Research can and should inform teaching and learning. The importance of solid research evidence can, therefore, not be underestimated. Unfortunately, significant gaps still exist between research evidence, policy, and practice. The literature suggests there are many reasons for this, including a lack of awareness about the benefits of research, a…

A summary is given of investigations examining the attitudes of five- to twelve-year old children concerning (1) definitions of health and illness, (2) concepts of causation and prevention, (3) perceptions of vulnerability, and (4) use of health care providers, and suggestions are presented for implementing specific educational processes based on…

Argues that the personal commitments of teachers, common sense, and normative requirements can be valid bases for action. Asserts that overreliance on research knowledge is unwarranted: its value lies primarily in the scientific ethos and in processes of inquiry and only secondarily in the facts researchers lay claim to. (Author/KH)

An alternative approach to the professional development of educators is described. This approach focuses on the interrelationship between teacher behavior and child behavior and their joint influence on the learning environment. Theory and practice in education are interactive concepts rather than discreet and isolated entities. (JN)

What principals know about emerging trends in personnel evaluation and how their knowledge has been influenced by school contexts was studied with 64 principals in 4 very different school districts. Principal responses reflected differing degrees of knowledge and implementation of ideas suggested by recent research. (SLD)

This paper contrasts research knowledge and practice knowledge in special education; describes factors that moderate the influence of research on practice, including teacher knowledge and learning, teacher attitudes and beliefs, and context; and considers issues in reconceptualizing the relationship between research and practice in special…

The concept of knowledge utilization and the nature of practical decisions are analyzed to investigate how research knowledge and effective teaching practice are related. It is argued that the personal commitments of teachers, common sense, and normative requirements can also be valid bases for action. The author points out that an over-reliance…

Profiles a few of the affinities between pragmatists and scientific realists, and indicates a few dramatic differences dividing these schools of thought. Pragmatic research is driven by anticipated consequences. Scientific realists hope to find the truth about what the world is really like. (SLD)

As part of the efforts of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in support of the national goals for education (America 2000), staff members are cataloguing and synthesizing research to connect it to federal practice. This paper presents the basic argument that synthesizing research and translating it into practice-oriented…

This study provides a description and analysis of how teachers read research in light of prior beliefs about what research is and how it should influence teaching. Attention to teachers' beliefs has become an essential feature of studies designed to help understand research. The beliefs on which researchers and teacher educators typically focus…

Participants in a working conference on changing teacher practice made recommendations for future research. Two broad classes of recommendations were sought: findings from research on teaching most amenable to translation into staff development activities, and how that translation might occur so as to be most useful in bringing about desired…

Teacher knowledge is examined as a joint construction of teachers and researchers by analyzing contrasting narrative practices in the research interview in terms of how two teachers formulate versions of self. Seeing the narratives as representational technologies locates these teachers differently in the knowledge-constitutive networks of…

This book, which contains 15 chapters by various authors, aims to conceptualize new ways that knowledge is being "legitimized" through various formal and informal workplace-based research practices. It examines the new legitimations critically, and analyzes possible directions for future developments in work-based research and…

Educational research is distinctive inasmuch as it shares the moral objective of education, which is to help people make the best of themselves through processes of learning. Educational research is a service industry for education. As such, its contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of educational processes can be increased by focusing…

The purpose of this document is to encourage collaboration in research and development in postsecondary education through providing increased understanding of the diversity of contributions from professional educational researchers, teachers, librarians, and other school personnel. Emphasis is placed on the role of the educational practitioner, as…