If some practitioners are more research minded than others, then promising approaches for bridging the research to practice gap may be developed by describing research-minded practitioners and examining how to locate and support them. This article follows this basic logic in providing an overview of organizational development and practitioner…

The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED)--which the College of Education and Social Services (CESS) at the University of Vermont has actively been involved in since 2007--has invited us to think carefully about our EdD doctoral program and its role in the improvement of schools and society. Although the EdD program in Educational…

Several factors determine whether it is in the interest of educational practitioners to utilize educational research. The first factor is the amount of work that is involved in utilizing research. Anything that makes it easier to use research weakens resistance to utilization. A second factor is the incentive structure of the schools. To motivate…

It is not likely that the schools as presently organized and conducted and with the prevailing model of change employed for their improvement can be redesigned to meet satisfactorily the wide and varied range of expectations for them. The schools are suffering from a confusing array of expectations and a crippling overload of functions. Our…

Using a framework that draws upon current organizational theory and assumptions about knowledge utilization and school improvement this report examines the process of change at the school level. The model developed attempts both to categorize the "strategies" employed by the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program/projects and…

Presents a model of how research and practice communicate, describes indicators of how communications are breaking down between practitioners and researchers in the National Association for Performance and Instruction (NSPI), speculates on long-term consequences, discusses factors contributing to the communication problem, and suggests tactics to…

A growing number of researchers are questioning the usefulness of reform strategies that do not provide teachers with specific information about how to implement changes. The replication of successful programs depends on giving teachers the tools they need to carry out reforms by explaining them in detail. (SLD)

Basic science is a process by which new knowledge is discovered; engineering is the process by which this new knowledge is made useful for practical situations or to solve particular problems. In education, new products are developed, research is completed, and the knowledge base is expanded, but there is no corollary to the engineer to make…

Recent research has shown that, to exercise more effective leadership, principals need to match their behaviors with the appropriate needs and concerns of teachers. Concepts and tools from work done by the Research on Concerns-Based Adoption Project at the Austin campus of the University of Texas were employed to provide principals in the Palm…

Research for Better Schools (RBS) is supporting improvement efforts in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. One form of this support is RBS's participation in collaborative projects to develop a system-wide, research-utilization approach to the improvement of basic skills instruction. Educational systems following the approach employ a staff…

This paper examines the role of the educational linking agent in facilitating the dissemination and use of research information at the local school level. A model is developed. (Author/MLF)

Reports on a survey of the communications mechanisms used by 23 public library leaders and on their need to bridge a perceived communication gap between researchers and librarians. Five recommendations for closing the gap, based on respondent suggestions and Everett M. Roger's diffusion of innovation model, are proposed. (nine references) (KRN)

As part of the preseminar materials for participants at a seminar on dissemination processes and effective schooling, the purpose of this document was to help the participants consider issues in the dissemination, utilization, and implementation of research on effective schools. The document comprises a series of quotes, excerpts, statements,…

The state of the art in the implementation of education innovation is assessed in three parts: (1) the identification of promising theories, important issues, and proven implementation strategies with emphasis on practical implications; (2) a review of research directly related to the development and implementation of new occupational education…

The erosion of the credibility of the classical diffusion paradigm by recent challenges to its fundamental assumptions has resulted in a "paradigmatic crisis" as related to research on the diffusion of agricultural innovations. Such basic assumptions as that of a harmonious and cooperative society and of agricultural research guided by endogenous…