H. Broekkamp

The gap between educational research and practice: A literature review, symposium, and questionnaire

In the heated debate on the gap between educational research and practice, participants often defend single solutions based on monocausal problem analyses. This article aims to improve the quality of the debate by encouraging participants to take a many-sided perspective. To this purpose, we first reviewed the literature and developed an inventory of the problems, causes, and solutions that have been determined in relation to the gap. The literature review constituted a basis for a symposium and questionnaire, which was completed by participants of the symposium in advance. Different groups took part in the symposium, including researchers, teachers, teacher trainers, and policy-makers. The questionnaire indicated that, on average, these groups showed remarkable consensus about the existence and causes of a gap between educational research and practice. At the symposium, participants took a multisided perspective and considered various solution strategies to close the gap as complementary.

Mapping situations in classroom and research: eight types of instructional-learning episodes

Abstract The results of educational research are relevant for professional teachers. It is difficult however to promote reflective theory and strategy change in professionals. A summary is given of factors that inhibit acceptance, incorporation and application of new ideas that are inconsistent with prior beliefs. This article is focused on one requirement for reflective conceptual change, that is the need to map the situations that teachers are confronted with in their classrooms onto situations that are subjected to educational research. A classification of instructional-learning episodes is presented as an instrument to facilitate this mapping. This instrument is outlined and elaborated. The potential use of the instrument as a tool in teacher training and further research is discussed.

Importance in instructional text: teachers' and students' perceptions of task demands

History teachers (N = 22) and their 11th-grade students (N = 451) rated the relative importance of sections of an instructional text on which teachers would be giving a test. Multilevel analysis revealed only a moderate correspondence between teachers in their importance ratings. This suggested that there were large differences between the task demands of individual teachers; therefore, students needed to attune to the demands their own teacher set. However, only a moderate correspondence was found between ratings of individual students and those of their teacher. Although this correspondence varied between teachers, between students, and between text sections, results suggest that in general, the participating students did not have a very clear or sound perception of task demands.

Will that be on the test? Perceived task demands and test performance in a classroom context

Departing from a realistic classroom context, this study focuses on the relationship between students’ perception of task demands and their learning performance. History teachers (N=20) and their 11th-grade students (N=375) rated the relative importance of sections of an instructional text on which teachers would be giving a test. In addition, test grades were collected. It was hypothesized that the degree of correspondence between ratings of individual students and those of their teacher would reflect the accurateness of students’ perception of task demands and therefore would be positively related with test grade. Multilevel analysis revealed partly support for this hypothesis. Students with higher grades more consistently showed a relative close correspondence with their teacher than students with lower grades. Nonetheless, a substantial number of students who showed a relatively close correspondence with their teacher, obtained a low test grade. This suggests that a more accurate perception of task demands did not guarantee a higher test performance.RésuméCette recherche cible sur la relation entre la perception des élèves de ce qu’exigent les épreuves et leur performance. Vingt professeurs d’histoire et leurs élèves de première (N=375) ont marqué l’importance relative des parties d’un texte à étudier pour une épreuve. Ensuite les