Activity type: Expert Team
Activity coordinator: Dr. Nirit Topol
Activity period: Active group - From 2021
Working Group for the Topic of
Promoting Research-Practice Partnership Processes (RPP) in Israel
Addressing the relationship between research and practice in
the field is not new and has gone through various iterations under different
conceptual and research frameworks in the areas of improvement science,
implementation science, design research, and more. Research has focused on
improving educational processes in the field and the development of mechanisms
to transmit research findings to practitioners. This is done through the use of
abstracts surveying effective practices, attempts to create effective
prescriptions for teaching, or consultations with researchers.
At the same time, the attempts to translate research findings
into classroom education were only partially successful. With the years, a more
complex system of interactions and influences developed, out of the
understanding that there is a gap between research knowledge and the knowledge
teachers use in their teaching processes.[1]
In recent years, the concept of partnerships between research
and practice (RPP – research-practice partnership) has become common. Such
partnerships are generally long term, focused on problems of practice and based
on reciprocity.[2] These
are not about collaboration in order to integrate research findings or
consultations for practitioners but rather, a reciprocal relationship to which
the two sides are partners and from which both derive benefit.
Such partnerships can help to assimilate scientific and
research knowledge in the policy-making processes and the educational processes
that take place in the field, promote research into topics that challenge
education staffs in their daily work, and create a knowledge base and data base
which can serve all the partners. In practice, several key examples of this
kind of partnership have been developed and they differ from one another in
terms of their aims, joint work methods and outputs.[3]
Nonetheless and despite the aforementioned developments and the engagement with
this topic, partnerships of this kind are still rare in Israel.
At the request of the Ministry of Education, the Yozma
established a working group whose aim is to study research-practice partnership
processes in Israel and to promote them.[4]
Researchers, policymakers and practitioners, all with diverse perspectives, are
members of the working group. The working group’s objective is to formulate
guidelines for policy that will support partnership processes between research
and practice.
The working group will address several areas:
a. Conducting
wide-ranging discourse among stakeholders in partnerships of this kind.
b. Pooling existing
knowledge in the field in Israel.
c. Mapping the
challenges involved in creating partnerships in the education system in Israel.
d. Formulation of
solutions for coping with the mapped challenges.
[1]
Hiebert, J., Gallimore, R., & Stigler, J.W. (2002). A knowledge base
for the teaching profession: What would it look like and how can we get one? Educational
Researcher, 31(5), 3-15.
[2] Coburn,
C.E., & Penuel, W.R. (2016). Research–practice partnerships in education:
Outcomes, dynamics, and open questions. Educational Researcher,
45(1), 48-54.
[3] Blecher,
N. (2021) EBP Report: Partnerships between academic, headquarter and field
teams in education research. Jerusalem: Yozma – Center for Knowledge and
Research in Education.
[4] The
group is completing other activities initiated by the Chief Scientist’s Office
at the Ministry of Education in 2021, such as the working group on the topic of
Assimilating Research into Policy and the EBP Report which reviewed the types
of partnerships between research and practice around the world.