By: Jonathan Shaw
Unlike fields that readily embrace scientific advancements, education seems stuck in a cycle where fads and ideologies trump evidence-based practices. Resistance to adopting scientifically validated methods allows bad ideas in education to persist. A prime example is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which remains popular despite having no substantive evidence of its efficacy (see Murphy, 2020, Boysen (A), 2024 and Boysen (B), 2024 for example). Paul Kircher is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the Open University of the Netherlands, and the author of How Teaching Happens: Seminal Works in Teaching and Teacher Effectiveness and What They Mean in Practice (with Carl Hendrick and Jim Heal). In this provocative post, he explores reasons why educators seem reluctant to embrace evidence-based practices, highlighting the negative consequences for teaching and learning. Until this changes, Kircher warns “education will continue to be plagued by cycles of unproven fads, with students—especially the most vulnerable—paying the price”.
