Summit 2014
Ninth Annual Summit on Evidence-based Education
Adopting Evidence-based Practices in Education: Bridging the Culture Gaps
April 24-25, 2014
Berkeley, California
ANNOTATED SUMMIT AGENDA
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2014
| The Importance and Challenges of Bridging the Culture Gap | |
| view presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| Randy Keyworth, The Wing Institute | |
| Keyworth characterized culture change as a "wicked problem", exacerbated by: complexity (it is a very obtuse and amorphous process to research and analyze); interdependence (there are countless cultural variables in constant play with each other); stakeholders (the education landscape has countless players, special interests, views and perspectives); and solutions (culture change is a messy and ongoing process). He identified four recent "sea change" developments in the field of education that create both obstacles and opportunities for culture change: changing teacher demographics, increasing politicalization of education, rapidly advancing use of technology in classrooms, and implementing Common Core Standards. | |
| Why Hasn't Evidence-based Practice Had a Greater Impact on Education? | |
| view presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| Jack States, The Wing Institute | |
| States reviewed research identifying critical components for effective teaching. He then presented data showing that this evidence is not being used the majority of classrooms in the country. One of the biggest obstacles comes from competing education philosophies and cultures that distrust scientific evidence and embrace approaches based on beliefs, values, and ideologies. In particular, there are two dominant philosophies to teaching: explicit instruction and constructivism. The two have opposite views on the role of teachers, use of data, student assessment, and student curriculum. Despite the weight of scientific evidence towards explicit instruction, constructivist views are prevalent in teacher development, school models, and student expectations. | |
| The Impact of Culture at the Education Policy Level | |
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| View presentation with audio | |
| Randy Keyworth, The Wing Institute | |
| Keyworth used frame theory to examine the impact of cultural constructs on education policy at the national level. Frames are the worldviews, beliefs, and assumptions people use when evaluating new information and making decisions. Research shows that, if facts don't fit the frame, the facts are rejected, not the frame. Studies have identified nine widely-held frames regarding education solutions in our country: individual frame, blame frame, visionary leader frame, magic bullet frame, local solutions frame, private sector frame, back to basics frame, more funding frame, and computers frame. He then examined several widespread and popular school reform initiatives—charter schools, class-size reduction, school improvement grants, and 1-1 computing in the classroom—and suggested that these were being supported based on these frames, much more than available evidence. | |
| From "Learning to Learn" to "Training to Teach": Changing the Culture of Teacher Preparation | |
| Vew presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| View Arthur McKee's paper | |
| Arthur McKee, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) | |
| McKee discussed the results of a NCTQ nation-wide study of 2,420 university teacher preparation programs across 1,130 institutions. The results were disheartening, captured by the description "an industry of mediocrity". These programs are immersed in the same cultural philosophy introduced in State's presentation: constructivism (developmentalism). This philosophy eschews evidence, systematic instruction, and proven instructional strategies in favor of teachers "finding" their own styles. As a result, scientifically based strategies for teaching reading, formative assessment, and classroom management are either ignored or dismissed in the program. The result is the graduation of teachers who are unprepared to teach. | |
| Building a Lexicon | |
| (activity) | |
| Jack States, The Wing Institute | |
| States led a work group activity designed to construct a lexicon capturing the vocabulary/terms/language of the two predominant and fundamentally different philosophies of education (constructivist and explicit). Participants were then asked to identify vocabulary/terms/language that might bridge the gap. | |
| Now What? National and State Education Priorities | |
| Sam Redding, Center on Innovation & Improvement | |
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Redding provided an update on a number of U.S. Department of Education initiatives as well as other national projects. He discussed the status of the School Improvement Grants, Race to the Top, Common Core Curriculum, Charter Schools and various accountability programs. His takeaway was that the Department is currently pouring through data and results to evaluate the various initiatives' success and hoping that the impact has been worth the investment. |
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| Designing a Culture: From Walden II to Classroom Consultation | |
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| View presentation with audio | |
| Ronnie Detrich, The Wing Institute | |
| Detrich discussed the challenges of overcoming cultural obstacles in the context of a public school teacher training and support program operated by Spectrum Center in the 1990's. The program was designed to send behavioral/educational consultants into classrooms to assist teachers who had challenging students. The goal was to provide teachers with feedback, coaching, and support. The obstacles were cultural: teachers resisted feedback, evidence-based procedures, systematic instruction, and specialized interventions. The consultants were trained in social influence strategies to "come along side" the teachers, which involved starting with their perspectives and shaping them towards cooperation. | |
