1. The Link Between Research
and Practice: Experiences of
Different Professions
Darren Short, Avanade, Inc.
Jeffrey M. Keefer, Columbia University
Sophia J. Stone, North Carolina State University
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2. What we wanted to find out…
 Research-to-Practice in other
professions
 Healthcare
 Business
 Education
 Psychology
 Implications for HRD
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3. Methodology
 Literature review using keywords:
 research-to-practice
 evidence-based practice
 theory-to-practice
 Databases searched include:
 ProQuest
 EBSCOhost
 WilsonWeb
 Sage
 Emerald
 ERIC
 Results: the gap is not confined to HRD 3

4. Limitations
 Only used 6 databases
 The research focused on four
areas that had literature
discussing the gap
 This summary is very brief
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5. Healthcare: The Gap
 The gap affects physicians, nurses, and
other medical professionals
 Specific examples we found:
 HIV treatment
 Prevention and health promotion
 Speech language pathology
 Factors include:
 Access to research
 Education and training
 Different perspectives
 Time and resource constraints
 Information exchange challenges (rural areas)
 Lack of incentives to use evidence-based 5
practice

6. Healthcare: Bridging the Gap
 Actions taken include:
 Integration of health care
information systems
 Mentoring programs between
academics and practitioners
 Evidence-based practice models
fueled by consumers’
Internet research
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7. Business: The Gap
 Evidence of a gap in accounting and
management, but areas of auditing
and tax show applied research
 Factors
 Practitioner/academic collaborations are
limited
 Lack of education about research in the
technical curriculum
 Perceptions: academics are
disconnected from practice (especially
in the accounting profession)
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8. Business: Bridging the Gap
 Some suggestions….
 Increased interest in collaborative
partnerships
 Increased access to sites for field
research
 Interpret research results within a
business context
 Accessible language
 Examine disparity between
academic and practitioner journals
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9. Education: The Gap
 Again, the picture is mixed:
 Evidence of R2P links in bilingual
and special education in particular
(practitioners operate from
intuition)
 Adult Education evidence of R2P
linkages
 Higher Education, R2P gap well-
documented, especially in 2000
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10. Education: The Gap
 Some reasons for the gap…
 Research studies are not linked to
practice
 Research process does not engage
practitioners
 Gap between academic preparation and
how to use research to inform practice
 Great time and effort to bring about
changes in practice
 Research dissemination issues: not
reaching the practitioner
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11. Education: Bridging the Gap
 Attempts to bridge the gap:
 Awards for evidence of R2P
 Promote collaborations between
research/practitioners
 Emphasize research training for
students
 Partnership between universities,
professional organizations and school
systems
 Identify credible research and present in
translation that does not alter research
findings 11

12. Psychology: The Gap
 Again, the picture is mixed…
 Counselor education bridges R2P
with practicum-internships
 Industrial, Work, and
Organizational Psychology reports
the gap is widening
 A documented decline of
practitioner authors in refereed
journals
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13. Psychology: Bridging the Gap
 The Gap is growing
 There is an awareness of the gap
and calls to bridge it, but little
evidence of its being addressed
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14. We found that…
 Other disciplines have factors similar
to HRD that confirm a gap in R2P
 researchers are disconnected from
practice
 research questions do not focus on
issues that are important to practitioners
 research is not disseminated in ways
that will influence practice
 practitioners may not be trained in the
use of research
 limited collaborative opportunities to
bring practitioners and researchers
together 14

15. Closing the R2P Gap
 Increase collaboration between
researchers, universities,
professional associations, and
practitioners
 Increase involvement of practitioners
in professional scholarly associations
 Review research dissemination
practices
 Explore the professional education
and development of practitioners
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16. Lessons for HRD
 Link academics and practitioners in
professional associations more frequently
 Develop models for evidence-based
practice within HRD
 Identify research areas important to
practitioners
 Examine practitioner accessibility to
research
 Incorporate research and R2P utilization
into practitioner preparation programs
 Recognize and reward evidence of R2P
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