Is Good Educational Research an Oxymoron?

As I struggled in a statistics class to learn the language of statistics I came to appreciate the value of statistics and learned that if used properly it can provide us with very useful information when making decisions.

Also, the rigor professors required when writing papers for my doctorate classes has given me an inkling of the time, energy, and money researchers invest in order to help us make wise educational decisions.

Therefore, I am saddened when people discount what statistics and research reveal and make accusations that they are twisted to support one's own point of view. Unfortunately, that does happen, but that would be shoddy research that should be rejected. Yet, if in this process all research is rejected, much excellent scholarly research will be rejected that could benefit learners.

Not only does discounting scholarly research cause us to miss out on some valuable information, it also causes us (and our learners!) to lose too much precious time while we are busy reinventing the wheel.

A problem that we face concerning excellent scholarly research is that we have considerable evidence that those who need to read the results of these studies rarely see them or if they do, they don't heed them. In other words, the bulk of the research results never makes it to the classroom. When practitioners don't attend research conferences and researchers don't attend conferences for practitioners, a disconnect is perpetuated that must not be allowed to exist. The disconnect is exacerbated by the fact that researchers most often only publish their findings in educational journals that a high percentage of practitioners seldom read.

As long as educators, policy makers, and the general community regard good educational research as an oxymoron and use that as an excuse to not give credence or heed to the findings of excellent scholarly research, “quick fixes” and “silver bullets” with no long term benefits for student achievement will continue to be implemented.

Until this disconnect challenge is addressed and resolved we will continually be spinning our wheels and our learners will not be receiving the best education they need and deserve.

Effects of Religious Commitment on Academic Achievement

I just read this morning a primary research paper called, The Effects of Religious Commitment on the Academic Achievement of Urban and Other Children, by Willliam H. Jeynes. For those of us interested in better serving our diverse learners, the findings from this research can definitely give us some food for thought.

Reference: Education and Urban Society 2003; 36; 44

Report: Leadership Affects Student Learning

http://cehd.umn.edu/CAREI/Leadership/ReviewofResearch.pdf

REPORT: Review of research on how leadership affects student learning.

Generous Listening

"You may be right." "That is an excellent point (or observation)." "I had never thought of it in that way." Who wouldn't like to hear words such as these after expressing a thought or idea? These kind of statements open up dialogue. From this kind of dialogue can come even richer and more beneficial conclusions.

Not only is this true for conversation, but it is also true for research. It can be quite disconcerting when research is used as a weapon or an opportunity to attack the work of someone else....and sometimes even going so far as name calling. When examining the work of others, it is important to be generous and resist the temptation to highlight its weaknesses and reject it because it represents a view different than one's own.

Being generous in no way means that one shouldn't observe with a critical eye. That is crucial. Yet, one is in a much better position to offer a differing point of view if one has first been generous.

Those of us who advocate for the importance of looking at education through the eyes of diverse learners and seeking ways to better serve them must set an example by generously listening to diverse voices, including those that are diametrically opposed to our voice,....and do so with the desire to understand. There is always the possibilty that we will discover "kernels of truth" that we can build upon to better serve our diverse learners.