Making Best Practice, Common Practice: A Programme To Strengthen Connections Between Research and Practice

As outlined in the TransformED NI strategy (Transforming Teaching and Learning: A Strategy for Educational Excellence in Northern Ireland), the Department of Education is committed to investing in sustained, high-quality professional learning opportunities for teachers throughout their careers.

The Making Best Practice, Common Practice programme aims to build cumulative knowledge across the teaching profession and strengthen the connections between research and practice by providing increased access to the latest educational research in a user-friendly and convenient manner.

What the Programme Offers

• Research-Informed Conferences – funding to support schools in hosting research-informed conferences to stay up to date on pedagogy; refine and improve their instructional methods; connect with other educators and researchers and learn about new ideas. Schools will be invited to submit proposals for these conferences through an Expression of Interest process which will issue in the Summer Term.
• Monthly Newsletter on Science of Learning – providing insight into different aspects of the science of learning. Each edition will focus on a specific aspect of the research and its practical application.
• Quarterly Publication on Education Research – providing accessible and user-friendly summaries of recently published education research.

Research-Informed Conferences

Following a recent Expression of Interest exercise to host a Research-Informed Conference in the 2025/26 academic year, a list of the successful schools is provided below. The funded conferences will focus on pedagogy, curriculum development and improving pupil outcomes, fostering collaboration among teachers, researchers and school leaders.  

List of successful schools

Monthly Newsletter

• April 2025 Newsletter

• April Interview - What are the most effective learning strategies

   

• May 2025 Newsletter

• May Interview - Retrieval Practice In the classroom and at home

   

• June 2025 Newsletter 1

• June Interview 1 - The Spacing Effect

   

• June 2025 Newsletter 2
• June Interview 2 - Interleaving in the classroom

Quarterly Publication on Education Research

First edition available June 2025.