Delphi: a technique to harness expert opinion for critical decision‐making tasks in education

TLDR

In educational policy, expert opinion is essential for decisions on best practice, teacher development, and resource allocation, yet the complex, often overlooked process of gathering and validating such information can lead to biased outcomes, prompting the use of the Delphi method as a systematic, rigorous strategy. This paper reviews the Delphi procedure literature, justifies its use, outlines its distinctive features, discusses controversies, and surveys past and present applications. The authors conduct a comprehensive review of the Delphi procedure, synthesizing its rationale, features, controversies, and applications.

Abstract

Abstract Expert rather than general or informal opinion is often sought in the development of educational policy. Decisions to be made regarding best practice, the most effective way to deliver services, issues dealing with the professional development of teachers and the distribution of limited educational resources are examples which require critical thinking and reasoning. Regardless of the nature of the task, complex decision‐making is rarely left to the remit of one person and there is usually an assumption made that ‘two heads are better than one’. The organisational requirements of collecting, analysing, refining and validating critical information can be a long, arduous and often tedious process‐‐a process which can often be overlooked, resulting in ill‐defined, poorly conceived, biased and invalid determinations. The conventional Delphi procedure offers decision‐makers a user‐friendly, rigorous and systematic strategy in the collection and dissemination of critical information. This paper reviews the substantive literature relating to the Delphi procedure, provides a rationale for its use, describes the distinctive features, reviews key points of contention and provides an indication of both past and present uses