Governments urgently need better national information bases for determining educational policy and practice in an increasingly interconnected world. This report, from the first phase of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), presents a framework for improved international cooperation in improving the knowledge base for…

The products of research and the successes of curriculum reforms are often inaccessible to teachers, administrators, and policymakers. This paper was designed to help researchers communicate their knowledge of successful curriculum reform to policymakers and practitioners, in order to influence practice. It focuses on making more effective use of…

This paper is a review of the research literature related to theories of reasoning and teacher thinking. Judgment theory, decision theory, and problem-solving theory are discussed. Reviews are provided for studies from three major research projects on teacher thinking: The Institute for Research on Teaching, Special Study C of the Beginning…

The major purpose of Project CAUSE (Collaborative for Alabama Urban School Educators) as explained in section I of this report was to get educators in the Birmingham and Mobile school systems, in the Alabama State Department of Education, and in the Appalachia Educational Laboratory to (1) collaborate in identifying and solving problems; and (2)…

The sixth volume of a 10-volume report, this document provides an analytic history of dissemination at the National Institute of Education, focusing on six dissemination-related programs supported by the Institute: Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), State Dissemination Capacity Building Program, Urban Sites/Documentation and…

Public school districts vary widely in the extent to which they are aware of, receive, and use research and development (R&D) resources produced by four major programs within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). A 95 percent response rate to a survey sent to a probability sample of 1,093…

Discussion of the research-to-practice gap in special education focuses on the dissemination problems of scale, school politics, and social and institutional contexts, including schools of education. Recommendations include improving access to a teacher friendly research knowledge base, improving preservice education, creating broader staff…

Updating a 1978 literature review, this document assembles five articles analyzing recent research on how various types of educational agencies disseminate information for school improvement. Each article summarizes literature relevant to one type of educational agency, discusses interrelationships among the research findings, and assesses the…

Demands for better diffusion of social studies instructional materials became widespread in the 1960s and early 1970s. These demands were largely in response to teachers' curiosity about the vast quantities of new social studies materials; to curriculum developers' desire that their materials be adapted; and to the public insistence on the best…

The Interstate Project on Dissemination specified four components as critical for a successful state information dissemination system: linkage, information, incentive, and management. An analysis of Pennsylvania's system, using this Project as a referent, uncovered several problems: (1) the linkage component was not functioning; (2) local…

Actual and potential relationships between evaluators and linkers--curriculum or management specialists who disseminate the products of evaluation to school districts--were explored. Evaluation and linkage evolved as distinct educational occupations, stimulated by federal involvement in research, development, and school improvement since the early…