Translating Research Knowledge to Policy and Practice

There is intense public interest in questions surrounding how children learn to read and how they can best be taught. Research in psychological science has provided answers to many of these questions but, somewhat surprisingly, this research has been slow to make inroads into educational policy and practice. Instead, the field has been plagued by decades of “reading wars.” Even now, there remains a wide gap between the state of research knowledge about learning to read and the state of public understanding. The aim of this article is to fill this gap. We present a comprehensive tutorial review of the science of learning to read, spanning from children’s earliest alphabetic skills through to the fluent word recognition and skilled text comprehension characteristic of expert readers. We explain why phonics instruction is so central to learning in a writing system such as English. But we also move beyond phonics, reviewing research on what else children need to learn to become expert readers and considering how this might be translated into effective classroom practice. We call for an end to the reading wars and recommend an agenda for instruction and research in reading acquisition that is balanced, developmentally informed, and based on a deep understanding of how language and writing systems work.

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Mobilising research knowledge in education

London Review of Education ◽

10.1080/14748460.2011.550431 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Ben Levin

Keyword(s):

Empirical Research ◽

Research Policy ◽

Current Situation ◽

The State ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Research Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Mobilisation ◽

State Of Activity

The field of knowledge mobilisation (KM) addresses the multiple ways in which stronger connections can be made between research, policy and practice. This paper reviews the current situation around knowledge mobilisation in education. It addresses changing understandings of KM, considers some of the main issues in conducting empirical research in the field, and looks at the state of activity to promote and increase KM, offering commentary and suggestions in each area.

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Cross-sector learning among researchers and policy-makers: the search for new strategies to enable use of research results

Cadernos de Saúde Pública ◽

10.1590/s0102-311x2006001300019 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 22 (suppl) ◽

pp. S97-S108 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Patricia Pittman ◽

Celia Almeida

Keyword(s):

Social Protection ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Government Officials ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Research Knowledge ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Preliminary Results ◽

Use Of Data ◽

Original Goal ◽

The One

This paper assesses the preliminary results of a research funding strategy that alters the structure and process of research by requiring interaction between researchers and policy-makers. The five research teams focused on different aspects of expanding social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean. Preliminary results revealed negotiation of the research questions at the start of the process, influencing not only the project design, but the decision-makers' ways of thinking about the problem as well. As the projects advanced, turnover among government officials on four of the teams impaired the process. However, for the one team that escaped re-composition, the interaction has led to use of data in decision-making, as well as a clear recognition by both parties that different kinds of evidence were at play. The process highlighted the importance of stimulating systems of learning in which multiple kinds of knowledge interact. This interaction may be a more realistic expectation of such initiatives than the original goal of "transferring" research knowledge to policy and practice.

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Engaging Undergraduate Students in Child Language Research

Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education ◽

10.1044/aihe17.1.4 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 4-16

Author(s):

Jade H. Coston ◽

Corine Myers-Jennings

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Student Growth ◽

Process Data ◽

Research Knowledge ◽

Research Dissemination ◽

Language Sampling ◽

Language Research ◽

Language Sample Analysis ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Assessment Techniques

To better prepare the professionals and scholars of tomorrow in the field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD), a research project in which undergraduate students collected and analyzed language samples of child-parent dyads is presented. Student researchers gained broad and discipline-specific inquiry skills related to the ethical conduct of research, the literature review process, data collection using language assessment techniques, language sample analysis, and research dissemination. Undergraduate students majoring in CSD developed clinical research knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for future graduate level study and professional employment. In addition to the benefits of student growth and development, language samples collected through this project are helping to answer research questions regarding communicative turn-taking opportunities within the everyday routines of young children, the effects of turn-taking interactions on language development, and the construct validity of language sampling analysis techniques.

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