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Opening the Hinges
We explore ways to ask more open hinge-point questions
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by 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?
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:
Key is that last row – what does ‘using it well’ look like? When using data to identify the right problem, we recommend the following:
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.
Once a problem has been identified, it’s worth putting it to the test:
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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We explore ways to ask more open hinge-point questions
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Reflecting on what can help or hinder implementation
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How challenging is the approach to implement?
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