Why INSPIRE: Make teaching decisions that actually work to improve the world
Channel: Michael Noetel Performance Psychologist
Date: 2021-06-17

http://bit.ly/INSPIREToolkit

When we had our first son we were told really clearly that for his safety we should sleep him on his back, and since the early 90s that's been common practice largely due to a really strong public health campaign called back to sleep. 

There was such a strong push because up until that point most kids were slept on their tummies. There was strong advice from experts and parenting books that said it was the safest thing for parents to do. But, according to a 2008 article in the BMJ, if researchers had done a systematic review in 1970, there was compelling evidence that sleeping kids on their tummies increased the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Twenty five years before it became common practice, researchers had convincing evidence that sleeping children on their back saved lives, so much so that if the public health campaign was initiated back then, it would have saved 50,000 babies in the US, Australia, and the UK alone.

This teaches us two things. Knowing the truth about what works can have powerful ramifications. Tummy sleeping doesn’t work—despite logical arguments from experts that it does—and the best way to find the truth was a good systematic review that included all the evidence. But, the second lesson is that it can take a long time for things that are part of the scientific consensus to be translated into practice. It’s impossible for practitioners to critically evaluate all the science about what works while also working at the coal face. They need help to distill the literature into key findings and translate it into practice.

But what does this have to do with teaching at a university? Some of the things we teach might not be as impactful as saving 50,000 babies, but a lot of what we teach is designed to try to make the world a happier, healthier place. The problem is that the stuff we teach doesn’t improve the world if students don't remember what we're teaching them, or they don't finish their degrees. For just one example, at ACU we actually teach midwifery students how to sleep babies, but how they're taught will predict how well they translate this to practice. What students are taught is important, but of equal importance is how students are taught. How do us academics know what actually works to improve learning or to keep students engaged?
Like tummy sleeping, there are lots of experts and books with strong arguments for what works in higher education, and lots of which is useful. But, ultimately, we think the best way to know what’s working in education is a systematic review that synthesises all of the best evidence. But these reviews can be complex, and there are so many out there that it’s impossible to stay on top of it all while juggling your actual teaching (let alone everything else you do). Like doctors and midwives, many of us academics need help distilling the literature into key strategies that work, so we can better focus our attention where it’s most important.
This is what INSPIRE hopes to do for you. We translate the most reliable knowledge about what works in higher education into simple tools for academics to use in practice. We want to make using systematic reviews in your practice as easy and helpful as possible. We’ll help you combine your expertise with the best-practice evidence, allowing you to tailor the most effective strategies to your context. We want to help you focus on what works, and avoid what doesn’t, so you can get the outcomes you care about most.