The Use of Research Knowledge in Teacher Education and Teaching

How are research knowledge and good teaching practice related? This paper analyzes the concept of knowledge utilization and the nature of practical decisions to consider this question. It argues that the personal commitments of teachers, common sense, and normative requirements can be valid bases for action. An overreliance on research knowledge is unwarranted for it is time-bound, theory-dependent, and selective. Clarifying irrational assumptions and implications that surround the concept of knowledge utilization, the paper suggests how the question of knowledge use in teacher education and teaching can be addressed in its proper context--namely, the striving for practical wisdom. This context is perplexing because practical decisions have a necessary element of arbitrariness that stems from three sources: deficiencies in knowledge (e. g., ambiguousness of experience and unpredictability of outcomes), tensions and deficiencies in the moral framework of teaching (e. g., dilemmas or conflicting obligations), and the roots of practice in the quality of wanting. The arbitrariness that affects teaching practice calls for thought--observation, reflection, experiment, revision--as a manifestation of morality. The paper argues that science is organized for the discipline of second thoughts and the quickening of new ones; it concludes that the quest for knowledge utilization misreads the intelligence of research. The value of research knowledge to teachers and teacher educators lies primarily in the scientific ethos and in processes of inquiry, and only secondarily in the facts researchers lay claim to.