Attitudes to Research
This section considers some of the attitudes to research held by practitioners. These range from completely dismissing the relevance of research to embracing the opportunity to look at all aspects of practice anew. A key consideration here is the link between practice and theory. By listening to and considering practitioners' views you will be able to identify some of the ways research can enhance practice and understand some of the barriers.
Please consider the following three statements and highlight the one that most closely corresponds to your own view:
- Research is pretty useless. It ought to be relevant to practice but it just isn't.
- Research can be useful – but it must have a direct bearing on practice and provide practical suggestions and strategies.
- Research is useful even if it has no direct impact on practice - as long as it increases my understanding of my work.
These three statements broadly conform to three positions on research taken up by groups of teachers studied by Zeuli & Tiezzi (Reference: Creating contexts to change teachers' beliefs about the influence of research 1993. 6/1/09).
As PTAs you may see similar positions taken up by colleagues.
The activities below are based on three practitioner scenarios.
Once you have completed your reflections you can click on the 'Did You Know' below to compare your thoughts.
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This editorial on Evidence Based Practice by Sackett, et. al is a wonderful resource that summarizes what EBP is, and more importantly what it is NOT. Key points in this article will be assessed on the Unit 3 exam. It reinforces the role of attitude, systematic questioning and answering, and the values of the patient in the clinical reasoning process.
