What is Scientifically Based Research? (A Guide for Teachers) - Using Research and Reason in Education

This item explains how teachers can become more effective at using their skills to recognize scientifically based practice and to draw conclusions on their own. The Partnership for Reading, which included the NICHD, NIFL, and the U.S. Department of Education, aimed to to distribute evidence-based reading research information to those who can benefit the most from it.

Teachers play a variety of roles in their work—instructor, coach,
advocate, and learner—but they also act as scientists in several ways.
As they make the important decisions about what and how to teach,
they must evaluate the claims associated with educational strategies
and programs. And in the classroom, they must constantly assess and
reassess the value of programs and their impact on students.

The basic principles of the scientific method
• Science progresses by investigating testable problems.
• A testable theory yields predictions that could possibly be proven
wrong.
• Scientific knowledge has passed some minimal tests.
• Data and theories are considered in the public domain, or included in
the research base, only after a peer review, either by a journal or a
panel.
• Published data and theories allow for replication and criticism by
other scientists.
• Theories are tested by systematic observation bound by the logic of
true experiments.
• Correlational studies, useful when experiments can not be carried
out, only help rule out hypotheses.
• Researchers use many different methods to reach conclusions. Most
often, they draw conclusions only after a slow accumulation of data
from many studies.