Evidence-Based Practice in Higher Education: Teacher Educators' Attitudes, Challenges, and Uses

Abstract

Teacher educators are encouraged to promote evidence-based practice in teaching and to use evidence for their own teaching. In the present study, teacher educators' attitudes, perceived challenges, and uses regarding evidence-based practice are described. Moreover, the extent to which personal factors are related to the use of evidence is investigated. In an exploratory study, 58 teacher educators from higher education participated in an online survey. The results reveal that teacher educators generally have a positive attitude toward evidence-based practice. They use evidence regularly, both for individual learning and for teaching purposes. Furthermore, the study reveals that teacher educators with more experience in research and teaching have a more positive attitude toward evidence-based practice and higher uses of evidence. In comparison, less experienced teacher educators perceived more challenges. It is discussed, how teacher educators can be supported in their professional learning, particularly in light of the increasing scientific knowledge base in education.

Evidence-Based Practice in Teacher Education: The Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Practical Knowledge

“…Evaluation of the quality of evidence, staying up to date with the newest literature, and the need for evidencebased teaching training to bridge the gap between research and teaching practice were identified as the biggest challenges. These findings are in line with previous research in medicine (e.g., Sullivan et al, 2017) and in teacher education (Brown and Zhang, 2016;Diery et al, 2020), where environmental context and resources, skills, social influence, and professional role and identity are considered as relevant to change professionals' use of evidence into practice. Time pressure in combination with training needs and evidence evaluation seemed to be significantly more prevalent for professors than for teaching associates and school mentors.…”

A national cross-sectional survey of the attitudes, skills and use of evidence-based practice amongst Spanish osteopaths

“…Furthermore, educational programmes and their associated curricula can act as a key driver for shaping healthcare professionals' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards activities associated with EBP [60]. Not surprisingly, integrating EBP into the curricula of academic programs has become an essential requirement for academic institutions providing training for healthcare professions [61][62][63].…”

A Comparative Study of Teacher’s knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior’s Regarding Evidence Based Practices of Public and Private Universities in Lahore

“…Some of the teachers involved in certain research projects while some of the conduct research thesis/dissertation to acquired higher degree. Findings of the present study showed that overall use of EBP is not challenge for teachers in higher education institutions (Diery et al, 2020;MacPhail et al, 2018;Reddy et al, 2017;Loughran, 2014).…”

“…Teacher's training should enable them to use research -based evidences efficiently and to assimilate these findings with personal expertise and teaching experience. This research linkage plays important role in promoting EBP (Diery et al, 2020).…”