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

Grit is conscientiousness renamed and adds 0.4% to grade prediction; self-control genuinely predicts life outcomes but is 60% heritable with zero shared environment, and training moves ratings, not lives.

mixedconf: highgc: medium

20/2036/48connected:Should a school buy a social and e Does teaching a growth mindset rai How should a school run its classr

Are self-control and grit teachable levers on achievement? · character · ages 4–18

Growth-mindset interventions change beliefs almost everywhere and change achievement almost nowhere: the two independent national-scale trials measured standardized tests and found exactly zero.

mixedconf: highgc: low

18/1829/48connected:Fadeout Systematic/explicit phonics vs who Talent and trainability Are self-control and grit teachabl

Does teaching a growth mindset raise achievement? · character · ages 4–18

SEL programmes move the ratings they are evaluated on far more than the attainment they are sold on: the famous +0.27 is now 0.10, and no large independent trial has reproduced it on an externally marked test.

mixedconf: highgc: low

19/1948/48connected:Are self-control and grit teachabl How should a school run its classr

Should a school buy a social and emotional learning programme? · character · ages 4–18

Executive function trains like a task, not like a capacity: gains are real, narrow, and gone at follow-up, EF curricula are null under independent trial, and the latent construct is ~100% heritable.

no effectconf: highgc: low

21/2148/48connected:Does working-memory or brain train How should a school run its classr Fadeout Talent and trainability

Can executive function be trained, and does it transfer to learning? · character · 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

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

The received wisdom that retention is harmful was two measurement errors, not a finding. Fix them and the achievement effect is zero — but the grade at which you hold a child back decides everything.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

19/1936/48

Grade retention — holding a child back versus promoting, and test-based promotion policies · retention · ages 5–18 · structure

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