Education (TESOL)
This page contains information for conducting a systematic review in Education. This includes formal guidelines such as handbooks, reporting standards, protocol development and registration, search construction and analysis, critical appraisal and a selection of method books, chapters and papers.
For database and search translation advice, please see the TESOL Library Research Guide.
Guidelines
This section contains handbooks, reporting standards, protocol development, search construction and critical appraisal tools (suitable for education) to give you background information on all stages of the review.
Handbooks
Handbooks are comprehensive guides to conducting a systematic review from protocol development to reporting the results.
- What Works Clearinghouse Procedures Handbook Version 4.0
Topics include - developing the review protocol, identifying relevant literature, screening and reviewing studies and reporting on findings. Also includes magnitude of findings and statistical significance for randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs. - MECCIR Conduct Standards (docx)
Methodological Expectations of Campbell Collaboration Intervention Reviews (MECCIR) are standards for the conduct of Campbell systematic reviews of intervention effects.
Reporting standards
Reporting standards aim to improve the standards of reporting in evidence synthesis. Utilising reporting standards from the beginning of your research project will ensure all the relevant methodological information is included for the peer-review process.
- MECCIR Reporting Standards
Methodological expectations of Campbell Collaboration intervention reviews: Reporting standards
Details the methodological expectations of the Campbell Collaboration in reviewing intervention effect. Includes an editable table to record and track methods in your study. - PRISMA-S for Searching
PRISMA-S is an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews. Use the checklist to ensure your literature search is adequately reported in your review document. Covers information sources and methods, search strategies, peer review and managing records.
Protocol development & registration
A review protocol defines the scope of a systematic review including the research question/s, populations, settings and outcomes. The search strategy for retrieving papers is also outlined in the protocol. Register your systematic review protocol to ensure your topic is not duplicated unknowingly by another researcher.
- WWC Evidence review protocol for interventions for English learners
This review-specific protocol guides the review of research that informs the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) intervention reports in the English learners (EL) topic area. The review-specific protocol is used in conjunction with the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbooks (version 4.0). - What Works Clearinghouse review protocols
A full list of available protocols from What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) for reviews on different educational topics. - International database of education systematic reviews
IDESR is a database of published systematic reviews in education and a clearinghouse for protocol registration of ongoing and planned systematic reviews. Search the database and/or register your protocol if you're planning a systematic review.
Search construction & analysis
Learn how to develop a database search that retrieves all the published literature on a research topic.
- Searching for studies: A guide to information retrieval for Campbell Systematic Reviews.
A comprehensive guide to information sources, search planning, search strategies, reference management, text mining, and reporting and documenting the search. - PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement
Detailed recommendation on search strategies for systematic reviews. Includes checklist and practical advice. - Information Retrieval Methods Group - Systematic Review Search Checklist
Campbell Collaboration's systematic review search checklist.
Critical appraisal
Critical appraisal tools are frameworks used to evaluate the quality of studies included in your review. Decide how you will critically appraise the studies before you begin your review, and use them to inform the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
- ESSA Tiers of Evidence
Provide schools and educators with a framework for determining which programs,
practices, strategies, and interventions work in which contexts and for which students. - Study DIAD
Guide to critical appraisal in mixed-method social science research. Details the Study Design and Implementation Assessment Device (Study DIAD). - Standards for Reporting on Humanities-Oriented Research
Published by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2009. Used to assess the quality of humanities-oriented educational research. - Standards for Reporting on Empirical Social Science Research in AERA PublicationsPublished by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2006. Used to assess the quality of social-science-oriented educational research.
- CASP Checklists
A set of eight critical appraisal tools that are designed to be used when reading research. It has appraisal checklists designed for use with systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, case control studies, economic evaluations, diagnostic studies, qualitative studies and Clinical Prediction Rule.
Method books, chapters and papers
A selection of books, book chapters and research papers on systematic review methods.
- A primer on qualitative research synthesis in TESOL
This paper provides a step-by-step methodological framework for qualitative research synthesis (QRS) in TESOL and discusses the place and value of QRS in TESOL. - Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology, perspectives and application
In this open-access edited volume, international researchers of the field describe and discuss the systematic review method in its application to research in education. Alongside fundamental methodical considerations, reflections and practice examples are included and provide an introduction and overview on systematic reviews in education research. - Using systematic reviews in guideline development: The GRADE approach
This paper summarises the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach to producing guidelines from systematic reviews of the literature. For training in the GRADE approach, please see the MacGRADE Centre Training Modules https://cebgrade.mcmaster.ca/training/. - Overviews in education research: A systematic review and analysis
Guidelines for improving the rigour and utility of systematic reviews in educational research. - Best practice guidelines for abstract screening large-evidence systematic reviews and meta-analysesProvides a set of 10 best practice guidelines for large systematic reviews and meta-analyses in educational research. Uses examples from the published literature.