| Desired Cultural Features | |
| (activity) | |
| Randy Keyworth, The Wing Institute | |
| Keyworth led the group in an exercise to identify the top ten cultural features/characteristics of an effective school culture. The purpose was to: develop common understanding of culture terms and become facile in their use, develop agreement on desirable cultural features/characteristics to support effective school cultures, and prioritize up to ten features/characteristics that are most important. | |
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014
| Changing Hearts, Minds, and Behavior: Can Implementation Science Offer Any Clues? | |
| View presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| View Karen Blasé's paper | |
| Karen Blase, National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) | |
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Blase examined cultural issues in the context of her work researching implementation. She presented a chart with levels of agreement on one axis and levels of certainty on the other. The further a strategy gets from either element, the more cultural issues become wicked problems. She further categorized interventions into those that were "technical", vs., those that were "adaptive". Technical interventions are those that have agreement, clear definitions of the problem, and straightforward even if complicated (e.g. building a bridge, funding scholarships). Adaptive interventions have less agreement, clarity and more uncertainty as to the solutions and outcomes (e.g. reforming public education, providing affordable healthcare). She finished with a model for addressing adaptive problems, including strategies for four stages of implementation: exploration, installation, initial implementation, and full implementation. |
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| Cultural Obstacles | |
| (activity) | |
| Jack States, The Wing Institute | |
| States led an activity designed to identify the cultural obstacles to building and sustaining an effective school culture. Participants were to: review the cultural features/characteristics of effective school culture identified in the previous activity, identify the cultural obstacles to each desired features/characteristics, prioritize the most serious obstacles, and complete a contingency analysis of the top 1 or 2 obstacles. | |
| Culture, Context, and Connections: Behavior Analytic Considerations for Enhancing School Climate | |
| View presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| View George Sugai's paper | |
| George Sugai, Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports | |
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Sugai examined the issue of culture from the context of his work helping schools adopt and implement positive behavior interventions. As the first step in gaining acceptance, an intervention must start with a theory of action that is comprehensive, repeatable, confirmable, and parsimonious. There must be a theory-based explanation of the phenomenon, data based confirmation of the explanation, implementation of the explanation-based actions, and data-based confirmation of effects. With this core support, he identified strategies for gaining acceptance in school cultures. |
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| Research Based Dissemination: Or Confessions of a Poor Disseminator | |
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| View presentation with audio | |
| Bryan Cook, University of Hawaii at Manoa | |
| Cook shared research on what makes ideas "stick" (gain acceptance, maintain) within a culture and provided an acronym from the results: SUCCESS. Ideas stick, and therefore matter when they are: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and involve stories. Unfortunately, university faculty seldom have the skill sets needed for them to be successful in disseminating programs. Typical trainings and research reports are often the antitheses of what is required. He suggested that it is unrealistic to assume researchers will also be experienced at presentation, and recommended that diffusion experts be included as members of research teams. | |
| Nibblin' Away in the Northeast: Spreading Evidence-Based Practice in P-12 Schools & Teacher Education | |
| Vew Presentation | |
| View presentation with audio | |
| Larry Maheady, SUNY Buffalo State | |
| Maheady explored the notion of culture change in small increments, or "nibbling away". His group has had success with strategies such as: working in small ways to promote the good things they see; complementing teachers and school leaders for using effective practice, recognizing educators and psychologists who work effectively with parents, teacher unions, and communities agencies; advertising the success of professionals who use scientific evidence to improve their decision making. | |
| Stranger in a Strange Land: Implementation Science for Behavior Analysis | |
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| View presentation with audio | |
| Ronnie Detrich, The Wing Institute | |
| Detrich shared research regarding culture change and dissemination that identifies diffusion of innovation as a social process, even more than a technical matter. Some of the key factors include: innovation has to solve a problem that is important for the client; innovation must have a relative advantage over current practice; it is necessary to gain support of the opinion leaders if adoption is to reach critical mass and become self-sustaining; innovation must be compatible with existing values, experiences and needs of the community. He then introduced a model for measuring cultural practices in an organization based on the incidence and prevalence of cultural practices. | |