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

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