The gap between educational research and practice: A literature review, symposium, and questionnaire

In the heated debate on the gap between educational research and practice, participants often defend single solutions based on monocausal problem analyses. This article aims to improve the quality of the debate by encouraging participants to take a many-sided perspective. To this purpose, we first reviewed the literature and developed an inventory of the problems, causes, and solutions that have been determined in relation to the gap. The literature review constituted a basis for a symposium and questionnaire, which was completed by participants of the symposium in advance. Different groups took part in the symposium, including researchers, teachers, teacher trainers, and policy-makers. The questionnaire indicated that, on average, these groups showed remarkable consensus about the existence and causes of a gap between educational research and practice. At the symposium, participants took a multisided perspective and considered various solution strategies to close the gap as complementary.