Evidence for Learning is the Australian representative with access to funding from a new Global Trials Fund from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), a UK education charity.
The Fund, made possible by a partnership between the EEF and the BHP Foundation, is testing the impact of different approaches to teaching and learning across the globe.
Teachers in Australian schools work tirelessly to help their students make the best possible progress. Yet teaching is often done with limited access to the best evidence on what’s likely to help students, with decisions often made based on poor quality research or unproven approaches. Access to easy to understand information about the impact of particular approaches is particularly important for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who stand to benefit the most from great teaching.
In May 2016, Evidence for Learning launched the Learning Impact Fund (LIF), a first-of-its-kind education grants program in Australia. It has already independently commissioned one of Australia’s largest randomised controlled trials, on a maths program delivered through professional learning to teachers and involving 7,068 students and 158 schools. The reports from two more randomised controlled trials will be released in early 2019 and a third trial in 2020.
With the EEF’s support, Evidence for Learning will add a new ‘matched funding’ grant round to its Learning Impact Fund to generate rigorous evidence on selected programs in Australian schools.
Learning Impact Fund grants under this new round will offer up to $500,000 AUD in matched funding for independent trials of programs that show promise in addressing important education challenges in Australian schools. The first round of ‘matched funding’ grants will be open until 31 March 2019.
Matthew Deeble, Director of Evidence for Learning says:
‘The new matched funding round made possible by the EEF and BHP Foundation will allow us to conduct further large-scale trials in Australian schools, and ensures Australia plays our part in building a global evidence base on effective education practices.
‘It is a critical piece of the puzzle that educators have access to independently assessed global evidence on the effectiveness of different teaching and learning approaches in order to continuously improve our education system.’
Stephen Fraser, Director, International Partnerships for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), says:
‘We have been working with Evidence for Learning since its inception and we are delighted to extend our partnership through supporting their work with our Global Trials Fund.. They share our commitment to generating high quality evidence on issues of education equity in forms that are useful to busy school leaders and teachers. And they have the ability to commission and manage the trials independently, ensuring schools can have trust and confidence in the research findings.’.
The matched funding grant round will open on 13 February 2019.
For program developers, further details on the Learning Impact Fund’s eligibility and funding criteria are available.
