Calls for evidence-based policy often fail to recognise the fundamentally political nature of policy making. Policy makers must identify, evaluate and utilise evidence to solve policy problems in the face of competing priorities and political agendas. Evidence should inform but cannot determine policy choices. This paper draws on theories of…

A model for school policy makers is provided to help clarify the process of applying research findings to schools and classroooms. The 10-step model is meant to facilitate the systematic review of research and the planning and implementation of new programs and to illustrate potential university and school district cooperation. (Author/PP)

A review and analysis of a report on school practitioner involvement in improvement of educational practice is presented with additional inferences on the ability of schools of education to foster practitioner involvement. In the first section, research is reviewed in three areas of educational practice in which teachers may be involved: (1)…

Issues and problems associated with university involvement in public sector activities and the knowledge transfer process are examined. After a brief statement of the state-of-the-art in knowledge transfer, attention is directed to one of the basic issues presented in the literature: the appropriateness and inappropriateness of university…