Research Knowledge Utilization in Education: A SGER Proposal

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This project addresses the transfer of knowledge gained through research in the field of education to practitioners. The objective is to enhance understanding of research knowledge dissemination practices. That should, in turn, open promising lines of research to enhance transfer of research findings beyond immediate research communities. To achieve this, the researchers plan a three-stage study. First, they will compare and synthesize findings on research knowledge utilization (RKU) from multiple fields. They draw on extensive experience in science and technology research evaluation with more limited experience concerning educational research assessment. In addition, they propose to review work in the public health domain that (as with education) relies heavily on public sector mechanisms to achieve innovation. The cumulative findings on RKU will be used to refine the initial educational RKU model proposed. Second, the research team will develop retrospective studies analogous to the successful "Traces" studies of how major technological innovations drew upon disparate research findings. The intent is to compare how research knowledge has contributed to advances in one Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educational domain with the corresponding processes in a public health domain. Selection of those domains will be based on preliminary reviews of RKU studies in education and public health, combined with perspectives on key research domains based on STEM issues. Methods will combine broad and focused literature searches, review of pertinent case studies, interviews, and bibliometric analyses. Third, the project will apply "text mining" to help understand knowledge flows, identify applications, point to key contributors to knowledge transfer, and identify potential user communities. The team will contact selected participants representing multiple perspectives to form panels. Interaction will be primarily electronic to conserve study resources. Panelists will be asked to review the RKU model, enrich the information bases for the "Traces" cases, and assess research protocols to pursue knowledge transfer mechanisms. In terms of intellectual merit, the project provides a conceptual model relating the factors that play major roles in effecting RKU in education. This will draw on findings from RKU studies over several decades, comparing educational factors with those in other domains. Furthermore, findings from the two comparative "Traces" cases should elucidateRKU leverage points that warrant investigation. This project should serve as a base for further development of ways to facilitate RKU in STEM education. The broader impacts of that could be tremendous. In essence, the Federal Government funds a great deal of educational research whose utilization is largely in question. To the extent that this project succeeds, it should offer enablers to leverage educational research more effectively. That should pay off by enhancing educational research value by facilitating transfer of knowledge to neighboring research communities, to technically knowledgeable practitioners, and to users without strong backgrounds in the research per se.