Research and Practice in Education - Still too far?!?


The ‘bridge too far’ that Bruer preconized more than two decades ago (1997) still finds echo in today’s discussions. Is it applicable? Haven’t we crossed the bridge of responsible transdisciplinarity and translational research to application yet? Recent publications seem to contradict this. Let’s then examine why. Daniel (2012) states that “If we are truly interested in pursuing educational implications, it is important to understand that what works in a controlled context may have a very different effect when applied without the support inherent to high-quality curricular design” (2012, p. 252). By controlled context here, the intended meaning is the lab, where variables are carefully controlled to measure intended (or not) outcomes. To all intents and purposes, the idea that Daniel gives is that there should be controlled and well aligned experiments in the lab before they are translated into educational guidelines to improve learning in real classrooms. So far, so good. It is, after all, an informed opinion from an exponent of his area (Neuroscience) that is concerned about how untrained professionals (teachers) will consume and use neuroscientific data.

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But when is concern for responsible use stretched further into impossibility of use? When Daniel (2012) questions Roediger and Pyc’s (2012) recommendations as in “For example, several of the reviewed techniques are useful for fact learning, which is important. But how do we encourage the more flexible and conceptual learning that characterizes the goals of many educators?” (Daniel, 2012, p. 252), it seems to me that  the step given in the right direction– reviewed techniques for fact learning – was not enough, and even more, discouraged as such. Why? When has a step ahead – in the right direction – been considered a discouragement?

There needs to be a practical use for everything that is investigated under the umbrella of educational purposes in a lab. When a first step is given – even a successful one - it is demanded instead that the whole road ahead should be mapped. What is then the purpose of research?

When one step ahead is not celebrated for its courage and usefulness, then something must be very wrong with the whole idea of progress. It is unreal to expect every single finding, no matter how replicated and refutable it might be in the lab, to go through exhaustive testing in controlled settings for a single and very important fact – learners are not lab rats. Not in the literal let alone in the figurative sense. There is always a variable that will be unaccounted for in every single learning setting. And this is because not only learners learn in different ways, but the unique combination of their learning endeavors will be a unique and irreproducible experience every single turn. After all, this is the way our brains are wired to operate.
What's you take on that? Do you think that there is a possible (and feasible) bridge between research and practice in Education?

References

Bruer, J. T. (1997). Education and the brain: A bridge too far. Educational researcher, 26(8), 4-16.

Daniel, D. B. (2012). Promising principles: Translating the science of learning to educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1, 251-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.10.004

Roediger, H. I., & Pyc, M. A. (2012). Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1, 242-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.09.002


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