ID: 160 / IN05.P3.PLN: 1
Network of Professional Learning Networks
Innovate
Orientation of proposal: This contribution is mainly a practioner, policy maker or community member contribution.
The Professional Learning Networks Network Sub-themes: Crossing boundaries and building bridges for sustainable impact: What is the role of school leadership in sustaining PLNs?
Development of a Sustainability Tool of Educational Interventions
Anne Tappel, Cindy L. Poortman, Kim Schildkamp, Adrie J. Visscher
University of Twente, Netherlands, The;
[email protected]
Purpose
Schools often start one intervention after the other to improve the quality of their education. Even if an intervention appears to be beneficial for educational practice, sustainable implementation is a challenge (Gilad-Hai & Somech, 2016; Wiltsey-Stirrnam et al., 2012).
Sustainability is influenced by various factors (Prenger et al., submitted). A tool based on these factors has been developed to help schools gain insight into the process of sustainability of an educational intervention. Based on internal conversations with help of the tool, follow-up steps towards sustainability can be agreed upon. In this session, participants work with the tool to find out working on this factor might be necessary to increase the sustainability of educational development in their own school. At the same time they help improve the tool by sharing their experiences.
Educational importance
Based on a systematic review, in this study the sustainability of an innovation is defined as ‘integrating and scaling the innovation’s core aspects in organizational routines, which are flexible and adaptive to ongoing work’, and 4 types of factors influencing sustainability were distinguished:
• School organizational (e.g. collaboration, leadership)
• Innovation (e.g. effectiveness)
• Individual stakeholders (e.g. teacher buy-in)
• Context (e.g. formal acknowledgement)
These factors formed the basis for a questionnaire for respondents in all levels within a school organization for secondary education in The Netherlands (i.e, from district level to teacher level) in a former study into data use plns (Tappel et al., 2020). The questionnaire was tested, results of the pilot phase of this study indicated firstly that sustainability can be achieved if the goal of the chosen intervention is in line with the schools vision. Secondly, various (combinations of) factors influence sustainability, with leadership as key role.
The tool is based on the outcomes of this study. By using this tool, educators such as participants from plns start discussion within the school about the development of the intervention towards sustainability and where profit can be made in this process.
Continuous improvement with a specific focus on educational development instead of embracing new projects one after another, saves teachers’ energy and resources. Sustaining interventions can lead to better insights in education for students and helps to focus on improving student achievement for all students in the long term.
Format and approach
The scientific insights have been translated into a practical tool. The tool includes questions per type of influencing factors which can be scored. In this session practitioners from the field have the opportunity to first work individually with the trial version of the tool. Experiences will then be shared in the plenary part, not only to improve the tool, but for participants to obtain insight into discussing factors influencing sustainability of interventions in their context.
Connection conference theme
In this session we cross boundaries between research and practice: educators learn from research and vice versa. The final validated version of the tool aims to build bridges between different stakeholders within the school organization, by helping to start a conversation to enhance sustainability of educational interventions.
References
Gilad-Hai, S., & Somech, A. (2016). “The day after” The organizational consequences of innovation implementation in experimental schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(1), 19–40.
Prenger, R., Tappel, A.P.M., Poortman, C.L., & Schildkamp, K. (n.d.). How can educational innovations become sustainable? A review of empirical literature.
Tappel, A.P.M., Poortman, C. L., Schildkamp, K., & Visscher, A. J. (2020). Factors Influencing the Sustainability of a Data Use Intervention. Conference paper, ICSEI 2020
Wiltsey-Stirrnam, S., & et al. (2012). The sustainability of new programs and innovations: a review of the empirical literature and recommendations for future research. Implementation Science, 7((17):), 1–19. http://www.implementationscience.com/content/7/1/17
| Period | 9 Mar 2021 |
|---|
| Event title | 34th International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, ICSEI 2021: Crossing Boundaries and Building Bridges |
|---|
| Event type | Conference |
|---|
| Conference number | 34 |
|---|
| Location | Auckland, New ZealandShow on map |
|---|
| Degree of Recognition | International |
|---|