Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

A discussion paper prepared at the request of the Canadian Council on Learning and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

January 2009

By Dr. Ben Levin, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT)

This paper:

• Provides some context for the growing interest in knowledge mobilization (KM);
• Outlines briefly current thinking on knowledge mobilization, along with a view on the strength of the empirical and conceptual work underlying that thinking;
• Identifies key areas where current knowledge is inadequate;
• Identifies promising areas for further work, both in research and in KM activity.

Interest in knowledge mobilization has been growing rapidly, and our understandings of this issue are deepening.

However important conceptual questions remain, the empirical basis for answering many of these questions is still very thin, research methods to provide better evidence also need considerable development, and the overall infrastructure in support of KM related to learning remains quite weak.

Still, we are at least in the position to be able to ask better questions and to find better ways of gathering evidence about them.