Mind the Gap
Bridging research and classroom practice
Quiet classroom. No kids. It’s officially the end of the work day. She sits at her desk and revisits all of the things she would have liked to get done today. There’s a new activity she recently found online that sparked her interest, but she questions whether it’s something that could actually apply to her classroom: “Is it outdated? Authentic? Could it actually work?” But before she can answer those questions, she realizes she has a Math lesson to plan for the next day and that some of her students who are having a tough time are in need of extra support. She sighs and thinks to herself, “Maybe tomorrow.”
Educators are juggling multiple demands, leaving very little time for them to put the most recent educational research into daily classroom practice. Despite advances in research over the years that have shown which teaching and learning strategies are most effective, school leaders and front-line teaching staff continuously face challenges in implementing evidence-based research due to a lack of time, the complexity of research that’s available, and the overload of information in our digital world. Yet much of this research, if implemented, would actually yield greater student outcomes, and especially so for our most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.1
That’s where The Facts on Education comes in. Thanks to the continued support of the Desjardins Foundation and the Canadian School Boards Association, our one-page fact sheets unpack complex research into easily-understandable answers and concrete strategies towards some of today’s most pressing questions in K-12 education, including:
- How should climate change be taught in schools?
- How can we best teach students empathy?
- How can parents contribute to their children’s career development?
- How can mindfulness support teaching and learning?
Keep an eye out for these new fact sheets – and many more – throughout the year. EdCan members will receive copies in upcoming issues of Education Canada magazine, including online access at edcan.ca/facts-on-ed. Be sure to download, print, and share with your colleagues – we all play an important role in bridging the gap between research and practice.
Photo: Adobe Stock
First published in Education Canada, March 2020
Note
1 Canadian Education Association – Association canadienne d’éducation, Research Use and Its Impact in Secondary Schools: Exploring knowledge mobilization in education –L’utilisation de la recherche et son incidence dans les écoles secondaires : une étude examinant la mobilisation des connaissances en éducation (2011).