Ruth Colvin Clark - Evidence-Based Training Methods

I wrote the first edition of Evidence-Based Training Methods because there was a wealth of reports from research scientists in the academic literature. I believed then and today that much of this evidence remains unknown to practitioners. Academic research professionals and workforce learning practitioners constitute two quite separate communities of practice; there is little overlap in their publications and conferences. Most practitioners lack the time to search, read, and synthesize the many research reports available. Plus, although many research papers do give some guidance for practitioners, guidance is not their main goal. I believe practitioners need not only guidelines but also examples to illustrate implementing those guidelines.

Naturally, research continues to evolve. Fortunately, the science of instruction and learning does not move as quickly as, for example, medical research. However, many of the guidelines in the second edition needed updating. In the past few years, the research community has broadened their inquiry to evaluate not only immediate learning but also delayed learning and motivation. Sometimes an instructional method that may not offer big learning advantages but that is highly motivational is worth implementing.

Two new chapters in this edition focus on feedback and animations. Some topics such as games have inspired a great deal of recent research leading to updated chapters. I am also encouraged by a continued interest in evidence-based guidelines among practitionersespecially those in the allied health professions stimulated by the focus on evidence-based medicine. Finally, what author does not look back on their previous writing and not want to improve it? A third edition has offered me the opportunity to pursue all these goals.

This book is organized from smaller to larger instructional elements. Following the introductory chapters, I focus in I take a more macro view of lesson design with guidelines for explanations, teaching procedures, and building critical thinking skills. The book ends with an updated chapter on games and a recap of many evidence-based guidelines as they apply to your instructional design and development processes.

Each chapter includes introductory questions about the instructional method, some evidence on those questions, guidelines based on the evidence, and a short application checklist at the end. For a quick overview, go to the appendix to see a high-level checklist of guidelines, then go back to the specific chapters that review the evidence regarding any guidelines of particular interest to you.

There are many topics of interest in our field and you might wonder why certain topics are not addressed. My selection of topics is guided by the evidence available and by my ability to create a coherent set of guidelines around that evidence.

No one person can claim to be cognizant of all relevant evidence. My apologies for omissions. Nor can I claim a flawless interpretation of the evidence I do review. In this edition I have cited the evidence sources. These citations provide you the opportunity to review the evidence firsthand and draw your own conclusions.

Ruth Colvin Clark, 2020