{"id":4466,"date":"2019-04-09T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4466"},"modified":"2019-04-04T11:10:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T16:10:52","slug":"how-to-unmake-system-wide-changes-based-on-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-unmake-system-wide-changes-based-on-research\/","title":{"rendered":"How to (Un)Make System-Wide Changes Based on Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re reading this blog you already know: brain researchers can offer fascinating and practical advice to improve teaching and schooling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s SO MUCH good advice, you might want to make lots of changes right away to get all those benefits.<\/p>\n

Before you do that, let me offer two suggestions.<\/p>\n

First: Take Incremental Steps<\/h2>\n

I worked with a school where the math department dramatically overhauled its entire program, with research guidance along the way.<\/p>\n

The department adopted an inquiry based<\/strong> pedagogical model. And, it developed a syllabus designed to space and interleave<\/strong> practice. And it championed a group-work<\/strong> approach. And, to help students manage math anxiety, it adopted a mindful meditation<\/strong> program. And it incorporated lots of exciting technology<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The results: not good. By every measure, the students didn’t learn as much math. (In some cases, the results were quite alarming.) And: stress levels among teachers and students went up considerably.<\/p>\n

Here’s the vexing point: the teachers didn’t know what to do next, because they didn’t know which of the changes they made created the problem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Should they go back to direct instruction? Should they return to the traditional syllabus? Give up on group work and stop mindfulness breaks? Return all the iPads<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Because the grand combination of changes had produced those bad results, teachers didn’t know which one piece (or combination of pieces) to undo.<\/p>\n

Potential solution: make one change at a time. Get a good measure of its success or failure before you add the next.<\/p>\n

Second: Define Success and Failure in Advance<\/h2>\n

When we put lots of effort into a new project, we’re naturally inclined root for its success. In fact, we’re inclined to exaggerate its success.<\/p>\n

For example: if I commit to a systematic program of retrieval practice<\/strong> with my students, I’m likely to see its benefits. And: to overlook its shortcomings.<\/p>\n

To compensate for these natural blind spots, I think, we should define success and failure before we make the changes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For instance, I might decide that all my retrieval practice work is succeeding<\/em> if class averages on weekly vocabulary quizzes go up by 5%. It’s failing<\/em> if that average falls by 5%. Any result in between is inconclusive noise.<\/p>\n

(No doubt, what you measure and how you measure it will differ considerably from this hypothetical.)<\/p>\n

At the end of the following term, I can check out my class averages, and have a plausible measurement of the results.<\/p>\n

When I calculate those averages, I will hope that all my work paid off in more vocabulary learning. But I’ll be less tempted to overhype success — “look, they’ve having so much more fun!” — if cold data throw water on my enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

And, that cold water will be all the more bracing if I myself decided on that measurement — well before the experiment even began.<\/p>\n

To Sum Up<\/h2>\n

We should indeed make changes to schools based on psychology and neuroscience research.<\/p>\n

To ensure those changes produce the most benefit, we should introduce them at a reasonable pace.<\/p>\n

And: we should know before we start how to define success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We might be eager to hurry up and change everything to make our schools better. By rolling out one change at a time, and by agreeing on criteria for success and failure in advance, we can raise the likelihood that our changes will help students learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4466"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4474,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions\/4474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}