Steven Edward Higgins

Durham University | DU · School of Education

Background Recent research has suggested that emotion dysregulation (ED) is a key mechanism which explains the associations between mental health illnesses, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and internalising problems, among youth. However, literature reviews have led to mixed and inconclusive findings on the conceptualisations of...

Large-scale Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are widely regarded as “the gold standard” for testing the causal effects of school-based interventions. RCTs typically present the statistical significance of the average treatment effect (ATE), which captures the effect an intervention has had on average for a given population. However, key decision...

Background The information provided to potential trial participants plays a crucial role in their decision-making. Printed participant information sheets for trials have received recurrent criticism as being too long and technical, unappealing and hard to navigate. An alternative is to provide information through multimedia (text, animations, video...

This work on power calculation in educational trials was carried out as a collaborative project between Durham University and Sheffield Hallam University. Within Durham University, researchers from the School of Education, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Department of Anthropology, School of Government and International Affairs as well as the...

Background Randomised controlled trials are often beset by problems with poor recruitment and retention. Information to support decisions on trial participation is usually provided as printed participant information sheets (PIS), which are often long, technical, and unappealing. Multimedia information (MMI), including animations and videos, may be...

Digital Citizenship is an emerging field of research but there is still a lack of knowledge into what works and how to implement educational practices to develop digital citizenship. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between young people’s participatory profile and their perceptions of the development of digital and socio-...

This paper draws upon a growing body of research emphasising the importance and prevalence of domain-specific practices in teaching and learning. Different disciplines have their own reasoning practices, conceptualised as reasoning styles, which are used to justify conclusions drawn. Although there is widespread recognition of the importance of tea...

Purpose Despite numerous studies reporting beneficial effects of metacognition for improving learning or developing self-regulated learners, the evidence from tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings is still unclear as synthesis studies in this field remain rare. To address the gap, this study sought to identify, examine and synthesis...

Objectives To evaluate digital, multimedia information (MMI) for its effects on trial recruitment, retention, decisions about participation and acceptability by patients, compared with printed information. Design Study Within A Trial using random cluster allocation within the Forearm Fracture Recovery in Children Evaluation (FORCE) study. Setting...

When planning paediatric trials, it is important to consider how best to communicate with children and young people (CYP) so they understand what they are taking part in. It is also important to consider what information they need. Involving CYP as research participants leads to research that is more relevant although it can be difficult to engage...

The overall goal of the ISEE Assessment is to pool multi-disciplinary expertise on educational systems and reforms from a range of stakeholders in an open and inclusive manner, and to undertake a scientifically robust and evidence based assessment that can inform education policy-making at all levels and on all scales. Its aim is not to be policy p...

Background: Digital multimedia information (MMI) has potential for use in trial recruitment but there is little formal evaluation. The objectives were to evaluate digital MMI about a trial for its effects on recruitment, retention, participation decisions, and patients’ acceptability, compared with printed information (PIS) alone and when combined...

This article compares and contrasts two versions of the Education Endowment Foundation's (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit (‘Toolkit’), a web‐based summary of international evidence on teaching 3–18 year‐olds. The Toolkit has localised versions in six different languages in Australia, Cameroon, Chile, Jordan and Spain. The initial Toolkit, create...

Background The array of availability of diverse digital reading applications, the mixed results emerging from small‐scale experimental studies, as well as the long‐standing tradition and range of known positive developmental outcomes gained from adult‐child storybook reading warrant an investigation into electronic storybooks (e‐books) by performin...

This study examines how adolescent experience in Internet cafés (known as wangba in Chinese) relates to academic attainment in urban, rural, and Tibetan schools of China. By documenting the frustrations teenagers express in their negotiations with adults surrounding access to and use of wangba and, by comparing self-reported academic standing of st...

Meta‐analysis is the synthesis of findings from research projects, which enables an estimate of the average or pooled effect across various studies. This study presents findings from the intention to treat analysis for a series of educational evaluations in England using a two‐stage meta‐analysis with standardised outcome data and individual partic...

Objective: To compare two methods of providing information about the Bone Anchored Maxillary Protraction (BAMP) trial: standard printed information and multimedia websites, for their quality and ease of understanding, and impact on decision-making. Design: Randomised controlled trial. Setting: Orthodontic outpatient clinic in the UK. Methods:...

A number of previous studies have used working memory components to predict mathematical performance in a variety of ways; however, there is no consideration of the contributions of the subcomponents of visuospatial working memory to this prediction. In this paper we conducted a 2-year follow-up to the data presented in Allen et al. (Q J Exp Psycho...

In education, multisite trials involve randomization of pupils into intervention and comparison groups within schools. Most analytical models in multisite educational trials ignore that the impact of an intervention may be school dependent. This study investigates the impact of statistical models on the uncertainty associated with an effect size us...

