Instruments and Surveys
Our Measurement Study is producing, piloting, and validating three pairs and one stand-alone instrument (seven instruments total) developed to measure research use from both the practitioner and researcher perspectives. The instruments capture:
- Depth of research use in schools;
- Gaps in assumptions and perceptions of research between the research and practice communities that may influence its use; and
- Connections and relationships between researchers, research brokers, and educators that support research use in schools.
All instruments produced by this project, the Survey of Evidence in Education for Schools (SEE-S) and the Survey of Evidence for Researchers (SEE-R) are available by emailing crue-info@udel.edu.
Instruments
The first pair of instruments focuses on the different aspects of production, dissemination, and use of education research.
- Researchers are asked about the characteristics of the research they produce and questions such as: How can practitioners access your research? Do you engage practitioners in the research process?
- Practitioners are asked questions such as: What types of information do you use to make a decision? How did you obtain this information? How often do you use research evidence to make a decision?
The second pair of instruments focuses on the gaps and assumptions that exist between the practitioner and researcher communities which support or hinder connections.
- We ask both researchers and practitioners about: what types of products they value; what they think makes good research; the ability for research to address the most critical problems of practice in a timely fashion; the structures, processes, and incentives in both communities to use education research; and more.
The third pair of instruments is a social networking survey measuring the direct and indirect connections between the research and practice communities. This pair of surveys helps the team identify key players in research engagement and translation at the school- and district-level, as well as among researchers and research brokers.
The fourth instrument focuses on measuring a key support for research use: the capacity of individual educators to critically interpret research.
For more information on the Measurement Study instruments, please see the center proposal.