Making Research Matter: Towards Evidence-Informed Science Education Practice in the UK

Summary

Making Research Matter supports science educators to find, engage with and use research in their practice. Working with the Association for Science Education and colleagues at King’s College London, the project has produced the Research-informed practice in science teaching toolkit, published in 2026.

The toolkit is intended to support thoughtful engagement with research alongside teachers’ professional judgement and knowledge of their learners. The project builds on Bridging Research and Policy, extending the collaboration into support for research-informed classroom practice.

Objectives

• Increase teachers' confidence and capacity to access, interpret, and apply research.
• Identify gaps and misalignments between research production and classroom practice.
• Promote sustainable collaborations between researchers and practitioners to co-create research-informed teaching resources and strategies.
• Establish structures for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of research use in science teaching.

Team

• Wonyong Park, University of Southampton (Principal Investigator)
• Carys Hughes, University of Southampton (Co-Investigator)
• Chris Brown, University of Southampton (Co-Investigator)
• Richard Brock, King's College London (Co-Investigator)
• Marianne Cutler, Association for Science Education (Co-Investigator)
• Carole Kenrick, Institute of Physics (Research Officer)
• Laura Kearney, University of Portsmouth (Research Intern)

Outputs

Related work

The Bridging Research and Policy project brought together researchers and policy actors. Its report, Making research count in science education policy (2025), addresses the policy strand of this wider collaboration.

Related editorial work includes Research-informed policy and practice in science education, a special issue of Research in Science Education being developed by Wonyong Park and Liam Guilfoyle. See the publication listing.