A new £9.8m fund aims to improve learning outcomes for
disadvantaged pupils across the world by building a global
evidence network, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and
BHP Billiton Foundation announced today.
The five-year project will bring together education systems and
teachers in different countries to generate and share knowledge
about the best ways to tackle common challenges and boost
attainment; how to teach reading, for example, or how to engage
parents in their children’s learning.
Every day, teachers in different countries are working to solve
similar problems, but with limited access to reliable information
about what’s most likely to transform their students’ life
opportunities. As a result, the quality of education children
receive varies dramatically, both across and within countries,
with children from disadvantaged backgrounds too often missing
out on the skills and qualifications they need to thrive in adult
life.
The partnership with the BHP Billiton Foundation will allow
the EEF to bring their approach to generating and using
evidence to improve teaching and learning to education systems
across the globe. It will encompass four areas:
- Developing
the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, the EEF’s flagship resource
for teachers and schools, to help practitioners identify
what works, for which students, and in which circumstances.
- Testing different teaching and learning approaches across
different countries. A new global trials fund will accelerate the
discovery of new evidence that is relevant both globally and to
English schools;
- Building a network of evidence hubs similar to EEF’s Research
Schools, in partnership with local education jurisdictions; and
- Establishing
EEF-style organisations in partner countries to act as evidence
brokers and encourage the adoption of evidence-based policy at a
national level.
The EEF has already established partnerships with a number of
global organisations. In 2014, they began working with
school systems in Australia to develop an Australian version of the
Teaching & Learning Toolkit, taking the global evidence
base that underpins the Toolkit and contextualising it with
recent examples of local research to enhance its relevance for
Australian teachers.
The Australian work was joined in February 2017 by the work of
Education Scotland, which has led to the
development of a Scottish version of the
Toolkit to strengthen the use of evidence underpinning
the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
In July 2017, the EEF entered into a new partnership
in Latin America and the
Caribbean with SUMMA (the Laboratory of Education Research
and Innovation for Latin America and the Caribbean). This
partnership has seen the translation of the Toolkit
into Spanish and Portuguese, along with the integration of
more than 250 recent local studies that help contextualise the
evidence for Latin American and Caribbean teachers, and
contribute to the global knowledge about the Toolkit strands.
Sir , Chief Executive of the
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), said:
“For decades, countries across the globe have been working hard
to improve access to education. While more and more children have
access to free education than ever before, the quality of the
education they receive varies dramatically, both across and
within countries. Too often it’s children from disadvantaged
backgrounds that miss out on the quality of education they need
to thrive in adult life.
“We know that every day, teachers worldwide are striving to
improve the learning outcomes of their students. But they cannot
do it alone. Some of the challenges teachers face are unique, but
schools face many common challenges too.
“With the BHP Billiton Foundation’s support, we’ll be able to
give teachers and schools across the world access to reliable
information and the support they need to make the best decisions
about what’s most likely to transform their students’ life
chances.”
Karen Wood, Chairman BHP Billiton Foundation
said:
“We know that a great education is crucial for breaking the cycle
of disadvantage and ensuring a young person can actively
participate in society, that’s why partnerships like this one
with EEF are so important”.
“Enabling teachers to make evidence-based decisions which improve
learning in their classrooms is at the core of this important
partnership.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The Education Endowment
Foundation (EEF) is a grant-making charity set up in
2011 by the Sutton Trust as lead foundation in partnership with
Impetus Trust (now part of Impetus–The Private Equity
Foundation), with a £125m founding grant from the Department
for Education. Since its launch the EEF has awarded £96.3
million to 160 projects working with over 1,000,000 pupils in
over 10,000 schools across England. The EEF and Sutton Trust
are, together, the government-designated What Works Centre for
Education.
-
The BHP Billiton
Foundation works to address some of the most critical
global sustainable development challenges facing our
generation. By working in partnership with others they seek to
raise the bar, find new solutions and set new standards for the
future. They are funded by BHP, a leading global resources
company, and through their programs address challenges that are
directly relevant to the resources sector.
