Learn about the ten strands that have been updated in the flagship Teaching and Learning Toolkit from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).
What is the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit?
The EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit helps to take the wealth of evidence on ‘what works well’ in the classroom and summarise significant strategies in a report that is easy to digest and navigate. The toolkit considers which approaches have the most impact on learning outcomes for students (particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds) and it comprises of 30 strands such as ‘Teaching assistant interventions’ and ‘School uniform’. These strands are evaluated by their cost to implement, the average impact they have on learning outcomes and the strength of the evidence (for impact). Each strand also gives schools advice on how they could effectively implement it. It is noted however, that every school is different so this toolkit is intended to provide general guidance for schools to consider against their own context. 1
About the updates
The toolkit is regularly added to as new research is released. On Wednesday 21st May 2025, research from hundreds of new studies was added, updating ten of the toolkits strands. Metacognition and self-regulation is one of the most accessed strands in the toolkit and it has just been updated with information from 107 new studies – many from international contexts. There has also been more practical guidance added for teachers in implementing metacognitive strategies and the estimated average impact of this strand has increased to plus eight months progress for pupils (previously plus 7 months). Oral language interventions includes 34 new studies with an increased focus on interventions that have been tested in early years and primary settings. 2
The other updated strands include:
- Social and emotional learning
- Mentoring
- Summer schools
- Extending school time
- Parental engagement
- Peer tutoring
- Behaviour interventions
- Physical activity
Read more about the new research.
References
- EEF (2025) ‘Teaching and Learning Toolkit: Toolkit explainer’. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit (Accessed: 02 June 2025)
- EEF (2025) ‘EEF launches comprehensive updates to ten strands of the Teaching and Learning Toolkit’. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/updates-ten-strands-toolkit (Accessed: 02 June 2025)
