½¿É«µ¼º½

With a greater emphasis on engagement and impact within academia, academics are increasingly creating research summaries, and other outputs, to share their research findings for teachers, and other members of the education profession. In this blog post we highlight key considerations for academics interested in creating research summaries.

First, effective research communication is more than simply making research findings accessible – it is about motivating interest and engagement in the topic, deepening knowledge and understanding, providing practical guidance, and encouraging professional enquiry, critical thinking and collaborative discussion to support with contextually appropriate use (EEF, 2021; Education Scotland, 2025). Indeed, as school cultures and student communities vary considerably across the UK, academic research often needs to be contextualised to be optimally introduced and embedded in different school contexts. Therefore, providing reflective questions within research summaries – which encourage teachers to consider the research within their own context, and with their own students – can support teachers to embed research in more contextually appropriate ways.

‘Academic research can sometimes challenge prevailing beliefs in education about student learning; therefore, effective research summaries may need to change both hearts and minds.’

Recent research also suggests that education professionals may be more likely to use research summaries when content is accessible (such as uses language/terminology which is understandable), presented and structured clearly and succinctly (for example using visuals, clear headings and summaries) and is acceptable (that is, more closely aligned with their own views and/or interests) (Woollacott, 2025). These are therefore all key considerations to bear in mind. However, academic research can sometimes challenge prevailing beliefs in education about student learning; therefore, effective research summaries may need to change both hearts and minds. Building relationships with teachers and others working within the education community (for instance through attending professional events, such as ) can help academics refine their knowledge of current thinking and discourse within education, which can support with the creation of more effective and acceptable research summaries/outputs. Further, becoming more familiar with relevant curricula and education policy documentation can develop knowledge around terminology and priorities within education, which – when embedded within research summaries/research-informed outputs – can increase their accessibility and relevance.

A step further can be to involve teachers, and other professionals, in the cocreation of research summaries/outputs. This approach can be particularly effective at synthesising expertise from research and practice (see for example ) and increase accessibility, acceptability and credibility of outputs. In addition, research summaries which integrate insight from different disciplinary perspectives (for example psychological, educational, sociocultural) are rare, yet these can be powerful tools to support teachers’ knowledge, understanding and thinking of practice. To achieve both, collaborating beyond university and disciplinary boundaries is essential.

Over the past year there has been growing interest and use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a knowledge broker – a tool to rapidly find, select and summarise academic research for educators (Kennedy et al., 2025). To date, research has raised concerns about the use of current AI tools to communicate academic research, in terms of its accuracy, relevancy, applicability and credibility (Rycroft-Smith & Macey, 2025). Yet despite these concerns, AI is likely to be used increasingly by educators if good alternatives are not available. There is therefore an urgent need for academics to improve the accessibility, relevancy and quality of research summaries aimed at practitioner use, to ensure quality academic research is accurately understood and informs practice.

To create effective research summaries/outputs, academics may wish to consider the following:

• read relevant curricula and policy documentation, and attend education professional events, to familiarise yourself with current terminology, priorities and discourse within education
• create research summaries which seek to interest and engage the education profession, rather than simply communicating key research findings in an accessible way
• embed reflective questions within research summaries to encourage professional enquiry, critical thinking and collaborative discussion – such as, are there any students who would particularly benefit from or be disadvantaged by this research?
• develop relationships with education professionals, and academics working within other disciplinary areas, to draw upon a wider range of expertise to inform research summaries.

References

Education Endowment Foundation [EEF]. (2021). Effective professional development: Guidance report.

Education Scotland. (2025). The national model of professional learning.

Kennedy, B. L., Lowden, K., & Kat, B. (2025). An introduction to the Centre for Teaching Excellence’s research briefs: Identifying, selecting, reading, and synthesising research. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Glasgow. Ìý

McGeown, S., Oxley, E., Ricketts, J., & Shapiro, L. (2023). Working at the intersection of research and practice: The love to read project. International Journal of Educational Research, 117, Article 102134.

Rycroft-Smith, L., & Macey, D. (2025). All sizzle, no steak: AI tools are not able to act as credible knowledge brokers by summarising evidence in mathematics education. Conference Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics.

Woollacott, B. (2025). Effective research communication in education: Early years practitioners’ views of research summaries. Review of Education, 13(1), Article e70032.