Teachers' Use and Perceptions of Research-to-Practice Articles

The practitioner journal article has been suggested as a tool to increase teaching professionals' use of evidence-based educational practices in the classroom. Not much is known about teacher use and opinions of practitioner journal articles. A purposeful sample of 346 preservice teacher candidates and in-service teachers was surveyed about its use of practitioner journal articles and the sample's presentation preferences. Respondents indicated that they did not read journals but did read articles. The average number of articles read was eight, most often accessed from online search engines. There were more similarities than differences in the preferred presentation of articles across preservice, in-service, general education, and special education teachers surveyed. Respondents preferred shorter articles, written from a practitioner perspective, that included real application vignettes and graphics highlighting student outcome and implementation fidelity data. Research implications are discussed.