Anyone working in education will know the feeling: you stumble across research findings, summaries and excellent toolkits yet still wonder how to put any of it into practice. Too often, such insights linger on training days or in a PowerPoint that never gets opened again. How to Use Research Evidence Well in Education, a book I came across thanks to Dirk van Damme, sets out to break that pattern. I skimmed through it last night – rather quickly, I admit – and want to share a first impression.

What makes this book stand out is that it doesn’t ask whether we should use research (that question is settled mainly by now), but rather how to do so wisely and realistically. It is not about blindly implementing “evidence-based” fads. Instead, it is about careful searching, critical translation, and collaborative, sustainable experimentation.

For teachers: start small, but aim for impact

The authors encourage teachers not to overhaul their entire practice overnight, but to start from a concrete problem or question. Think of a class where motivation is low, or where your approach to reading comprehension seems stuck. The book demonstrates how to conduct research in a focused manner and then test its effectiveness in your own context.

One example that struck me: a school team realised their traditional summative assessment model no longer matched what pupils needed. Research on formative assessment and feedback strategies helped them design an alternative that emphasised growth rather than grades. By analysing data together and engaging in conversations with staff and pupils, they gradually built a new model. The result: greater pupil engagement and a stronger sense of ownership over learning.

This captures the book’s central message: research is not a ready-made solution, but a resource that must be critically adapted to your own practice. For teachers and teams, it means taking small, realistic steps. It also involves monitoring the impact of those steps on your learners.

It is also an important reminder that research should not replace teachers’ professionalism, but strengthen it – by combining evidence with experience and the expertise of colleagues. Research becomes less an “outside voice” and more an extra lens through which to examine your practice.

For school teams: time, structure and culture

Where feasibility is the main challenge for individual teachers, the issue for school teams lies in structure and culture. Using research requires time, and that is rarely free. The book offers inspiring examples of schools that found creative solutions. One Australian primary school freed up 80 minutes a week by outsourcing some subjects. Whether you like that idea or not, those minutes were not wasted on miscellaneous meetings. Instead, they were used deliberately to explore research, adapt it to lessons, and reflect on results.

What impressed me is that the authors are honest: without structure and leadership, such initiatives quickly fizzle out. Using research cannot remain a matter of optional reading; it needs to be tied to a clear goal. It should be prioritised above other projects, and anchored in agreements about how to evaluate progress together.

Culture is just as important. In the strongest examples, school leaders did not simply mandate research use, but modelled it themselves. They stayed curious, celebrated successes, and kept mistakes discussable. Small gestures such as opening a staff meeting with a short research article or asking “how would this work with our pupils?” proved surprisingly robust.

An interesting example in the book is the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The idea is attractive: design lessons so that as many pupils as possible have access from the outset. UDL is evidence-informed in the broad sense – it builds on learning sciences and accessibility research – but the empirical base is less solid. Many studies are small-scale, with encouraging signals for motivation and participation, but few large RCTs conclusively prove effects. In practice, UDL often functions more as a framework than a proven intervention. Precisely for that reason, it is a good illustration of how schools can work in an evidence-informed way. Use such frameworks for inspiration. But test them critically against your own data and context, and beware of vagueness.

The power of small steps and a shared language

What I recognise most in this book is its rejection of the illusion that there is a single golden recipe. Using research is not a one-off project, but a process of incremental steps. Choose carefully, try things out, evaluate, and adjust. The authors deliberately describe this as a developmental practice: building capacity slowly but surely within a team.

The book’s checklists, reflection questions and concrete examples help to make research use visible in schools: who does what, when, and with what purpose? That creates a shared language. And that, perhaps, is the greatest gain: not that everyone reads the same studies. Rather, you develop a collective way of talking about research and what it means for your pupils.

Why this book is worth reading

How to Use Research Evidence Well in Education is not just another theoretical volume. It is a practical workbook that teachers and school teams can actually use. You don’t need to read it cover to cover; you can start with the chapter that best matches your current challenge. It combines a solid research base with realistic examples. Additionally, it is refreshingly honest about both opportunities and pitfalls.

A critical note

It is, however, important to stay critical. The book focuses strongly on the process of using research, but pays less attention to judging the quality of the study itself. Most examples are drawn from Australia and may not translate neatly into other contexts. There is also a risk that schools treat the numerous checklists as mere boxes to tick. This approach would miss prompts for deeper reflection. And because the authors deliberately avoid ranking stronger versus weaker evidence, readers may think all sources are equally reliable. In short, this book is an excellent starting point for making evidence-informed practice concrete, but not the end of the journey. It still requires critical reading, brave conversations, and a careful translation into each school’s reality.