Teachers‘ efforts towards evidence-based practice. The context of the...

The input took place in the Workshop "Teachers’ use of scientific evidence based on a nation-wide project", lead by Konrad Krainer (AAU), Stefan Ufer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) and Andras Csanadi (UniBW München). 

The workshop focused on the use of evidence by teachers in practice based on our experiences from the IMST project. IMST is a nation-wide MINDT (German abbreviation for Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Science, German, and Technology) learning and teaching initiative in Austria. It represents a flexible support system primarily financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and consists of scientists accompanying teachers in their endeavours to improve instruction.

Based on examples from the report database of the IMST project, the forms of evidence used by teachers and some of the major challenges in using and interpreting evidence were discussed. An analysis tool from the REASON program was extended to shed light on the ways teachers apply the knowledge they acquired in a university context as well as different types of evidence when solving educational problems.