Relevant to: Research, Policy
Sector: Education

Summary

This paper explores the influence that Research Practice Partnerships can have on educators’ evidence-based decision-making in the United States. Drawing on short case illustrations from three Research Practice Partnerships, the authors present and apply a survey framework for examining the impact of Research Practice Partnerships on behaviors such as evidence-based decision-making in the context of school and district improvement efforts. They argue that participant’s self-reported behaviors and perceptions are important elements in examining the influence of Research Practice Partnerships on educators’ evidence-based decision-making.

The authors conclude that certain conditions in Research Practice Partnerships may be more conducive to the development among educators of behaviors, mindsets and perceptions associated with evidence-based decision-making. A host of intermediary outputs, such as trust and communication can support and enable research use among educators and the production of useful research among researchers working in Research Practice Partnerships.

The survey framework was limited in size and scope and will require further revision and trialling before its robustness can be fully established. Further research may also consider ways to measure the impact of Research Practice Partnerships, to improve implementation and to support accountability and quantify return on investment. The applicability of this research paper is likely limited to those working in Research Practice Partnerships, although it may be of interest to those considering how best to measure outcomes in their own programs. The paper serves to highlight the difficulties inherent in attempting to measure the influence or impact of knowledge sharing strategies, but that going through the process may have benefits in other ways, such as supporting strategy refinement and improvement.

This summary was developed from the following paper:
Wentworth L., Mazzeo C., and Connolly F. (2017) Research practice partnerships: a strategy for promoting evidence-based decision-making in education. Educational Research 59(2): 241-255.