As spaces for researchers and practitioners to engage in long-term, mutual collaborations aimed at addressing problems of practice in education, research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer rich contexts for research use. Our study examines how interactions between researchers and practitioners shape opportunities for research use in a professional…

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…

The Urban Development Component at Research for Better Schools, Inc., attempted to attack problems facing urban secondary schools in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by using the "natural channels" of educational and civic associations to disseminate research and development information and to work collaboratively toward improving…

After reviewing suggestions offered in the other papers in this volume for addressing the research/practice gap in higher education, this final paper discusses how national organizations and professional associations can serve as change agents in building bridges between researchers and practitioners. (DB)

Suggests approaches to improving application of knowledge derived from basic research in relevant disciplines based on investigation of methods used at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Discussion includes factors contributing to application of basic knowledge, how they contribute, favorable conditions for, steps to strengthen, and obstacles to…