In this Ed-Talk, William Penuel, professor of learning sciences and human development, describes what he and fellow researchers found when they returned to schools that had recently implemented a research-proven math tool as part of a successful, large randomized study.
“The program had big impacts on all students — on Latino students, white students, low-income students, more economically advantaged students, boys and girls alike,” he said. “So when we went in the year after to see who was using the program, we expected a lot of teachers to still be using Simcalc Mathworlds.
“But only half were still using the program, and who were those teachers? They were the teachers of the highest achieving students.”
Penuel argues that the current U.S. research model – one where research funding ends and researchers leave – inadvertently perpetuates inequity in teaching and learning. Yet, he offers a different model, one that is based on partnerships between researchers and schools, teacher ownership and buy-in, and curriculum that connects with young people’s interests, experiences, and cultural lives.
In under six minutes, Penuel boils down promising Research-Practice Partnerships, long-term collaborations between practitioners and researchers working together to investigate problems of practice and solutions for improving schools and school districts.
The video is one of only 31 featuring the nation’s leading education scholars discussing cutting-edge research in the Ed-Talk series from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Ed-Talks were gathered during AERA’s Centennial Celebration, and the videos are designed to convey key research findings crisply, quickly, and compellingly.
Watch Ed-Talk: Scaling Equitable Teaching and Learning
Read more about research-practice partnerships in this AERA fact sheet.
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