Indirect routes to strengthening research-practice connections, through intermediaries or knowledge brokers, have received little emphasis in discussions of education research and practice. Joel Malin compares direct and indirect approaches to making these connections and considers how indirect actors are situated in the education system and what…

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are long-term collaborations between researchers and practitioners aimed at educational improvement and transformation through engagement with research. Yet RPPs can be challenging to implement, and even long running RPPs experience bumps in their work together. Caitlin Farrell, Laura Wentworth, and Michelle…

After decades of frustration that education research is irrelevant to practice and that educators do not use research to inform their work, there is reason to believe that the relationship between research and practice is improving. Elizabeth Farley-Ripple describes the how the conversation about research and practice is becoming broader, how…

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) provide opportunities for researchers to support school districts in addressing the complex challenges they face. Cynthia E. Coburn, William R. Penuel, and Caitlin C. Farrell situate RPPs in the history of educational research and discuss the needs they were designed to address. They then describe what…

The relationship between research and practice in K-12 is complicated and fraught. Research publications are unlikely to become more "user-friendly," and teachers are unlikely to change their practice quickly or more willingly -- nor should they. Recognize that reality, Isobel Stevenson and Richard Lemons explain that schools need to…

State education agencies play critically important roles in promoting research use in education. They influence policy design and implementation, collect data about schools and districts, and can use their statewide reach to advance research use within the state agency and in districts. As Carrie Conaway explains, the states that have done the…

In the past decade, research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have grown in number and reputation. Stephanie Brown and Annie Allen describe the varied ways partnerships facilitate more sustained and productive relationships between researchers and practitioners. They share key findings from a comparative case study of three different types of RPPs…

District leaders often feel that working with researchers is not mutually beneficial. Researchers do not provide enough practical guidance, and they are often unable to present their findings in time to inform district decision making. Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a potential new strategy for addressing these challenges. RPPs are…

Scholarship that moves from research into practice shares characteristics that make it visible to teachers, friendly to their worldview, practicable for realities of K-12 schools, and easily sharable. That doesn't mean however, that it's good or effective. Connecting research and practice is important work, if only because it has the…

A consensus is emerging about how school leaders affect school performance, and how important principals are to improved student learning. Yet the national reform policies--No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top (RTT)--incorporate assumptions about school and district leadership that are very much at odds with this research. NCLB and RTT call…

In fall 1983, the author was asked to write a column that would bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners and systematize "Phi Delta Kappan's" haphazard approach to reporting research studies. For the column's 20th anniversary, the author wrote a three-part series, "The Trouble with Research," which talks about how research has been…

Unlike every other developed country, Canada has had no national or pan-Canadian agency that works to support and promote research in education, and especially to build connections between research, policy, and practice. Canada has a national granting council that funds academic research in all fields, including education (the Social Sciences and…

Strengthening connections between research and practice is an important goal in education. Making the connection has both a supply side and a demand side but the demand is often ignored in education. The authors offer six hypotheses about why this situation occurs.

In this reply, the author agrees with Eric Jensen on several important points, among them: that neuroscientific data are relevant to educational research, that these data have already proved useful, and that neuroscience alone should not be expected to generate classroom-ready prescriptions. He sharply disagrees with him, however, on the prospects…

Comparing teaching to medicine, this article argues that thoughtful practitioners intelligently evaluate educational research, reconcile that research with practical knowledge, and use artistry in considering the context. Researchers must, in turn, communicate to teachers their respect for the wisdom needed in their practice. (MLH)