Evidence Based Thinking (EBT): Decision Making and Policy Development

This course is available for on-campus & online learning. All students participate in interactive, real-time classes. 2026 dates: Jun 11, 18 & Jul 2. Evidence-based thinking is an approach to conducting your professional life be it in the private or public sector. When you read a business case or a policy development argument that asks you to accept a conclusion that has implications for you – Are you confident that your decisions are grounded in clear evidence? Are you put in situations where you make decisions by a ‘gut-feeling’ or intuition? Would you like someone you care about to be treated by a physician that has a ‘gut-feeling’ that treatment X or procedure Y is probably the ‘right’ choice? Using evidence-based thinking is akin to thinking as a clinician would – observing evidence – discarding the evidence that is irrelevant or invalid (think –fake news) - searching the evidence and removing ‘plausible alternative explanations’ before accepting it as supportive evidence for a decision. Would you believe information provided on any website without question? Should you believe evidence from researchers funded by a lobby group? If you were faced with two conflicting pieces of advice – how – without turning to the sources of the advice – could you evaluate that conflicting evidence? Evidence based thinking gives you the skills to make those substantive evaluations for yourself. The Evidence Based Thinking course will give you the understanding and knowledge to answer the following two questions: Should I believe what this person is telling me? How do I come to a credible decision that is evidence-based?