Written by:
Prof Mark Rickinson Faculty of Education, Monash University
Last month saw the publication of a new open access book: How to Use Research Evidence Well in Education: A Guide for Educators and Leaders (Routledge, 2026). It is written for educational professionals who want to use research to drive improvement that is meaningful and impactful. This includes teachers and leaders of all kinds within schools, as well as individuals working with schools, such as system leaders and evidence brokers.
The book comes out of the Q Project, a five-year study to understand and improve the quality use of research evidence in Australian schools, which involved over 2,100 teachers and school leaders and 200 system leaders. At its core, quality use of research (or using research well) is about “thoughtful engagement with and implementation of appropriate research evidence” (see Quality Use of Research Evidence (QURE) Framework).
As one of the book’s co-authors, I want to reflect on why this book is important. The answer lies in five ways in which using research well in education can be complex, and how the book seeks to respond productively to these complexities by providing practical advice and guidance for busy educational professionals.
1. Using research well is a sophisticated practice
Teachers and school leaders in the Q Project made very clear that the process of using research well is sophisticated and involved. It is “thoughtful and considered”, involving “a structured approach” that helps “teachers to learn more deeply" and to develop and implement “target[ed] initiatives and approaches”.
Efforts to use research well, therefore, need to embrace and hold on to the professional and nuanced nature of the process but in ways that are manageable for busy teachers and school leaders. Each chapter of the book responds to this challenge by highlighting two key practices that provide an accessible way to engage with the subtleties of using research well. The chapter ‘Identifying a clear purpose’, for example, steps through how to identify a need to drive your research use, and then how to promote and explain that purpose effectively to others.
2. Using research well is an integrated practice
As one school leader described beautifully: using research well “isn’t extra work, it’s actually asking [colleagues] to think more deeply about the work that they do”. This idea is important because it emphasises how the process of using research well is not an add-on but, rather, is intricately connected with processes of teaching and leading well.
Efforts to use research well, therefore, need to connect with and build on the wider professional practices of teachers and school leaders. This is why, throughout the book, there are diagnostic activities and practice checklists, which aim to help education professionals understand their contexts and starting points.
3. Using research well is a developmental practice
Getting better at using research well is an ongoing process both for individuals and for schools and school systems. In the words of one school leader, this is because “acquiring new knowledge and challenging your own knowledge takes time and takes a lot of courage to learn”.
Efforts to use research well, therefore, need to focus on the importance of ongoing professional learning and long-term capacity building. In response, each book chapter provides improvement activities in the form of prompts, templates, examples and tips to support continued practice development by teachers, school leaders and system leaders.
4. Using research well is a hidden practice
The idea of using research well has rarely been explicitly investigated by educational researchers, meaning that its enactment as a practice in schools has often gone unnoticed. As school leaders in the Q Project explained, there is a need to unpack “the journey of the thinking, the reflecting and the reading” and to “be able to describe what it [using research well] looks like”.
Efforts to use research well must, therefore, involve it being made more explicit and visible as a practice. To this end, the book includes varied case studies and behavioural activities to help teachers and school and system leaders recognise specific practices in action and consider how these could be developed in their contexts.
5. Using research well is a poorly supported practice
Using research well does not happen in a vacuum. It requires supportive organisations and systems. To quote one school leader, “there [are] things that departments and systems could do, just like there [are] things that senior leaders in schools need to do to help”. All too often, though, the priorities, norms and structures of schools and systems are either ineffective in, or detrimental to, using research well.
Efforts to use research well, therefore, need to pay careful attention to the role of organisational enablers and system supports. The book has chapters dedicated to helping educational leaders of all kinds to model and support different aspects of using research well in practice; for example, stressing the critical importance of school and system leaders investing time and effort in strengthening their own research use capacities, and demonstrating quality research use to others.
Towards quality use
Education systems globally have invested heavily in generating high-quality research. Now it is time to invest equally in supporting high-quality use. As one Q Project system leader explained: “Thinking about [quality use of research] as a general capability is important at the systemic level … so that systems … are really thinking about: How is this capability showing up across our system in how we support schools?”.
Let’s hope, then, that this book can help, not only educators and school leaders to develop the capability within their practice to use research well, but also system leaders and evidence brokers to support this as a culture within their schools and systems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Book:
How to Use Research Evidence Well in Education is published by Routledge as an open-access publication. It is co-authored by Mark Rickinson, Lucas Walsh, Joanne Gleeson, Blake Cutler, Bernice Plant, Mark Boulet, Genevieve Hall, Connie Cirkony, and Mandy Salisbury from Monash University Faculty of Education and BehaviourWorks Australia.
About the Author:
Mark Rickinson is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His work focuses on supporting the quality use of research and evidence in education practice and policy. He was Director of the Monash Q Project and is now Co-Director of the Monash Q Lab.