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Session 1. What Counts as Evidence
Objective. Distinguish kinds of evidence (experience, classroom data, pupil voice, research), judge how strong each is for a given claim, and keep a short log of the claims that circulate in your school.
Every school is full of claims: this method works, that programme is best, pupils today cannot concentrate. Most are said sincerely, and some are right. Evidence is how we tell which ones deserve our time. As an experienced teacher you are the person colleagues ask, so your habits spread. This lesson goes beyond the key ideas: it gives you a single question that sharpens any claim, and it explains why vivid stories and personal memory, however honest, can lead even good teachers to believe things that are not so.
Key ideas
Evidence is a reason to believe a claim
- A claim says: 'this method helps pupils learn'. Evidence is what we could see if the claim were true, and would not see if it were false.
- Two questions open every discussion: What exactly is the claim? What would change my mind?
- Level 2 taught you to collect evidence in your own class (course 8.10 Action Research). Now you also weigh evidence that others bring to you.
Kinds of evidence and what each is good for
- Your own experience and your pupils' work: close to your classroom, quick, but one class and easily coloured by memory.
- Pupil voice and test data: tell you what pupils felt or scored, which is not always what they learned.
- Research: many classes and several places, with a comparison group in the stronger studies. Its weakness: it was often not done in a school like yours.
Weak signals and stronger signals
- Weak: 'it worked for me', a famous speaker, a popular poster, 'everyone does it', one dramatic story, results from before and after with nothing to compare.
- Stronger: a fair comparison, the same measure for both groups, results that repeat in several classes or places, and a measure of learning that matters.
- Strength is a matter of degree. Most claims sit in the middle, and the honest answer is often 'promising, not proven'.
Evidence-informed, not evidence-led
- Evidence does not give orders. It joins three other things: your knowledge of your pupils, your context and your professional judgement.
- A good habit: write claim, source, kind of evidence, what is missing. Four short lines before any change.
- Be as curious about ideas you like as about ideas you dislike. We question comfortable beliefs least.
From a heard claim to stronger evidence
The question that sharpens a claim
Before judging a claim, make it testable. 'Group work is good' is too vague to check. 'In my Grade 6 class, pupils who discuss a problem in threes for ten minutes explain it better in writing than pupils who work alone' can be checked. Then ask: what would I see if this were false? If every possible result would still be explained as success, the claim is not evidence-based, it is a belief.
Write the claim and the false-case picture side by side. Often this alone changes the discussion in a methodical association from 'who is right?' to 'what could we look at together?'. It also protects you: when you propose a change, colleagues can see what would make you stop.
Why honest memory misleads
We remember vivid lessons and forget ordinary ones. We notice the pupil who flourished after our new method and do not follow the pupils who left the class. If we already like an idea, we count the supporting stories and quietly set aside the others. None of this is dishonesty; it is how memory works, and it affects experienced teachers as much as new ones.
Simple habits help. Write predictions before a change. Keep a short record of what happened for all pupils, not only the memorable ones. Ask a colleague to look at the same pupil work. Experience remains valuable evidence, especially about what is practical in our classrooms, but it is strongest when it is written down and compared.
Examples from the classroom
The new worksheet in Navoi
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 8 chemistry in Navoi. After he introduced a new worksheet, exit tickets on acids improved. He is pleased and tells colleagues the worksheet works. Malika asks two questions: was the ticket the same as last time, and did the topic change? Aziz checks. The new ticket was shorter and the topic was easier. He now sees a weak signal rather than a result, and plans a comparison with the parallel class next unit.
Insight. A before-and-after change in one class cannot separate the method from everything else that changed at the same time.
The school that banned phones
Scene. At a meeting in Tashkent, Dilnoza hears that a school in another city banned phones and its results rose. Several teachers want the same rule. Dilnoza asks what else changed that year: a new head, a new timetable, a new intake? Nobody knows. She suggests the staff find out and also write down what they expect to see in their own school after a term, so that they can check later.
Insight. A single dramatic story is a lead, and a written prediction makes a later check honest.
Dilnoza's own belief
Scene. Dilnoza, a Grade 5 teacher in Samarkand, is sure that pupils work better in rows. She asks a colleague to question her using the four lines claim, source, kind of evidence, what is missing. Her source is her own memory of two noisy group lessons. Together they decide to compare two lessons on the same topic, one in rows and one in pairs, and record how much written work pupils complete.
Insight. Apply the same questions to the beliefs you like as to those you doubt.
Common pitfalls
- Treating a respected person's opinion as proof, or dismissing it because it is only one voice.
- Collecting only the stories that agree with the idea you already like.
- Mixing up 'pupils enjoyed it' with 'pupils learned more'.
- Asking questions so sharply that colleagues feel attacked and stop sharing.
Sort the Staffroom Claims
- Trios. Open the Activity Kit: eight SAMPLE claims of the kind heard in staffrooms in Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. Cut them into cards.
- Sort the cards into four piles: Little or no evidence, Some evidence, Fairly strong evidence, Not about learning at all. Argue until the trio agrees (15 min).
- For each card write on the grid: the kind of evidence, what is missing, and ONE question you would ask the speaker. Be polite: a good question is not an attack (15 min).
- Second activity (10 min). Alone, write one claim about teaching that you believe strongly. Swap with your trio and let them ask the questions of the grid. Which question was hardest to answer?
- Whole group (10 min): which cards did trios place differently? What would settle the disagreement?
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which card was hardest to place, and why?
- Which of your own beliefs surprised you when your trio questioned it?
- What is the difference between 'pupils liked it' and 'pupils learned more'?
Reflect
- Which claim did you accept in the last year without asking for evidence?
- Whom in your school do colleagues trust most on teaching ideas, and why?
- What kind of evidence do you already collect in your own class?
Try it tomorrow
- Pick one teaching belief you hold and write the picture that would show it to be false.
- In your next staff talk, ask once: 'What would we see if this were not true?'
- Start a one-page claim log and write down three claims you hear this week.
Further reading and links
Evidence is a reason to believe a claim. Name the kind, judge the strength, say what is missing, and ask a polite question.