Educational researchers advocate the use of an effect size and its confidence interval to assess the effectiveness of interventions instead of relying on a p-value, which has been blamed for lack of reproducibility of research findings and the misuse of statistics. The aim of this study is to provide a framework, which can provide direct evidence o...

Educational stakeholders are keen to know the magnitude and importance of different interventions. However, the way evidence is communicated to support understanding of the effectiveness of an intervention is controversial. Typically studies in education have used the standardised mean difference as a measure of the impact of interventions. This me...

We initiated and structured a single program that supervised teachers, some with neuroscience or psychology degrees, to collaborate and explore the effects of science of learning‐translated pedagogy. This article reports on the 34 findings from teacher‐led randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and replications. Teachers designed trials, looking at ar...

Background The use of patient-facing health technologies to manage long-term conditions is increasing; however, children and young people may have particular concerns or needs before deciding to use different health technologies. Aims To identify children and young people’s reported concerns or needs in relation to using health technologies to sel...

Background: Work surrounding the relationship between visuospatial working memory (WM) and mathematics performance is gaining significant traction as a result of a focus on improving academic attainment. Aims: This study examined the relative contributions of verbal and visuospatial simple and complex WM measures to mathematics in primary school...

The use of large-scale Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are fast becoming "the gold standard" of testing the causal effects of policy, social, and educational interventions. RCTs are typically evaluated — and ultimately judged — by the economic, educational, and statistical significance of the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) in the study sample....

This is a map of evidence from high quality research reviews (including Best Evidence Syntheses) about Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) for school teachers. Building on earlier work, its focus on leadership is new and important and designed to provide school leaders facing unprecedented challenges with an overview of evidence...

The body of research surrounding the relationship between visuospatial working memory (VSWM) and mathematics performance remains in its infancy. However, it is an area generating increasing interest as the performance of school leavers comes under constant scrutiny. In order to develop a coherent understanding of the literature to date, all availab...

There is extensive evidence for the involvement of working memory in mathematical attainment. This study aims to identify the relative contributions of verbal, spatial-simultaneous, and spatial-sequential working memory measures in written mathematics. Year 3 children (7-8 years of age, n = 214) in the United Kingdom were administered a battery of...

This survey of 335 practitioners builds on research which challenged the view that educational technologies are rarely used in early years settings. Previous research tends to focus on individual devices. This research looks at the range of devices being used and, instead of investigating how often they are used, considers how they support pedagogi...

Objectives To understand stakeholders’ views regarding the content and design of paediatric clinical trial multimedia websites. To describe how this knowledge informed the development of the multimedia websites. Design Qualitative study comprising two rounds of interviews or focus groups, with thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Participa...

Objectives To understand stakeholders' views regarding the content and design of paediatric clinical trial multimedia websites. To describe how this knowledge informed the development of the multimedia websites. Design Qualitative study comprising two rounds of interviews or focus groups, with thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Participant...

Cambridge Core - Educational Psychology - Improving Learning - by Steven Higgins

Digital, multimedia information resources (MMIs) containing text, video, animation and pictures are a promising alternative to written participant information materials designed to inform children, adolescents and parents about healthcare trials, but little research has tested whether they are fit for purpose. This study employed a consecutive grou...

There are many digital technologies available to support teaching and learning. Historically the focus has tended to be on computers, but this has extended to include interactive whiteboards and tablets. As well as these technologies, which were originally designed for adults, there are devices specifically designed to support teaching and learning...

Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a two-year study to assess progress towards an evidence-informed teaching system.

Ten years after publication of two reviews of the evidence on phonics, a number of British policy initiatives have firmly embedded phonics in the curriculum for early reading development. However, uncertainty about the most effective approaches to teaching reading remains. A definitive trial comparing different approaches was recommended in 2006, b...

Data analysis usually aims to identify a particular signal, such as an intervention effect. Conventional analyses often assume a specific data generation process, which implies a theoretical model that best fits the data. Machine learning techniques do not make such an assumption. In fact, they encourage multiple models to compete on the same data....

This tool for teachers is a product of the data collection and analysis, including interviews with 82 teachers, carried out as part of a DfE-funded study Evidence-informed teaching: an evaluation of progress in England (Coldwell et al, 2017). It is designed to help teachers evaluate and consider their levels of interaction with evidence in terms of...

This study examines how adolescent exposure to Internet cafés (wangba in Chinese) relates to academic attainment in three urban, rural, and Tibetan schools of China. By documenting the frustrations teenagers express in their negotiations with adults surrounding access to and use of wangba and, by comparing self-reported academic ranking of students...

Practitioner enquiry has been demonstrated as a positive framework for teacher learning. The process of engaging in and with research enhances teachers’ perspectives of their practice, but what is the relationship with student learning? This paper will explore how cycles of practitioner enquiry focused explicitly on developing students’ metacogniti...

