Evidence Based Learning Theory

A statement indicating how your project is underpinned by evidence-based learning theory.

What is Evidence Based Learning Theory?
Evidence based learning theory has a single goal, to apply the best methods and strategies to all
aspects of education that have been proven through reliable experiments and significant evidence.
This means there is no single right way for teachers, it is the evidence from these experiments that
will suggest the best strategies and methods for their students learning. Evidence based learning
theory encourages teachers to research and trial different strategies and methods to discover the
best one for their classroom that has the highest benefits for all members of the classroom.
Types of Evidence Based Learning strategies?
As mentioned before, there is no commercial approach to learning, it is individual to each
classroom, teacher and students. However, from the work teachers are putting into the education
of their students, popular evidence based teaching strategies have been discovered.
One of these strategies includes having clear lesson goals. This includes Informing students of the
lesson objectives, being clear about you want your students to learn. This allows students to gain a
better understanding of the task and what the teacher is seeking from their work. It is giving the
students the rubric of your expectations. Another strategy, easily described as show and tell takes
on the same information providing concept as the first strategy.
Telling students what the need to know and showing them what they need to be able to do. This
gives students a better understanding of the task at hand, removing the distraction of confusion,
increases students focused learning.
Another popular strategy is questioning for understanding. Questions are a powerful tool for
teachers as it gives an insight into students understanding.
Providing students with feedback is another powerful tool used in the classroom. It allows students
to see where they made the mistake and how to fix it, it gives students a better understanding of
what the teacher is looking for an their expectations for the student. It is also a good opportunity for
a teacher to encourage the student through positive feedback assisting the constructive feedback
to motive the students learning.
Evidence based learning favours students summarising new learning in a graphical way, for
example a mind map. This gives students the opportunity to communicate what they have learnt
and their understanding of the content.
How lessons are underpinned by evidence based learning theory?
Our four lessons take on many of the popular lesson strategies listed above. Having an
understanding of your students and how they learn takes on an important role within the classroom
as it forms the structure of methods and strategies that will be applied to their education. Through
research built upon experiments, the teacher will have this understanding of their students.
Our four lessons support evidence based learning theory through the use of well known evidence
based lesson strategies. Difficult to do as each class is different, and until you understand your
students and how they learn, can you create a lesson that applies the best learning strategies for
them through research based evidence. Our lessons give clear goals and expectations,
demonstrating and informing students of the task and using questioning to increase and assess
understanding. Creating these lesson plans around student interests, allowing students to take
control of their own learning and providing students with a vast amount of opportunities to work
with different ICT tools and learning styles are we creating lessons underpinned by evidence based
learning theory. To further the teachers development, we self assess ourselves and our lessons to
determine what the students responded best to and which strategies and methods had the best
effect on their learning.