About the Education Elf

You’ve found the right website if you are interested in teaching and education and you struggle to stay informed with the latest research, policy and guidance. The Education Elf will keep you up to date with high quality research and summarise it for you in a simple, clear and engaging way.

Why start this website now?

The overall quality of educational research is poor. Few teachers have time to read research and school leaders rarely refer to reliable evidence before making key decisions. However, there are signs of improvement. Good quality reviews and studies are becoming more prevalent and there’s increasing interest from senior leaders and teachers in evidence-based summaries of what works.

So the time is ripe for an evidence-based education website that brings together all of the reliable research and guidance for busy teachers. The Education Elf is that site.

Who is this website for?

Anyone working within education or education policy, or anyone with an interest in children  and their development from the age of 0 to 19 years. If you are a teacher, school leader, governor, educational policy maker, researcher, parent or student, then this site will enable you to keep up to date.

How do we find the evidence to include?

We search across a wide range of international sources (databases, websites, journals, contacting researchers/ authors) for the most reliable research relevant to UK educational practice. Topics for inclusion may range from teaching and learning, special education needs, school leadership, student and staff wellbeing, and more. Each week, we sift through hundreds of articles to find the highest quality research for inclusion on this website.

If you are involved in producing research that we may consider for inclusion, please use the contact form below to get in touch.

Who is involved?

Our Chief Blogger is Dr Pooky Knightsmith

Other bloggers:

National Elf Service

The site is managed by Minervation who have already launched a number of other health evidence blogs as part of the National Elf Service:

Keeping up to date

There are lots of different ways to keep up to date with the Education Elf. You can visit this website or follow via Twitter (@EducationElf), Facebook and in a free weekly email newsletter (coming soon).

We’d love to hear what you think of this new venture.  Please use the comment form below to share your thoughts.