The term clinical research is derived from medical studies. In a clinical research practice, researchers conduct research while they are also engaged in a practice in which they are responsible for patients. They apply their own research results, thus discovering whether they make sense in individual and local cases. Medical research is unthinkable without activities requiring personal skills, such as surgery. The success of medical studies is hardly conceivable without an intense engagement with the object of study and the unification of knowledge and action, theory and practice.

A few years ago, a theme issue of Educational Researcher focused on the question whether a clinical research approach can make education research more relevant for practice (Bulterman-Bos, 2008). The featured article pointed towards the integration between the role of the researcher and the practitioner that is common in medical research.  A major argument in favor of a clinical approach in education was that teaching is intricate work requiring pedagogical and didactical skills. An establishment of a separation between knowledge and skills – as is most common in our present research practice - does not result in knowhow, but in concepts without skills.

Recently, research approaches in which teachers conduct research from inside the classroom, have increased. Examples of these approaches are Action research and Teacher Research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Zeichner & Nofke, 2001;),  Lesson and Learning Study (Carlgren, 2012; Lo & Marton, 2012;), Design-Based research (Kelly, 2003) and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (Hutchings, 2010).

These approaches aim at the improvement of practice and the professionalization of teachers. Can these kinds of research, however, also contribute to international knowledge building in the teaching profession?

After an introduction of clinical research, a recent international literature review of knowledge construction by teachers is presented. After this, two Swedish teachers will present results from Learning Study. A French contribution focuses on recent findings from Cooperative Engineering in Didactics.

References

Bulterman-Bos, J.A. (2008). Theme issue. Will a clinical approach make educational research more relevant for practice? Educational Researcher, 37(7) 412-420.

Carlgren, I. (2012). The learning study as an approach for "clinical" subject matter didactic research. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 1(2), pp.126 - 139

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2009). Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. New York: Teachers College Press.

Hutchings, P. (2010). The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: From idea to integration. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 123, 63-72.

Kelly, A. E. (2003). Theme issue: The role of design in educational research. Educational Researchers, 32(1), 3-4.

Ligozat, F. (2011). The Determinants of the Joint Action in Didactics: the Text-Action Relationship in Teaching Practice. In B. Hudson & M. A. Meyer (Éd.), Beyond fragmentation: Didactics, Learning and Teaching in Europe (p. 157‑176). Opladen & Farmington Hills MI: Barbara Budrich Publishers

Lo, L.M. & Marton, F. (2012). Towards a science of the art of teaching. Using variation theory as a guiding principle of pedagogical design. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Study, 1(1), 7-22.

Runesson, U., & Gustafsson, G. (2012). Sharing and developing knowledge products from Learning Study – a case study. International Journal of Lesson and Learning Studies.

Seixas, P., & Morton, T. (2012). The bix six: Historical thinking concepts. Nelson Education. Toronto.

Tiberghien, A., & Malkoun, L. (2009). The construction of physics knowledge in a classroom community from different perspectives. In B. Schwarz, T. Dreyfus & R. Hershkovitz (Eds.), Transformation of knowledge through classroom interaction (pp. 42-55). New York: Routledge.

Zeichner, K., & Noffke, S. (2001). Practitioner research. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (4th ed) (pp. 298-332). Washington, DC: AERA.