A Word from the Director

What Are The True Outcomes of Research?

The NCDDR will assist NIDRR grantees in identifying research outcomes that can benefit their target audiences. As has been clearly shown from research (Fuhrman, 1994; Leung, 1992), different perspectives about research exist between researchers and potential consumers of research information. The difference in perception carries over to an identification of research outcomes.These differences have served in the past to segregate the potential, ultimate beneficiary of research from the researcher in the critical steps of research design, planning, implementation, data analysis, and reporting of findings. What is important or significant to the researcher, often, is different from what many "users" would consider "usable" or important.

For this reason, the identification of research outcomes may seem, on its surface, almost automatic, but for the purposes of D & U may not be obvious. The NCDDR's activities will be performed in a manner that assumes research outcomes are not conference presentations, journal articles, monographs, or other common "product" formats. The NCDDR will perform its activities assuming that NIDRR research outcomes are such things as: ideas, policies, treatments, interventions, exemplary programs, assistive technologies, and adaptive devices. This approach to describing research outcomes should assist in making an effective bridge between the perceptions of researcher and user. In addition, this orientation can help improve the communication between the researcher and the user so that each can benefit more fully from the sharing of their respective knowledge.

- John D. Westbrook, Director

Sources:

Fuhrman, S. (1994). Uniting producers and consumers: Challenges in creating and utilizing educational research and development. In Tomlinson & Tomlinson (eds.) Education research and reform: An international perspective (pp. 133-147). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Leung, P. (1992). Translation of knowledge into practice. In Walcott & Associates, NIDRR National CRP Panel Final Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

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NIDRR Project Number: H133A990008
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 January 2008 at 04:13 PM,
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