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THTHEORETICAL CONTEXT:
KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION,
MEDIATION AND UTILIZATION
the quality of instruction and learning and to
bringing knowledge innovations to fruition in
classrooms and schools. Instead of traditional
knowledge dissemination through one-off
workshops, seminars or discussions, knowledge
mediation and knowledge application should be
in line with the new accounts of professional
learning mobilization. Such learning is
grounded in participants??questions, inquiry and
experimentation as well as research on effective
practice, and is focused on very specific and
contextualized aspects of instruction. It should be
iterative and extended over time, supported by
follow-up activities, properly structured and
overseen by expert teachers, and embedded in
schools functioning as collections of communities of
learning and inquiry. It should also be focused
systematically on instructional innovation and
cultural change at the school level to address the
implicit (often uncontested) conceptions of, or
beliefs about, teaching, learning, knowledge,
assessment and epistemic authority that teachers
hold (Teh, Hogan, and Dimmock, 2013). Finally,
such research is more likely to be focused and
effective when it is embedded in a national (or least
jurisdictional) strategic research, development and
innovation programme. But while a knowledge
mobilization programme of this kind will help, it is
by no means a sufficient condition to close the gap
between research, on the one hand, and policy and
practice, on the other (Hogan, 2011).
6
FURTHER STRATEGIES
FOR BRIDGING THE
THEORY-POLICY /
PRACTICE DIVIDE
AND ACHIEVING
ITERATIVE
KNOWLEDGE
MOBILIZATION
The three key elements of an
iterative knowledge mobilization
effort cited above create an
increased likelihood of producing
useful knowledge which is in turn
found to be meaningful by
practitioners and policy makers.
Based on their experience and
study of Singapore? education
system, Teh, Hogan and Dimmock
(2013) identify three further
elements they consider
instrumental to enhancing the
actualisation of an iterative
knowledge mobilization process
between