An evidence-informed curriculum for Teach First’s programmes

Here we present a series of research reviews that bring together summaries of the broad evidence base on which we draw across all of our programmes.

We are committed to ensuring that the design and content of our programmes draws upon the best available research, but also to making that research as accessible as possible. To that end we have been working on drawing together a series of research reviews that bring together summaries of the broad evidence base on which we draw across all of our programmes, for initial teacher training and early career teachers and for leadership development.

This work has two primary aims:

to ensure our programmes draw upon high quality, up-to-date research
to make that research as accessible as possible

We are constantly reviewing and developing our evidence-base, as well as building consistency in our approaches across our programmes. We also want to ensure that our programmes members are well placed to make evidence-informed decisions about what they believe will work best for their context to achieve a fair education for all students.

This first phase is focused on domain content: the core knowledge in teaching that informs the heart of our programmes for trainees, early career teachers and school leaders. This is essentially ‘the what’ and ‘the why’.

What it is and how you can use it

We have created a set of research reviews based around key domain areas. Download the full PDF reports of each below:

Each paper summarises key research papers and reports, seeking to reflect some of the breadth of debate and different perspectives and approaches in an accessible way. They are not intended to be an exhaustive or systematic literature review, not do they necessarily make judgements on the quality of individual research though they may offer a critique.

They do not form a guide to our programmes nor a definitive list of research we may have drawn upon, but are intended to inform thinking and understanding and will be regularly updated as research evolves.

Above all, these reviews are intended to be a resource to support teachers and leaders in finding accessible and relevant research. Papers are fully referenced and open access hyperlinks have been provided wherever available.

Please let us know if you find these documents useful. But also please let us know if you notice any key omissions, errors or misconceptions. We want these to be a resource to be used so welcome feedback and suggestions: please email research@teachfirst.org.uk.