UGEAN members Kara Makara, David Morrison-Love, Louise Hayward and George MacBride are carrying out this project.

This work is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account. 

Two challenges have consistently caused problems in education internationally: the development of policy strongly rooted in research evidence; and ensuring a close relationship between policy and practice in classrooms. During the CAMAU Research Project (UofG and UWTSD, 2017-2019), we developed a Decision Tree approach to align research, policy and practice in education, leading to evidence-informed decision-making and sustainable change. This ESRC-funded project supports the further development and use of the Decision Tree approach with academic and policy partners in a wider range of policy contexts.

Drawing upon the International Educational Assessment Network (IEAN), we are partnering with researchers and policy makers from two other nations, Ireland and Slovenia, in order to: 1) further develop and apply the Decision Tree approach in order to promote better research informed policy outcomes; 2) develop the Decision Tree approach to allow it to be used in other contexts beyond Wales where the model was developed. We will refine the original model for use with policy makers and practitioners in Ireland and Slovenia, develop principles of the decision tree approach for independent use in policy development and with teachers in schools, and collect and analyse evidence on how the Decision Tree approach can inform policy making as a means of evidencing its impact and informing future research.

First published: 17 February 2021

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