The efficacy of educational research

The Efficacy of Educational Research

The establishment of education as a recognized academic and professional field has not yet been achieved. In all probability this status will remain unattained throughout the remainder of this century. However, there is room for some optimism that eventually full professional recognition will be achieved--that is, if certain conditions are met both in the K-12 sector and in teacher education.

While the requirements differ for full professional recognition between the school level and teacher education, the nature of the problems reflect similar circumstances.

School teachers, as a group, are simply underprepared to warrant widespread acceptance as bona fide professionals. A baccalaureate degree, even a master's degree, fails to impress the public, government officials, or the learned professions.

Career ladders

Career ladders offer significant opportunity for school personnel to achieve the status of full-fledged professionals. The idea is not a new one. Under the rubric of "differentiated staffing,' the notion that better use of educational personnel could be achieved through a hierarchy within the teaching group was advocated through the mid 60's and early 70's. The strong strains of egalitarianism permeating the ranks of teachers and their organizations doomed the concept to the "innovation dump' along with many other ideas that "sound good in theory but won't work in practice.' Until teachers help operationalize differentiated staffing systems predicated on preparation, role level and competence, little progress will be made toward full professional status. Teachers will need to embrace the principles of individual differences as they relate to teachers as well as students. Unless the last one or two rungs in a four or five step ladder require completion of the doctorate--the single most important criterion for public status--full acceptance as professionals will be limited.

Unquestionably, those teachers represented at the highest levels of the career ladder will need to be exemplary practitioners. In addition they will need to be seasoned, producing scholars able to both cite the literature in support of current practice and design, conduct, and communicate various forms of substantive research. Until a point is reached when decisions concerning curricula, instruction, evaluation and other critical dimensions of practice are made on the basis of the best research findings available, the struggle for professional legitimacy will continue.

Teachers with baccalaureate and master's degrees will need to content themselves with semiprofessional status and modest salaries, or, if capable, progress toward the more advanced levels of a professionally based career ladder. Many of the recently proposed career ladders do not set the doctorate as a condition for reaching the highest ladder level. Too many teachers will undoubtedly laud this action for any number of reasons: fear, perceived difficulty, time requirements, costs and feelings of irrelevancy.

Research important

Interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that if more responsible instructional leadership positions were created--with appropriate salaries and working conditions-- an increased number of highter caliber persons would be attracted to the world of schooling. As Peter Drucker has said, "In human affairs, the distance between leaders and the average is a constant. If leadership performance is high, the average will go up.'

Teaching practice has, in recent years, shown some responsiveness to the results of research. However, it has not yet become a way of life in which most instructional or administrative practice is guided directly by research. While there are many reasons for this situation, several seem to be fundamental. Teachers and administrators are under-trained for the complex roles they fill, research is not a strong component in most preparation programs, inservice education tends to emphasize "nuts and bolts learning,' courses including statistics and research methodology are feared and avoided, and practitioner researchers with the highest qualifications are not available to teach courses.

Research poorly supported

In partial defense of teaching practitioners, it can be shown that state legislatures, state departments of education and local boards of education have either failed to recognize the importance of research as part of the repertoire of school personnel, have failed to consider research as critical preparation for certification, or have not made resources available to support the employment of research trained and oriented staff. Whatever the case, few schools can point to instructional or administrative personnel who have solid grounding in research. Much "folklore' and "feels good' behavior persists in the schooling enterprise. Consequently, situations are created in which inappropriate political influence can be exerted over professional matters which are clearly outside the purview of the interveners.