The European Educational Researcher

When and What Should We Measure? Evidence for Educational Decisions

Francois Lombard 1 *
1 Université de Genève, Switzerland* Corresponding Author
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The European Educational Researcher, Volume 9, Issue 2, June 2026, pp. 1-4
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 12 DOWNLOADS: 4 Publication date: 15 Jun 2026
ABSTRACT
Educational guidance requires evidence, but different educational decisions call for different kinds of evidence. What may count as good evidence for choosing a curriculum or pedagogy at system or departmental level may be poorly suited to decisions about teaching, responding to student difficulties, refining a learning design, or understanding how specific design features shape learning in practice. Because the value of assessment depends on the decision it is meant to inform, this editorial argues that evidence-based education should not be tied to a single methodological model. The focus is on pedagogical guidance, design refinement, and the interpretation of learning in context. For such purposes, evidence gathered only before and after instruction is often insufficient. Learning may be heterogeneous, non-linear, and unevenly responsive to specific design features; what matters for teachers, designers, and researchers is therefore not only whether an intervention works on average, but how students’ understanding develops during the learning process itself. The editorial highlights the value of timely, fine-grained evidence drawn from classroom activity, student productions, observation, and digital traces. Such evidence can make learning visible while there is still time to interpret it and respond to it. Broadening the evidentiary repertoire of educational research and practice may therefore strengthen the ambitions of evidence-based education.
KEYWORDS
Design-based research, Educational decision-making, Evidence-based education, Formative assessment, Learning in progress, Learning traces
CITATION (APA)
Lombard, F. (2026). When and What Should We Measure? Evidence for Educational Decisions. The European Educational Researcher, 9(2), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.921
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