Reconceptualizing the Roles of Researchers and Teachers to Bring Research Closer to Teaching

Abstract

In this editorial, we elaborate our vision of the changing roles of researchers and teachers in a future world in which research has a much more direct and meaningful impact on practice (Cai et al., 2017). In previous editorials, we have described characteristics of this future world, including setting research agendas based on instructional problems teachers want to solve (Cai et al., 2017a), developing authentic partnerships between researchers and teachers and connecting multiple partnerships to solve common problems (Cai et al., 2017a, 2018a, 2018b), using new technologies to collect and analyze data on the relationships between students' instructional and learning histories that would enable teachers to plan more effective lessons (Cai et al., 2018a, 2018b), taking advantage of connected partnerships and new data-gathering technologies to build a knowledge base accessible to all teachers facing similar instructional problems (Cai et al., 2018a, 2018b, 2018d), and creating new incentives to appropriately reward researchers and teachers for improving the learning opportunities for all students across classrooms within their school district or state (Cai et al., 2017a). We have alluded to the changing roles this vision would require, including researchers developing hypothetical learning trajectories for concepts that are implicated in teachers' instructional problems (Cai et al., 2017b) and teachers accepting professional responsibilities for contributing to knowledge that improves instruction in all classrooms in their district or state rather than just in their own classroom (Cai et al., 2017a). In this editorial, we create a more complete picture of the new professional roles of researchers and teachers in this future world that intertwines research and practice.