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Quantitative research is based on epistemic beliefs that can be traced back to David Hume. Hume and others who followed in his wake suggested that we can never directly observe cause and effect. Rather we perceive what is called “constant conjunction” or the regularities of relationships among events. Through observing these regularities, we can develop generalizable laws that, once established, describe predictable patterns that can be replicated with reliability. This form of reasoning involves studying groups of individuals and is often called nomothetic and is contrasted with idiographic research that focuses on the uniqueness of the individual. It is clear that large-scale experiments with random assignment to treatment are based on nomothetic models, as are quasi-experimental studies where intact groups of people (e.g., students in a particular classroom) are assigned to treatments.

First-line leaders across the emergency services are instrumental in leading the development of a workforce fit to face current and future challenges. As such in addition to utilising their specific craft, leaders need to be equipped to understand and apply evidence-based practices. With a focus on first-line leadership in policing, this paper will have both national and international resonance for those organisations attempting to embed an evidence-based culture.

The paper utilises a review of literature to develop a viewpoint identifying challenges and benefits of the adoption of evidence-based policing (EBP) by first-line leaders.

First-line leaders, whether police officers, police staff or volunteers, require opportunities to develop their own knowledge, understanding and skills of applying EBP in the workplace. Acknowledging challenges exist in the widespread adoption of EBP, such learning, at the appropriate educational level, will enable leaders to effectively champion the adoption of EBP, informing both their own decision-making and professional practices as well as those across their teams.

The first-line leader role is highly influential, as such, it is essential that these leaders develop their knowledge, understanding and application of EBP in the workplace in order to lead the expected cultural change.

This paper provides a current framework for the understanding of the context and potential impact of educationally levelled formal leadership learning required to champion the broad adoption of EBP across policing.

Evidence-based practices have been shown to meaningfully improve learner outcomes by bodies of high-quality research studies and should therefore be prioritized for use in schools, especially with struggling learners such as students with learning disabilities. Although many resources are available on the internet with information about evidence-based practices, the magnitude and technical nature of the websites are often overwhelming to practitioners and are therefore not frequently used as part of the instructional decision-making process. In this chapter, we aim to provide a “one stop shopping experience” for readers interested in evidence-based practices for students with learning disabilities by reviewing five relevant website. Specifically, for each website we review (a) the procedures used to classify the evidence-based status of practices, (b) the classification scheme used to indicate the level of research support for practices, and (c) the practices reviewed for students with learning disabilities and their evidence-based classification. We conclude with a discussion of issues related to interpreting and applying information on evidence-based practices from these websites.

The research-to-practice gap occurs when practices supported as effective by research are infrequently used in applied settings, such as classrooms. This gap may be due to teachers preferring to use practices they find to be trustworthy, usable, and accessible. Instead of relying on research, teachers frequently use resources from other teachers, which may be because teachers prefer practices that are supported by evidence developed in applied settings (i.e., practice-based evidence [PBE]). Using PBE to support the application of evidence-based practices (EBPs) may increase the latter's use in classrooms. In this chapter, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both EBPs and PBE and how the two can complement each other to help lessen the research-to-practice gap. We also discuss mixed-methods approaches that can be used to combine EBPs with PBE.

The evidence‐based practice (EBP) model appears to have established itself as the principal change driver and discourse for the healthcare sector. This study sets out to identify the emergence of the term EBP in the professional literature to establish an empirical foundation for discussion. The understanding of and relevance to healthcare practitioners in a large South West London hospital are assessed and their views related to the perspective of library and information professionals to assess implications for practice.

An extensive literature search was carried out and the data generated used to produce a growth curve for the literature. A survey of health care professionals using e‐mail and follow‐up interviews was undertaken at the case hospital.

Between 1998 and 2004 the number of papers appearing to discuss the theme increased four‐fold. The first recorded reference was in 1991. The EBP model had strong official and political support in the field. On the user sample there is evidence of resistance to the orthodoxy.

The EBP model – variously adopted by several healthcare agencies – has placed information management at the centre of the care process. In spite of this, there are few definite implications for the role of library and information professionals, since the world of information and the UK NHS itself are continually in a state of flux, and the current EBP dominance may neither strengthen nor safeguard it.

The bibliometric study provides a baseline. The study of healthcare professionals is a case study to add to knowledge of practice.

This paper aims to disclose the role and features of various IT systems for environmental building performance (EBP) in facilities management.

The study focuses on IT systems used for facilities management in four organisations. The study is based on a maximum variance case study in which the selected organisations have different organisation type and portfolio size. Three organisations are from Denmark and one is from the UK.

Several IT systems can be used for managing EBP. EBP in IT systems is primarily reflected through energy management, with specific focus on monitoring and reporting electricity, heating and water consumption. Furthermore, greenhouse gas emissions related to energy consumption can be calculated in some IT systems, while other environmental categories like building materials and recycling potentials are not adequately supported by the systems covered in this study. Some IT systems offer additional features relating to EBP, such as waste management and space management, but the study shows that these features are not demanded at the current point.

The results can be used to support decision-making in organisations to improve EBP in facilities management by IT systems.

This study contributes with new knowledge on how IT systems are used in different organisations for managing EBP. The paper also shows how various IT systems can add value to real estate organisations and facilities management departments and support their business processes relating to EBP.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) can have a powerful impact on school-aged children. Yet this impact may not be realized if classroom teachers do not use empirically supported interventions and/or fail to include the best research available when they make important educational decisions about children. Whether classroom teachers use EBP may be influenced, in part, by what they learned or failed to learn in their preservice preparation programs. This chapter describes recent efforts to assess preservice teachers’ understanding and use of empirically supported interventions and provides four examples of how such practices were taught to preservice general educators in a small, regional teacher preparation program. We discuss four contemporary educational reform movements (i.e., federal policies mandating EBP, state-level policies linking growth in pupil learning to teacher evaluation, clinically rich teacher preparation, and the emergence of a practice-based evidence approach) that should increase interest and use of EBP in teacher education and offer recommendations for how teacher educators might infuse EBP into their traditional teaching, research, and service functions in higher education.

This paper aims to investigate how evidence-based policing (EBP) is understood by police officers and citizens in Taiwan and the influence of police education on police recruit's receptivity to research evidence in policing.

The study uses a cross-sectional design that includes Taiwanese police officers (n = 671) and a control group of Taiwanese criminology undergraduate students (n = 85). A research instrument covering five themes is developed, and after a pilot test the final scale remains 14 items.

The analysis suggests that police officers in Taiwan generally hold a positive view towards the role of research and researchers in policing, more so than is often observed in similar studies conducted in Western countries. Receptivity to research was found to be significantly higher among the non-police sample compared to the police sample. Moreover, time spent in police education was significantly associated with lower levels of receptivity to research.

The paper makes two original contributions to the literature on police officer receptivity to research. It is the first paper to (1) empirically examine police officers' openness to, and use of research in an Asian setting and (2) to compare police officers' receptivity to research with those of a relevant non-police group.