Teachers' views on educational research Kadir Beycioglu * , Niyazi Ozer, Celal Teyyar Ugurlu Inonu University, Faculty of Education, 44280 Malatya, Turkey article info Article history: Received 2 February 2009 Received in revised form 16 September 2009 Accepted 4 November 2009 Keywords: Theory-practice gap Research in education Teachers' attitudes abstract Exploring teachers' attitudes toward educational research has been an important subject for researchers. This study aimed to determine teachers' views on educational research. A three-part survey question- naire, the first part of which consists of demographic questions, the second part of which consists of statements aiming to determine teachers' views on the impact of educational research, and the third part of which consists of 18 items aiming to determine teachers' views on the value of educational research, was used to elicit responses from teachers. Results showed that 68% of the participating teachers had seriously considered educational research findings since first qualifying as teachers. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There have been issues about the role and value of research in education. The main issue is the [deep] gap between theory and practice in educational research (Hammersley, 2000; McIntyre, 2005; Oancea, 2005) (the word in italic added for emphasis). It is needless to say that that is not the question of “to rejoice or to recoil” (Feuer, Towne, & Shavelson, 2002) faced by educational researchers. It is simply one of the debates intending to advance research in educational setting. Olivero, John, and Sutherland (2004) label educational research and practice as two cultures, the members of which appear to occupy two different worlds. They also claim that the words such as gaps, walls and boundaries are frequently used to describe the separation between educational research and practice. Some researchers, on the one hand, argue that educational research is too theoretical and has no or little impact on practice and practitioners (Bevan, 2004; Kennedy, 1999; Mortimore, 2000). On the other hand, others claim that the knowledge base in educational research always lead the implementations in schools (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2005; Florio, 1981; Goldstein, 2002). According to Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007), for example, “the knowledge base keeps growing, but this doesn't mean necessarily that educational prac- titioners know about it, value it, or apply it in their work.” (p. 10). Similarly, Bush (2007) puts that “practitioners tend to be dismissive of theories and concepts for their alleged remoteness from the ‘real’ school situation” (p. 5). Teachers, as the most important practitioners in educational setting, and their attitudes toward knowledge base and/or research in education are concerns for policy makers and educational researchers most of whom see teachers as the object of their studies. 1.1. Teachers and educational research Exploring teachers' attitudes toward educational research as a tool for their professional learning is an important concern for researchers having teacher both as the object and the subject of their research (Ekiz, 2006; Everton, Galton, & Pell, 2000, 2002; Gu & Wang, 2006; Havelock, 2002; Marcos & Tillema, 2006; Skhedi, 1998; Smith, 2002; Stoer & Cortes ao, 2001) because teachers are (among) the most important practitioners of educational theories and/or knowledge base developed by researchers. Most of the research aim to investigate whether teachers, as practitioners, endeavour to access research findings, think about its practical implications and mind educational research which, for Zajano & Edelsberg, “may be carried out in schools by ‘outsiders’ who are unknown to the . people ., and who may treat schools simply as data collection sites” (as cited in Taber, 2003). For instance, De Landsheere (1975), nearly three decades ago, claimed that “most European primary and secondary school teachers do not enjoy basic training in research and hence are unable to read research reports and comprehend the statistics in them” (p. 110). Woods (1986) claimed that “teaching and educational research do not have a happy association. To many teachers much educational research appears irrelevant” (p. 1). Joram (2007) found that teachers “believed that educational researchers lack credibility because they are divorced from the real work of teaching, and that research is inaccessible to them because of the overly technical * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ90 422 3113337; fax: þ90 422 341 10 71. E-mail addresses: kbeycioglu@inonu.edu.tr (K. Beycioglu), nozer@inonu.edu.tr (N. Ozer), celalteyyar@yahoo.com (C.T. Ugurlu). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.11.004 Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 1088e1093