In my opinion, the connection between educational researchers and educators is problematic. Researchers tend to be hesitant to offer specific recommendations and educators label researchers as removed from practical situations. My concern is that educators end up influenced by sources offering specific suggestions which ignore basic principles of learning. Suggestions can be framed in a way that sound good but are based on concepts that are known to be flawed. Some common practices have been proven over and over again to be less effective than other practices that suffer simply because the practices have long been promoted. New ideas are not always superior.
Deans for Impact is an organization attempting to establish a list of principles that are supported through research. This group working with Dan Willingham are attempting to put together a document that summarizes these principles and offers related classroom guidelines. The document is short, but well referenced. My thought was that a grad ed psych class might find the reference list to be a great reading list.
Science of Learning (this link will download as a pdf the present version of this document)
