When used appropriately, non-significant p-values have the potential to further our understanding of what does not work in education, and why. When misinterpreted, they can trigger misguided conclusions, for example about the absence of an effect of an educational intervention, or about a difference in the efficacy of different interventions. We examined the frequency of non-significant p-values in recent volumes of peer-reviewed educational research journals. We also examined how frequently researchers misinterpret non-significance to imply the absence of an effect, or a difference to another significant effect. Within a random sample of 50 peer-reviewed articles, we found that of 528 statistically tested hypotheses, 253 (48%) were non-significant. Of these, 142 (56%) were erroneously interpreted to indicate the absence of an effect, and 59 (23%) to indicate a difference to another significant effect. For 97 (38%) of non-significant results, such misinterpretations were linked to potentially misguided implications for educational theory, practice, or policy. We outline valid ways for dealing with non-significant p-values to improve their utility for education, discussing potential reasons for these misinterpretations and implications for research.

如果使用得当，非显着的p值有可能进一步帮助我们理解什么在教育​​中不起作用以及为什么不起作用。如果被误解，它们可能会引发错误的结论，例如关于教育干预措施没有效果，或者关于不同干预措施的功效存在差异的结论。我们检查了最近几卷同行评审的教育研究期刊中非显着p值的频率。我们还研究了研究人员将不显着性误解为没有效果或与其他显着效果存在差异的频率。在 50 篇同行评审文章的随机样本中，我们发现在 528 个经过统计检验的假设中，253 个 (48%) 不显着。其中，142 个 (56%) 被错误地解释为表明没有效果，59 个 (23%) 被错误地解释为表明与另一个显着效果存在差异。对于 97 个（38%）不显着的结果，这种误解与教育理论、实践或政策的潜在误导性影响有关。我们概述了处理非显着p值以提高其教育效用的有效方法，讨论了这些误解的潜在原因以及对研究的影响。