In recent years the notion of evidence-based practice has been promoted by many Western governments and by international organisations such as the OECD. The origins of the idea lie in the evidence-based medicine movement which began in the late 1980s, but it has come to be extended to many areas of public policy. In UK, in education, this has taken place against the background of policy interventions aimed at ‘driving up standards’ in terms of test and examination results through the introduction of both increased competition amongst schools and colleges and also new inspection regimes. Recently, the UK Government has implemented an apprenticeship model of teacher education which assumes that more time spent in schools leads to better and 'more relevant' professional learning.  But an equally important strand of this policy is that the role of research is envisaged as demonstrating ‘what works’ in the classroom, in other words what is technically effective, and ‘what works’ in terms of professional development to improve teacher expertise and performance in these terms.  To this effect, the UK government aims to work with a wide range of organisations to provide this research, extending beyond the University education departments in which most educational researchers are based.   The aim of this paper is to question some of the assumptions built into these recent policies, especially about the relationship between research and educational practice.  There is, of course, a long history of discussion, policies and practices concerned with this relationship. These recent developments therefore are an aspect of a much longer-term process and demonstrate a reconceptualization of the purpose of teacher education, as well as about the nature and function of research.  Some have described this as a transformation of the ‘contract’ between researchers and society.  The most influential version of this argument is the claim that a new form of knowledge production has emerged and is becoming increasingly influential.  This is often given the label of ‘Mode’ 2, in order to contrast it with ‘Mode’ 1, which refers to traditional forms of knowledge production characteristic of universities. The argument has been, in effect, that the increasing preponderance of Mode 2 is a change that cannot be resisted, and that researchers –especially those in universities – must adapt to it.  Others have argued that these developments fitted with the ‘new public management’ that became influential in the 1990s, aimed at making public sector professionals including teachers more ‘transparently’ accountable. I will examine both sets of arguments by focusing on the UK recent policies for teacher education and teachers’ professional development.  I will address the following questions: What assumptions about the nature of educational practice are built into their approach to teacher education? What role can be assumed for education theory and intellectual activity in teachers’ professional learning? What role can research findings play in teachers’ professional learning?   What are the implications of these policies for University teacher education? 

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