Academic Research

A frequent question teachers have when participating in professional development sessions is, "What does the research say about this technique, approach, strategy, etc.?" As practitioners, teachers are not typically on the front lines of conducting academic research and/or developing academic theories, yet they are on the front lines of putting research and theory into practice. This disconnect is articulated well in the recent Cult of Pedagogy blog post. Here is an excerpt from the post: 

"It’s like the university folks who study best teaching practices are standing at the edge of a canyon and all the way on the other side are the actual practicing teachers. There should be steady, clear communication between these two groups—lots of good bridges that are easy to access—but so far we only have a few, and far too many of us on the teaching side don’t even know about them." 

If you're interested in learning more about how practicing teachers can find, read and use academic research, the full post can be found HERE.