need to invest in research, learning from the
best of what exists, and building on that.
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17. Ofsted on the web and on social media
www.gov.uk/ofsted
https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk
www.linkedin.com/company/ofsted
www.youtube.com/ofstednews
www.slideshare.net/ofstednews
www.twitter.com/ofstednews
An evidence-informed system - Research Schools Network national conference - July 18 Slide 17