Abstract:

The theory-practice gap can be defined as "a failure to apply or to relate the concepts, ideas and theories to professional conditions". The aim of this research was to explore the reasons for the theory-practice gap in the field of educational administration. Participants included 380 school administrators working in primary, secondary and high schools and 57 researchers working in different higher education institutions in Ankara. The views are collected through the questionnaire with two different forms, namely Reasons of Theory-Practice Gap in the Field of Educational Administration developed by the researchers. Data were interpreted by percentages, frequency distributions and chi-square values. The most common reasons given by school administrators for the gap were "researchers’ failure to share results with administrators, conducting the research without considering the needs of administrators, and failure to reward administrators for their research-based practices". For the researchers the reasons for the gap are as follows; "the lack of communication channels between researchers and administrators, researchers’ preferences to conduct their research for the requirements of the assignment and promotional criteria and the lack of awareness of researchers about the actual problems of schools." The findings of the study revealed that the views of school administrators varied for some independent variables such as school level, socio-economic level of the district, age and attendance to a graduate school program. The variable that revealed the highest difference was the socio-economic level of the district. It was found that there was a statistically significant difference for "conducting researches aiming at solving problems requires notable time period" item among researchers' views according to their title. As a conclusion, it can be said that when the perspectives of scholars and practitioners are evaluated all together, two main results are revealed. The participants are agreed that "utilizing research focusing on the solution of the problems requires considerable time" and "problems encountered during the data collection process" are the most common reasons for the theory-practice gap. Finally, it is recommended that some activities can be organized for the purpose of sharing research proposals and their implementation results between theorists and practitioners.

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