02Economic Co-operation and Development

Abstract

Against this backdrop, there is increasing interest in the role that research synthesis could play in efforts to enhance the impact of educational research and its influence on education policy and practice (e.g. Hattie, Rogers, and Swaminathan 2014). Research synthesis encom-passes a range of approaches used to bring together the findings of different research studies. Approaches that have been used in the education sector include systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and best-evidence syntheses, all of which involve an explicit way of identifying, appraising, and synthesising existing research. Andrews and Harlen (2006, 287) argue that research syntheses are essential to ‘any knowledge system that purports to be ‘evidence-based’ or ‘evidence-informed’, including policy, practice, and research’.