The Education-Research Gap: Only Themselves To Blame?
I particularly enjoyed reading the communication concerns of aera convention researchers as reported in “Researchers Ponder How to Reach Practitioners” (March 31).
I made a list of those who, according to the researchers, are responsible for the gap between educational research and practice. These include: education-school faculties, teachers, students, the public, state education-department offices, the National Diffusion Network, the National Institute of Education, and research journals.
It’s nice to see blame going in all directions except toward researchers. They might wish to ponder a bit more introspectively.
Allen Berger
Professor, Language Communications
School of Education
University of Pittsburgh
To the Editor:
I don’t believe it--or, perhaps I do! The American Educational Research Association (aera) professes concern (again) about reaching practitioners in order to share the “substantial body of information that could improve American schools” (Education Week, March 31). In order to begin this task, they plan Washington seminars on education issues such as the implementation of block grants and the effects of tuition tax credits.
A teacher reading the article reporting the plans of the aera can only laugh--or groan. If this is how the organization plans to share information to improve schools, teachers are, again, omitted. A Washington seminar, of necessity, is impossible for a classroom teacher. A Washington seminar on block grants and tuition tax credits, while useful to policy makers who may have already dealt with these issues, is hardly the information teachers need.
Is it too cynical to suggest that researchers should really talk to teachers--instead of each other?
Mary Ellen Finch
Associate Professor of Education
Maryville College, St. Louis
