The Evidence on Teaching

Explore the evidence

7 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? →

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

who's delivering

group / setting

cost

outcome class

Feedback on the task helps modestly; feedback on the person backfires — a stable third of studies reverse. The famous 0.4–0.7 number has no computed source.

mixedconf: highgc: low

18/1812/48connected:Retrieval practice (the testing ef Does teaching music produce musica Placement and mastery diagnosis

Feedback and formative assessment · feedback · ages 5–18 · method

Immersion costs nothing in English and buys a little — a lottery puts English reading 0.13-0.22 SD ahead by grades 5 and 8 — but no lottery has ever measured how much of the second language students actually learn.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

8/824/48

Does dual-language immersion work, and is the gain in the second language or in English? · foreign-language · ages 4–18

Yes — sight-reading, performance and aural skill move about half a standard deviation under instruction — but the evidence is quasi-experimental and thinner than the transfer literature built on top of it.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: medium

6/636/48connected:Does learning music make children Feedback and formative assessment Feedback frequency and mental prac Deliberate practice and the 10,000+2

Does teaching music produce musical skill? · music · ages 4–18

Explicit form-focused teaching beats pure exposure, so the archive's negative verdict on L1 grammar does NOT transfer — but the effects are measured on the taught forms, immediately, mostly on adults.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

11/1118/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chil

Comprehensible input or explicit grammar teaching — which builds a second language? · foreign-language · ages 4–18

Not at school: the largest randomised trials find nothing on reading, maths or cognition. A small effect on laboratory executive-function tasks is contested, may be real at ~0.2 SD, and is end-of-treatment only.

mixedconf: mediumgc: medium

19/1936/48connected:Brain Gym, Whole Brain Teaching, a Does teaching music produce musica Fadeout

Does learning music make children smarter or better at school? · music · ages 4–16

Classroom order is causally worth a great deal — one disruptive peer costs classmates 3% of adult earnings — yet no branded behaviour programme reliably delivers it and exclusion makes things worse.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

25/2536/48connected:Talent and trainability Can executive function be trained,Should a school buy a social and e Are self-control and grit teachabl

How should a school run its classrooms and its discipline system? · behavior · ages 4–18 · structure

Attainment falls steadily with age of first exposure, but the sharp critical period is contested and an earlier classroom start buys nothing durable: start young for immersion, not for two lessons a week.

mixedconf: mediumgc: medium

14/1424/48

Is there a critical period for learning a second language, and when should a child start? · foreign-language · ages 4–18

The URL is the state — any view you build here is a permalink you can hand to someone mid-argument.