Translating research into classroom practice

Peter Childs wrote an interesting article in Chemistry Education Research and Practice a few years ago on the topic of turning research into effective practice. In my own thinking on this topic, I have often wondered where the responsibility for this translation lies. Discipline-based educational researchers have argued to me that their job is to research into various aspects of teaching and learning and present their findings as any other researcher would; publish in specialist journals and present at topic-specific conferences. Their own busy work means they don’t have time to train practitioners. Practitioners will argue that they are too busy just keeping going with the teaching workload, and they don’t have time to read up on education literature or see what new practice is currently in vogue. It is a perfect storm.