The purpose of this article is to call for research that examines the following question in more depth: How do Danish teachers actually use – and make sense of – evidence in their everyday teaching practices?
Although we believe that the term “evidence” is not widely used in the everyday lives of teachers, we predict it will become more widespread in the coming years. This Thomas R.S. Albrechtsen & Ane Qvortrup raises a number of questions. For example, let us imagine a teacher who wishes to become a professional practitioner and who only uses “evidence-based” methods. If this teacher seeks guidance from a proponent of and expert in “evidence-based practice”, what would this expert suggest the teacher does? Read more relevant books and research journals? Collaborate more with educational researchers or other experts (if this is possible)? Attend different kinds of in-service teacher development courses in order to gain more evidence about certain educational phenomena (if the school can afford it and the school leader allows it)?
It remains unclear where the teacher should source evidence, what it is to “have evidence” and how this evidence should inform teaching in the classroom. The aim of this article is to highlight and outline these questions so that they can form the basis of future research. We will put forward a nuanced view of evidence-based teaching that recognises the value of practice-based evidence.