Riordan, Sally; Higgins, Steve; (2025) Meta-Analysis in Education: history, purposes and challenges. In: Wyse, Dominic and Baumfield, Vivienne and Mockler, Nicole and Reardon, Martin, (eds.) The BERA-Sage Handbook of Research-Informed Education Practice and Policy: Understanding Research-Informed Education. SAGE Publishers: London, UK.

Text (Chapter 12) Riordan_Meta-analysis in Education.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 2 June 2027. Download (406kB)

Abstract

In this chapter we consider meta-analysis as a research method from the perspective of education and the contribution it makes to research-informed practice and policy. An introduction describes the concept and the next section highlights key features of the technique and includes a recent example. A series of challenges for meta-analysis in education are then outlined. Technical developments have been driven by the needs and contexts of clinical medicine and we identify some of the differences between medicine and education to understand the particular challenges of metaanalysis for education researchers. A number of the criticisms of meta-analysis apply to the summarisation of impact and effectiveness studies so when comparing its use in education and medicine, we focus on this application of meta-analysis in particular, as it is contentious in education. A final section looks and possible future developments in the field and draws some overall conclusions.

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