Aligning Our Focus with Strengths and Solutions

Abstract

Many national and international educational policy developers and agencies have presented a strong and focused pledge to providing quality education for all students. This vision has seen an increased comitmemt to building student knowledge and capacity through the implementation and sustained use of research based programs. Many academic institutions continue to increase their scope beyond the research community to include school based practitioners and policy developers. Education practitioners have welcomed this shared vision and with the collective expertise from both fields, we are now more than ever able to move forward in reducing the gap between research and practice.

This concluding chapter celebrates the knowledge, skills and commitment of researchers and practitioners. It encourages further research using the conceptual RTP Model with the aim of increasing successful student outcomes through the sustained use of research based practices in our schools and classrooms.

This chapter aims to:

• foster a new wave of optimism for the successful and sustained use of evidence based practices to enhance teacher, researcher, student outcomes.

• acknowledge and celebrate that teachers and researchers have succeeded in identifying significant factors that contribute to research becoming practice to enhance student engagement and success.

• propose the use of the RTP Model to support a positive and proactive approach to progressing the ongoing and fruitful co existance between research and practice.

• identify the limitations of this research.

• present future RTP research recommendations and implications for building sustainable school cultures.

• further encourage researchers and practitioners to consider the alignment of factors presented in the conceptual RTP Model so that more teachers and their students, may experience successful outcomes through the sustained use of evidence based practices.

The prospective benefits of research-based practices are bound by their sustained use