The Research-Minded Educator: Bridging Practice and Inquiry -Cultivating Evidence-Based Classroom Practice and Practitioner Research Skills.

Abstract

Teaching has evolved from being viewed as a craft to being recognized as an intellectually demanding profession grounded in evidence and reflective inquiry. In this context, educators are increasingly encouraged to adopt a research-minded approach—one that fuses classroom practice with systematic investigation and critical analysis (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). The 21st-century classroom, characterized by diversity, digitalization, and accountability pressures, demands that teachers make pedagogical decisions supported by credible data rather than intuition or tradition (Brown, 2020). Consequently, the integration of research into everyday teaching has become a professional imperative. However, the word research seems to be a fear psycosis or another burden for many teachers in the Sri lankan education system which then become a barrier for them to actively contribute to the education system . According to writer’s first hand experience having more 35 years experience being in the field of teacher education observes that doing research by majority of teachers in the primary schools limits to fulfil the requirement of a study program, or obtain a salary increments or to have a promotion to which many does not have access. Therefore, teachers demonstrate them as consumer than producer in general.