The expertise of teachers is often based on insights they have acquired in their own practice, but they hardly use knowledge that goes beyond these specific situations (Weimer, 2008). Although teachers’ practical wisdom and expertise are highly valuable for every day classroom practice, it is inefficient to re-invent new developments without using knowledge from research and systematized experience of other teachers. In addition to their practical wisdom, teachers can make use of academic or research-based knowledge about educational interventions and strategies, that can guide teachers towards improving their teaching practice (Leat & Lin, 2003; Little & Houston, 2003).

This review concerns teachers’ utilization of academic or research-based knowledge. Academic educational knowledge is defined by Lysenko et al. (2014) as knowledge produced by professional researchers or by teachers conducting research in collaboration with researchers. The term ‘academic knowledge utilization’ refers to teachers’ use of academic knowledge to ground teaching practice on research evidence. Academic knowledge utilization is conceptualized as the process of finding, selecting and understanding knowledge, translating knowledge into implications for teaching practice and applying these implications in one’s own teaching practice. A next step in this process is sharing this knowledge and experiences with others. This means that academic knowledge utilization is an ongoing or cyclical process of finding, using, and sharing knowledge.

Commonly acknowledged in education and educational sciences, however, is the gap between research and practice, and between research communities and practice communities; researchers think there is a knowledge base which teachers can use, but teachers experience barriers to access that knowledge base, and find that researchers examine problems that are less relevant for practice. Therefore, teachers’ academic knowledge utilization continues to be a challenge.

This review explores barriers, conditions and strategies for increasing teachers’ academic knowledge utilization. Three questions will be answered: 1) Which barriers for teachers’ academic knowledge utilization are described in the literature, 2) Which conditions are recommended to enhance teachers’ academic knowledge utilization, and 3) Which interventions are recommended to increase teachers’ academic knowledge utilization?

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