Current research aiming to understand the gaps between research and practice in K-12 education often overlooks the importance of grasping the indirect relationships that develop between research and practice communities via the various people and organizations positioned to serve as knowledge brokers. The purpose of this study is to understand…

In an effort to bring more knowledge about "what works" to educational practitioners, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has made significant investments in developing and disseminating focused, rigorous research projects in order to increase the supply of and demand for this research in educational decision making. These efforts…

Factors that have slowed progress in middle grades reform include (1) emphasizing school-level, structural changes, such as merging curricular areas and instructional assignments, which do little to change the experience of students; and (2) basing reform more on rhetoric than research. Reviews the articles in this special issue, which seeks to…

Argues that Rubin and Rice endorsed a narrow conception of investigative quality and technique and overemphasized the potential value of research for practitioners. (Author)

From the outset, the Teaching and Learning Research Programme gave significant importance to the meaningful involvement of users, who were expected not only to be trialling the outcomes of the research but also, more importantly, to be consulted in the process of formulating the project proposals and in the research process itself. This level of…

The participatory research model used by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stout is discussed, with a focus on the value added to the research process and relevance of research applications when research is rehabilitation-need based and the research-to-applications process model is used. Information is…

Provides recommendations for improving the quality and relevance of rehabilitation research. Recommendations include (a) increasing positive collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and disabled consumers in the planning, designing, and implementation of rehabilitation research projects; (b) expanding the use of single-case experimental…

Comparison of two studies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland regarding the efficacy of vocational education research and development highlights the importance of more rigorously establishing what happens to research results. Steps must be taken to ensure that such projects have a positive impact on practice and justify their costs. (SK)

To avoid the rejection of research findings, researchers and practitioners should jointly plan and conduct research. The SUPER Project is such a collaborative effort. It connects theory and practice in ways that are most useful to teachers and significant to researchers as they work together and learn each other's priorities. (VM)

This review of the 1989 Student Initiated Research and Field Initiated Research transition proposals considers the practical value of federally funded transition research. Proposals are analyzed by such criteria as importance, technical soundness, personnel, impact, and budget. Of a total of 54 proposals competitively approved, 5 dealt with…

Explores the interrelationship of educational research to art. Recommends using art as a part of research methodology. Describes the use of a nineteenth-century painting, "The Knitting Lesson," as a metaphor for incorporating the use of research in preservice art education. (CFR)

This paper examines how to increase the national vocational education and training (VET) research effort in Australia and the mechanisms to increase the knowledge about and use of research results. Section 1, "Introduction," addresses the rapid change in VET and importance of a national VET research effort. Section 2, "Increasing…

Over the past 25 years, five large-scale research studies of community college students have been conducted in North Carolina, involving cooperation between Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges. The different research strategies employed in these studies can be seen as taking one…

The purpose of this book is to help school administrators who use educational research by describing and explaining the components of research and skills of researchers. Chapter 1 defines educational research. Chapter 2 describes streams of research on particular administrative problems. Chapter 3 illustrates the conduct of a research review and…

The structure and function of the California Educational Research Cooperative (CERC), a collaborative action research organization designed to link research to educational practice, is described in this paper. A brief history of school-university partnerships and a review of the status of these partnerships is provided, followed by a description…