In Search of Evidence

Summary and General Discussion
common with other evidence-based practitioners than with non evidence-based
colleagues from their own profession who do not embrace an evidence-based
paradigm’ (Dawes et al., 2005).
REFLECTIONS
Transformational Learning
As explained in chapter 2, evidence-based medicine started as a teaching method.
In the early 1990s, a small group of physicians from McMaster University developed a
course in which medical students’ practical questions and problems were taken as a
starting point, and the findings of medical research were used to support clinical
decision-making. In the appendix, an interview with two of these pioneers is
presented. The reason for including this interview in this thesis is best worded by an
anonymous reviewer who appraised the original article: ‘What I take from this article is
the true career- and life-changing value of training in evidence-based practice, which is
fostering an inquiring mind that appreciates the difference between trustworthy and
less trustworthy evidence and is committed to making the world a better place.’ This
quotation reflects the most important thing I have learned from writing this thesis —
that teaching evidence-based practice is not just about developing students’ skills and
knowledge, but about giving them a totally new perspective on the world. It is about
changing the way they think. This ‘transformational learning’ process should start early
in a person’s professional training, maybe even at primary school (Mezirow, 1997). In
this age of the Internet, young people are bombarded with information, and, in order
to cope with this overload, their brains naturally filter out information that does not
confirm their existing beliefs. By teaching evidence-based practice skills we can help
them to distinguish trustworthy from less-trustworthy information and prevent them
from becoming overly prone to their own biases.
The same is true for managers. Since many of them have not learned how to
critically evaluate the quality of evidence, too much attention is paid to unfounded
beliefs, fads, and fashions, and the success stories of famous CEOs. As a result, billions
of dollars are spent on ineffective management practices, to the detriment of
employees, their families, and society at large. As teachers of the next generation of
managers we have a moral obligation to change this situation (Rynes, Rousseau, &
Barends, 2014). We can do this by teaching management students the principles of
evidence-based practice (perhaps considering these essential ‘21 st -century skills’), ie
being able to distinguish evidence from opinion, probability from certainty, facts from
assertions, and theory from dogma (Hurd, 1998).