Using Evidence to Improve Teaching and Learning

EDU BA840 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The dilemmas we face as education professionals seeking to improve education require us to make sense of, evaluate, and prioritize different kinds of evidence. This course equips students with the foundational skills and knowledge they’ll need to interpret the most common forms of evidence—both qualitative and quantitative—and apply them to their practice in global contexts. Students will learn to weigh the unique affordances of different types of evidence in making decisions about complex educational dilemmas and will acquire a powerful set of tools for analyzing and applying evidence to improve education systems. We will apply these insights along the way to assess the available evidence on a core issue in international education: learning inequality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We will learn to interpret data on student learning outcomes in LMICs (including its variability), evaluate evidence related to what works, where, and for whom to improve learning and reduce learning inequality in LMICs, and discuss how to responsibly draw insights from existing studies to propose policy implications and recommendations for decision-makers to act upon.