3 Ways to Mobilize Knowledge in Education
Practicing Data-Driven Teaching with Purposeful Technology
Educators strive to be purposeful, deliberate, and efficient in their teaching. They recognize the weight of every moment spent with a student, and the necessity for every learning opportunity to be recognized and acted upon. But translating that understanding into an actionable practice can be complicated. Knowledge mobilization empowers teachers to be purposeful and data-driven in the classroom. Essentially, knowledge mobilization refers to taking data about various practices in teaching and putting that data into deliberate use. It’s about carrying purpose in every classroom decision, using proven techniques, and making the most of every learning moment.
Knowledge mobilization isn’t exclusive to teaching — we can use research to power and perfect anything we do. But the education environment does present some unique opportunities to mobilize knowledge. Education also has significantly high stakes, so the research that contributes to its success shouldn’t be overlooked. We believe that knowledge mobilization has the potential to drive student outcomes and empower teachers. So, we’ve outlined three of our favorite ways to put knowledge into practice in the classroom:
This type of knowledge mobilization is the most traditional — teachers, administrators, and other educators can find and share pedagogical research. When you know that a teaching methodology works, because it’s been cycled through an empirical study, then it’s time to put that method into practice — assuming the conditions of the study match those of your classroom. There are challenges associated with this kind of knowledge mobilization: for one, finding the research can be difficult. Simply searching online can be overwhelming, and even using a reliable database can be tricky. To ease yourself into researching practices, start by extending your PLN — see what studies your peers are talking about, and start your research there. Other challenges include understanding and navigating the study itself (administrators, this is a good place for you to consider PD integration). But once you’ve found your cadence, keeping up with and implementing the latest educational research will be a regular practice.
If knowledge mobilization is about being purposeful and data-driven, then consider what other data is available to you — aside from traditional pedagogical research — that could inform the way you teach. The data gleaned from assessments is perhaps the most immediate, actionable, and individualized information available to teachers. They way students perform can reveal exactly what they know, what they don’t know, and what they’re ready to learn next. Assessment data can be used in tandem with traditional research, and that traditional research could, of course, inform and influence the way you assess. The major difference with assessment is that you, as a teacher, are the researcher — and instead of looking at teaching from a more general lens, you’re looking specifically at your own teaching, your own practices, and, importantly, your own students. With assessment data, you are mobilizing the knowledge that your students give you every time they demonstrate their own knowledge. Some assessment systems, however, will make that mobilization more meaningful than others. For help choosing an assessment system that will help you mobilize knowledge, see this guide.
Making use of knowledge can function outside of the data → action framework. For education content developers, an innovative type of knowledge mobilization now drives the way we construct digital learning programs: learning science. Learning science explores how students learn through what we know about the brain, behavior, engagement, and other factors that go into the learning process. Learning science is highly interdisciplinary, and draws from traditional research to drive new, groundbreaking conclusions about teaching and learning. Putting learning science into action involves careful, deliberate, and thoughtful design of teaching and learning programs or materials. Instructional programs built on the key principles and findings of learning science aim to optimize student outcomes, personalize instruction, and teach the way students are predisposed to best learn. For more on our approach to learning science, visit:
