Translating Educational Research into Classroom Practice: Working Together to Close the Gap

Abstract

The research-to-practice gap, the disconnect between what we know about education and what we do in practice (Olswang & Prelock, 2015) or the gap between the production of new knowledge through research and its inclusion in routine practice by educators (Greenwood & Abbott, 2001) has been discussed and examined in the education field for many decades. However, this gap continues to be a challenge researchers and educators face (Kane, 2016). The current literature on the research-to-practice gap does not address the process by which teachers are engaging with educational research when facing challenges in the classroom. If teachers are to participate in closing the gap, we need to better understand their selection processes for various outlets of educational research. The current study is a mixed methods survey research design examining how pre-service teachers (n = 28) select sources of information (academic and non-academic) to solve instructional and behavioral challenges they may encounter in the classroom, why they choose the sources they do, and their opinions on solutions to close the research-to-practice gap. The findings showed that pre-service teachers were more likely to use their personal relationships with colleagues as source of gathering new information because these colleagues provide practical information for challenges they face in their classrooms. Suggestions for interventions proposed by pre-service teachers and future directions are discussed.