Currently, the Department for Education is funding a number of experiments (known as randomised controlled trials (RCTs)) in English schools www.gov.uk/government/news/new-randomised-controlled-trials-will-drive-forward-evidence-based-research
Apart from questions regarding whether the £140 million being spent on RCTs is money well-spent, there are other issues concerning the use of RCTs, which parents may not be aware of, which the DfE have perhaps not made as clear as they might, and which by writing this thread, in some small way it is hoped to address.
RCTs are normally conducted in medical research and have proven highly effective, but come with stringent ethical controls, and similar controls will more than likely be in place for those being carried out in English schools.
However, just as in medical research, as such trials are experimental, there is the possibility that an education experiment's instrument/intervention (e.g. new teaching method) will have a negative rather than positive or neutral impact. In medical research, negative impact can be fatal (e.g. the side-effects of a new drug treatment). In education, negative impact is highly unlikely to be fatal, but may, for example, set a child's learning back some time.
This thread, therefore, is meant as both a reminder and a warning. It is a reminder that parents should expect to be notified before their child participates in such an experimental trial and also parents should expect to be given the choice of whether they allow their child to participate. If in the unlikely situation that parents are not notified nor given the choice then this lack of consultation ought to be taken up with the school.
The warning to parents on the other hand is that being experimented on even in educational contexts (e.g. the classroom) could have a negative effect on your child, and this is clearly something that needs bearing in mind.
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Randomised Controlled Trials in English Schools
46 replies
EducationState · 12/05/2013 18:20
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