You're on the committee to recommend a different text book series. How do you begin? Why should you change; wasn't the old method working? Are there better books available? Chances are, several people have already studied this problem. You don't need to repeat their work. You can find several studies, compare them and make up your own mind.

         There are several approaches to using research to answer your questions. Below are 4 methods.

1. Start with a personal point of view. Find a statement in the conclusion section of each paper that you choose and if it agrees with your point of view, keep and quote that article frequently. Try to focus on choosing those articles which have been printed on the web independently of any peer reviewed evaluations on the quality of the research--that way, you'll be able to find an article supporting your view regardless of what view you hold.

2. Or you can take the time to responsibly evaluate the research that is available and: Find as many studies as you can on the problem you'd like to address. Read the full article; find how others have addressed the same issue, read the discussion section. Find other articles that refer to and critique the first ones. What faults or conclusions do other researchers find with the first study? Are the criticisms valid?

3. Find a study that uses mental analysis of many other studies. This is called the "Best Evidence" approach. In this approach, one study collects all the studies it can find, categorizes the research by instructional variations, and selects the strongest, best studies for each variation to generalize and average the results.

4. Finally, in addition to, and not in place of, use the web to talk with other teachers and ask them their personal experience. Most would be happy to correspond and tell you their opinion on how a technique works "in the trenches".