The Evidence on Teaching

Explore the evidence

4 of 88 decisions · clear everything

Survives the gold standard Independent, durable, rigorous The debunked shelf Cheap wins For parents at home Famous numbers, deflated Where we admit ignorance The terrain

evidenceall drop D A–B A only

evaluatorany no dev-led independent

durabilityany follow-up ≥1yr ≥2yr

what are these? →

domain

verdict

confidence

medium4

layer

—4

Your situation · from the applicability layer — absence means “not yet assessed,” never “doesn’t apply”

who's delivering

group / setting

cost

outcome class

Teaching handwriting works and transfers: freeing the hand frees composition, with gains still present at six months — even taught in groups of three.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: medium

8/818/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chil Does teaching movement transfer to Does sentence combining improve wr Does teaching spelling work, and w+1

Does handwriting and transcription instruction matter, and should young children type instead? · writing · ages 5–12

Sentence combining improves writing where grammar teaching fails — the same meta-analyses score them +0.50 and −0.32.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

8/89/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chil Does teaching movement transfer to Does handwriting and transcription Does teaching spelling work, and w

Does sentence combining improve writing? · writing · ages 5–18

Formal spelling instruction works (ES 0.54) and more formal beats less formal — explicit wins again, and it transfers beyond spelling itself.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

7/79/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chil Does sentence combining improve wr Systematic/explicit phonics vs who Explicit instruction vs discovery/+3

Does teaching spelling work, and what does it transfer to? · writing · ages 5–18

Content-rich history teaching raises history knowledge (g 0.19-0.46) but not standardized reading in under three years; generic 'historical thinking' has no adequately controlled positive result.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

17/1730/48connected:Background knowledge and vocabular Does document-based source work mo

Should history be built on content knowledge or on generic historical-thinking skills? · history-civics · ages 5–18

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