Chapter 4: Educational Effectiveness: The Importance of Evidence-Based Teaching Practices for the Provision of Quality Teaching and Learning Standards

This rationale for this chapter has been motivated by at least three major considerations pertinent to Australian and international contexts. First, despite the existing and emerging research evidence for educational effectiveness in terms of teaching and learning, there is a disturbing level of ignorance among teachers at all levels of educational provision related to what works and why. Second, the prevailing ideologies in schools and universities surrounding effective teaching practice are typically not grounded in findings from evidence-based research. Such ideologies are not only endemic in Australian schools and higher education providers, but in many such institutions throughout the world (see Westwood, 2006), with the possible exception of China, Japan, South-East Asia and several Eastern European jurisdictions.