RESEARCH SUPPORTING PRACTICE IN EDUCATION (RSPE)
‘Research Supporting Practice in Education’ (RSPE) is a program of research and related activities aimed at learning more about building strong linkages between research, policy and practice. We call these efforts Knowledge Mobilization (KM).
RSPE is headquartered at OISE/University of Toronto and supported with core funds from the Canada Research Chairs program. Ben Levin, Canada Research Chair in Education Leadership and Policy, is the principal investigator working with academic colleagues and graduate students (see OISE KM Team).
Wondering how much you already know about KM?
Go ahead, quiz yourself!
** 2012 STATUS REPORT **
* Hot off the press!
"Mobilizing Knowledge: Sharing our research more effectively"
by Ben Levin
University Affairs, February 2012, page 38. Please click on the above title to access the online version of this article.
"The Current State of Knowledge Mobilization in Education"
by Ben Levin and Ji Qi
Education Alliance Magazine #6, December, 2011, pages 8-10
"Les pratiques collaboratives d'organismes publics utilisant internet pour la mobilisation du savoir dans le domaine de l'education"
by Hilary Edelstein
Telescope, 17(3), pages 140-157. To read an English Language manuscript of this article, which examines the use of collaborative online knowledge mobilization practices by public organizations, please click here.
To view previous publications, please visit the Publications & Conferences page.
* Forthcoming book
"The impact of university research in education: International perspectives on Knowledge Mobilization"
Editors: Ben Levin, Jie Qi and Hilary Edelstein
Drawing on the work of the International Alliance of Leading Educational Institutions (IALEI), this book is about the ways in research affects policy and practice in education with emphasis on how faculties of education around the world try to share their research. The book will be published in 2012 by Policy Press.
* NEW: Online Hub of Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Resources!
Research Brokering in Education (RBE) – part of the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research – is a newly launched website full of practical cross-sector resources that can help your organization mobilize research knowledge. Search for resources on: developing a KM plan; evaluating your KM efforts; creating accessible clear-language KM products; building networks and collaborative partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and policy makers; using social media to mobilize research knowledge within and across organizations, and much more!We invite you to search our website and to share your own KM resources and success stories with us. Please visit: http://oere.oise.utoronto.ca/rbe/
Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research
In consultation with the Ministry of Education, OISE is leading the new Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research. The KNAER aims to connect and foster dialogue between groups of practitioners and researchers for the purpose of advancing the development, dissemination, and application of advanced knowledge in classrooms, schools and school boards. The KNAER is funding and supporting a wide range of projects across Ontario that are working on linking research, policy and practice in various fields and regions. Please click on the project title above for more information or visit KNAER's homepage at: http://www.knaer-recrae.ca/
How Educators Access and Evaluate Research in Education
Recently funded by SSHRC, this study will extend over the next three years and will map and evaluate the ways in which education research is shared with educators (teachers, principals, and other school leaders). Our research team is systematically searching for online research-based products for educators in several areas of interest including literacy, mathematics, arts, leadership, special education, behaviour management and second language learning. Our next steps are to classify our products and create a typology of products by type and producer organization. We will also partner with research producing organizations for our next stage of the project. For more information, please click on the project title.
Lead Student: Saira Shah
Use of Online Research (UOR)
Although websites are often a primary vehicle for disseminating research, there has been very little research looking into whether or not people actually use online research products, and even less work has explored how they use them. The UOR project is intended to address this oversight by studying how people utilize research materials posted on websites of educational organizations. Learn more…
Lead Student: Hilary Edelstein
Research for Teachers
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) in collaboration with the KM team at OISE, are developing short summaries of current research findings relevant to teaching in elementary schools. These summaries are made available to teachers on ETFO’s website. Our first publication, written by Debra Pepler of York University, will be on the issue of bullying in schools.
Lead: Sachin Maharaj
Facts in Education (FiE)
Facts in Education aims to correct significant factual errors on education issues when they appear in news media across Canada. A panel of Canadian educational experts work with our team to ensure our response to errors are supported by empirical evidence. We distribute our responses to the original media source of the story, other media outlets, and to educational stakeholders across Canada. To view our latest response, please click here. For further information on this project, please click on the project title above.
Lead Student: Jacqueline Sohn
Website Analysis Project: Using a Common Metric to Evaluate KM Strategies and Indicators
By comparing over 150 websites we have developed a metric for assessing organizational KM activities in terms of KM strategies and KM indicators. We have applied this metric to organizations around the world and are currently analyzing this data. For more information, please click on the project title above.
Lead Students: Bingyan Liu
Research Use and Its Impact in Secondary Schools
Our project looking at the mobilization of research knowledge in secondary schools in Canada is now complete. We conclude that knowledge and use of relevant research in these settings is modest, but our attempt to change this through some relatively simple interventions had little impact. This project was funded by the Canadian Education Association (CEA). For more information please view the CEA's final report.
Lead Student: Amanda Cooper
Knowledge Mobilization in Faculties of Education
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), this study examines knowledge mobilization (KM) efforts in faculties of education in Canada and internationally. We hope to learn more about KM practices within these organizations and why such practices are effective or not. The results of our research will provide a stronger empirical basis for making decisions about how best to support KM in faculties of education.
Phase II of this project is now complete. For more information, please click on the project title above.
Lead Student: Joelle Rodway Macri
Research Findings for Parents
One of our most popular webpages, Research for Parents was launched with sponsorship from the Canadian Education Association (CEA). This initiative provides short, clear language summaries of research in areas of interest to parents. Now complete, this project circulate summaries to Five CEA schools in 2009/10, which were also inserted into monthly newsletters sent home to parents. For more information, please click on the project title above.