Teachers; Social Studies

Teachers'do.not intentionally use:or consider research findings in making teaching decisions. This lack of use is usually blamed on research deficiencies; e.g., educational research does not address the realistic demands of classroom teaching, research findings are inconsistent, and reseaech articles are difficult to obtain and read. A major difficulty is that teachers and researchers have.different orientation, as well as different reference groups which pet and apply divergent standards of,-professional achievement. For example, the American Educational Research Association encourages research aimed at the interests of academicians, not teachers. There are many problems to implementing. any. solutions. One:proposed solution is to shift from a research to a research and development orientaXion. But such a shi.ft would conflict with the researchers yeavning.to be social scientists and with the.academic standards often applied in judgments of their.work. Another solution is to encourage research by teachers. Butv NAthout relief from teaching demands, where would teathers find the time and energy for such efforts? Making research reports more readable is difficult Oecause of the over-sophistication in statistical analysis. Despite the complex problems, dialogue between teachers and researchers might move educational research toward greater usefulness. (RM) **********************************************************************i * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made