Research School Network: Implementation Decisions: Problems and Context A new blog series around the EEF’s tool for making evidence-informed implementation decisions

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Implementation Decisions: Problems and Context

A new blog series around the EEF’s tool for making evidence-informed implementation decisions

by Bradford Research School
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Mark Miller

Director of Bradford Research School

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Effective implementation relies on getting key decisions right, and a large number of these happen at the explore stage. The tool below, taken from the EEF’s Implementation guidance report, helps frame these decisions. In a series of blogs, we’re unpacking each quadrant. In this blog: What’s the problem, and what’s already going on?

Explore framework

Implementation isn’t just doing a thing well – it’s doing the right thing well. And to know what the right thing is, we need to know what problem we are solving.

Reflect on data


Schools generate a lot of data: internal and external test data, observations, survey data, behaviour and attendance data, and much more. Some data is readily available, some will need to be generated to learn about a particular focus of implementation. There are pros and cons to every individual piece of data:

Types of Data

Key is that last row – what does using it well’ look like? When using data to identify the right problem, we recommend the following:

  • Engage a range of people in the process e.g. if using lesson observation data, ask the person who conducted observations for their input.
  • Triangulate data. Everything is useful but it is the wider pattern that we are we looking for.
  • Form a hypothesis and ask how each piece of data supports or challenges the hypothesis.
  • BUT don’t cherry-pick data to prove your hypothesis.
  • Identify where there may be gaps and generate further data e.g. a teacher survey.
  • Ask whether this is still the case e.g. GCSE results for one cohort do not always indicate the right problem for a new cohort; an Ofsted report is a snapshot in time, and some aspects may not be current.

Test your hypothesis

Sometimes the problem isn’t the problem.

Be careful not to confuse the observable effects of a problem with its root causes. For instance, a perceived issue with reading comprehension might be caused by multiple factors, not all of which are immediately obvious, for example, poorly selected texts or a lack of scaffolding to support reading.

A School's Guide to Implementation

Once a problem has been identified, it’s worth putting it to the test:

  • Is this a cause or a symptom?
  • Does the issue need shrinking?
  • Is this the right problem?
  • Is this something that is amenable to change?


Reflecting on these questions is best done as a collaborative process, as different stakeholders may have different interpretations. One of our favourite activities to get to the root of the problem is to frame the problem, then ask why’? If we can answer that, then maybe the first problem isn’t the problem we need to solve. Keep asking why until we get to a dead end: that might be your true problem.

Understand current practices and what influences them

Just because we have identified the right problem to solve, doesn’t mean that this problem is something noone has thought about before.

It is likely that there is already something going on in that space. For example, if we identify that spelling is a particular challenge, there will be existing good practice in the school. There may be some approaches already being used. Maybe these are ineffective or maybe they are just not being implemented well. Maybe the staff body are not united in their understanding of spelling or their belief that this is the most important area for focus.

Understanding context will serve us well when considering every other quadrant of the tool. In the next blog, we consider barriers and enablers.

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Explore tool for making evidence-informed implementation decisions

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