Where it is used
Each entry identifies the volume, edition, chapter or appendix in which the work appears.
The evidence behind the series
Browse the scientific research and professional literature used across all seven volumes of The Science of Learning for Educators.
Search the collection
Choose an author range, search a title or concept, or narrow the collection by source type. Open any result to see where it appears in the books, read its evidence summary and follow available source links.
2 references
Tayem and Bourgeois map how K–12 teachers use data-based decision making and what is known about training, practice, and outcomes. Their scoping review identifies geographic and temporal concentrations in the literature, especially studies from the United States and the Netherlands and clusters published during 2016–2017 and 2020–2022.
Research has focused more on elementary and in-person settings than secondary or online schooling. Across studies, teachers use assessment and other data to identify learner needs, set goals, select or adjust instruction, group students, and monitor progress. Interventions can improve teachers’ data use and sometimes student outcomes, but implementation is constrained by data literacy, beliefs, time, access to usable information, collaboration, leadership, and the alignment of tools with instructional work. One-off training is unlikely to sustain change; teachers benefit from continuing support that joins technical analysis with pedagogical interpretation and opportunities to act on findings.
The authors highlight uneven terminology and methods and call for research in underrepresented contexts, stronger outcome designs, and attention to long-term sustainability. Data should inform professional judgement rather than mechanically dictate decisions.
Timperley reframes professional development from programmes delivered to teachers into professional learning organised around effects on students. At the book’s centre is an inquiry and knowledge-building cycle: identify what learners need to know and do; examine what educators need to learn; deepen relevant content, pedagogical, and assessment knowledge; create new learning opportunities; and evaluate what changed for students.
Evidence is used diagnostically rather than as a compliance score, and discrepant outcomes become reasons to investigate teaching, context, and assumptions. Professional learning must meet a double demand—offer immediately useful responses while developing adaptable principles teachers can apply to unfamiliar problems. Case examples from New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom illustrate respectful but challenging dialogue, external expertise, formative assessment, collaborative inquiry, and attention to learners who have been underserved. School leaders influence whether inquiry is safe, focused, resourced, and sustained; facilitators need expertise in both content and adult learning.
The book rejects evaluating professional learning by participation or satisfaction alone. Its test is whether educators build adaptive expertise and create demonstrably better opportunities, engagement, learning, and well-being for students.
View or buy the cited work >>Read a similar article free online >>
A transparent research trail
Each entry identifies the volume, edition, chapter or appendix in which the work appears.
Evidence summaries explain the central idea and why the source matters to educators.
Entries link to lawful full text where available, or to a publisher, library or purchase page.
References are checked against publisher records, scholarly indexes, DOI or ISBN metadata, repositories and author records where available. An entry marked [Citation not verified] preserves the wording found in the relevant volume without attributing findings to an unconfirmed work.
From sources to a coherent pathway