Facilitating the Use of Research in Practice: Teaching Students to Plan Experiments

Abstract

Research is a systematic inquiry into phenomena to understand the phenomena and/or to solve problems related to the phenomena. Though tentative and not always correct, research knowledge can provide different perspectives of practices in school and balance the use of practitioner knowledge in classroom teaching, which is also not always correct. Several studies have indicated that teachers may not be able to find research that is relevant and practical for their immediate needs, and even if the relevant research reports can be found, teachers may have difficulty in reading, understanding and acting on them; the studies suggest that intermediaries work with teachers to address these issues. This chapter proposes guidelines to help intermediaries identify relevant studies that can help teachers address their areas of concern, interpret these studies, present them, explain how the findings and suggestions from the studies can be implemented in their classrooms and work with them in the implementation. The guidelines were developed based on a case study in which an intermediary (the author) facilitated the use of educational research by three chemistry teachers in their practice by supporting the teachers in the development of research-informed instructional material and strategies to address their students’ difficulties in planning chemistry experiments.