By tracing the evolution of linguistic models for state education in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, this chapter shows that bilingual education policies in the TAR oscillated between Chinese-led and Tibetan-led models since the 1950s. By presenting the rise and fall of specific linguistic models under a social and historical light, the...

Lord's Paradox occurs when a continuous covariate is statistically controlled for and the relationship between a continuous outcome and group status indicator changes in both magnitude and direction. This phenomenon poses a challenge to the notion of evidence-based policy, where data are supposed to be self-evident. We examined 50 effect size estim...

Lord's Paradox occurs when a continuous covariate is statistically controlled for and the relationship between a continuous outcome and group status indicator changes in both magnitude and direction. This phenomenon poses a challenge to the notion of evidence-based policy, where data are supposed to be self-evident. We examined 50 effect size estim...

By applying four analytic models with comparable outcomes and covariates to a dataset of 20 outcomes from 17 educational trials, we found results closely matching in well-powered studies without serious implementation problems. The interventions and evaluations were all funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and independently evaluated. We de...

Reporting of research data analysis often resorts to numerical summaries, such as effect size estimates in Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). Summary statistics are helpful and important for evidence synthesis and decision making. However, they can be unstable and inconsistent due to diversity in research designs and variability in analytical spe...

Data analysis usually aims to identify a particular signal, such as an intervention effect. Conventional analyses often assume a specific data generation process, which suggests a theoretical model that best fits the data. Machine learning techniques do not make such an assumption. In fact, they encourage multiple models to compete on the same data...

Background Randomised controlled trials are widely established as the best method for testing health interventions whilst minimising bias. However, recruitment and subsequent retention of children and adolescents in healthcare trials is challenging. Participant information sheets are often lengthy and difficult to read and understand. Presenting ke...

Online instructional videos are becoming increasingly common within education. This study adopts a quasi-experimental 2 × 2 crossover design (control and experimental groups) to evaluate the efficacy of instructional videos to teach practical rehabilitation skills. The students performed practical sessions in class and were formatively assessed by...

Objectives The first objective of the TRECA (trials Engagement in Children and Adolescents) study is to use participatory design to develop multimedia information resources for use in healthcare trials. The study will also evaluate the potential for multimedia information resources to improve the quality of decision-making about participation in he...

The UK’s Research Excellence Framework of 2014 was an expensive high stakes evaluation which had a range of impacts on higher education institutions across the country. One component was an assessment of the quality of research outputs where a major feature was a series of panels organised to read and rate the outputs of their peers. Quality contro...

This systematic review focuses on the impact of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) on teaching and learning. Learning is interpreted through a Vygotskian constructivist lens, emphasizing quality through dialogic interaction. Classroom interactions and achievement in standardized tests are considered formative and summative assessment tools, respectivel...

By applying four analytic models with comparable outcomes and covariates to a dataset of 20 outcomes from 17 educational trials, we found results closely matching in well-powered studies without serious implementation problems. The interventions and evaluations were all funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and independently evaluated. We de...

This article presents the results of a systematic review of methods that have been used to measure or assess metacognition in children aged 4–16 years over a 20‐year period (1992–2012). It includes an overview of the types of tool and methods used linked with the ages of the participants targeted and how metacognition and associated concepts are de...

This guide accompanies the following article: Gascoine, L., Higgins, S. & Wall, K. The assessment of metacognition in children aged 4–16 years: a systematic review, Review of Education, DOI:10.1002/rev3.3077

This article reviews some of the strengths and limitations of the comparative use of meta-analysis findings, using examples from the Sutton Trust-Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning ‘Toolkit’ which summarizes a range of educational approaches to improve pupil attainment in schools. This comparative use of quantitative findings has...

This paper deliberates the quality of existing evidence on educational school-based interventions aiming to improve pupils’ attainment. An overall picture as well as more specific examples derived from the “Sutton Trust-Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit” will be discussed presenting different cases and versions of t...

This guide accompanies the following article: Steve Higgins, Meta-synthesis and comparative meta-analysis of education research findings: some risks and benefits, Review of Education, DOI:10.1002/rev3.3067

Meta-analysis, or quantitative synthesis, is the statistical combination of research findings. It can identify whether an intervention or approach, on balance, is effective or not, and can explain variation in findings by identifying patterns associated with larger or smaller effects across studies. It is now more widely applied in medicine and psy...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of different ways that parents and schools develop and maintain working partnerships to improve outcomes for children by focusing on quantitative evidence about parental involvement (PI). The key questions for this synthesis are: what is the evidence about the extent of impact of...

By tracing the evolution of linguistic models for state education in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China, this chapter shows that bilingual education policies in the TAR oscillated between Chinese-led and Tibetan-led models since the 1950s. By presenting the rise and fall of specific linguistic models under a social and historical light, the...