One of the behaviours that drives effective implementation is reflection:
It enables schools to assess pupil needs, select the right interventions, identify barriers to change, and monitor implementation in a way that drives improvement. Reflecting requires schools to use structured processes that enable them to learn and adapt. At the same time, individual members of staff should adopt a reflective outlook in which they review and refine their own practice.
We might see reflection simply as a behaviour that kicks in once we embark on an implementation process, part of our monitoring approach. However, we don’t use our mirrors only when we’ve set off driving – we use them before we pull out. We can reflect on our implementation climate before we set off on the journey.
Reflect on Your Endowment
At Dixons Academies, we have several strategic levers which are essential in developing an implementation climate. One of them is your endowment. This is what you start with in your setting, things you can’t change, a sense of where you are right now.
Analyse your school’s starting endowment, (things you can’t change but that do matter in terms of your probabilities of getting even better) and the trends it is riding.
Do a ‘tear down’ of past results to map your school’s current position and to see what came from previous strategic moves and actions.
Produce a live list of your school’s most important strategic issues (critical challenges).
This process might highlight the barriers to effective implementation, but importantly will also bring to the fore some enablers too. You can think about where you’re currently at and what you have that’s on your side and what’s going to be an asset in implementation. Through this reflection activity, you move forward to prepare and plan with less friction, even before you have pinned your colours to the mast with any particular implementation strategy or proceeded with delivery.
Reflect on your successes
There’s much value in holding on to previous successes and really learn from them rather than seeing an implementation or an intervention in isolation. So you can ask, what were our enablers generally the last time we were successful in this area? What caused it? Is there anything else that we’ve had success in that actually could lean into this? ‘In our school, it works when we do X or Y.’
For example, we have recently launched professional growth coaching across our trust. We have invested heavily in instructional coaching for many years, so we asked what makes that form of coaching successful at Dixons? We know it’s most successful when it’s protected on the timetable, when people are clear about its purpose and see it modelled, when it’s valued and prioritised by the senior leaders.
We also know that there were people with expertise, understanding and a genuine interest in instructional coaching who we could use to pilot and implement this new form of coaching in a different context. We didn’t get everything right, but we leant into our implementation strengths by reflecting.
The EEF’s tool for making evidence-informed implementation decisions considers barriers and enablers as part of the feasibility of implementation: ‘Consider what will help or hinder implementation in the school e.g. time to engage, existing skills and expertise.’ When we have reflected on implementation climate at a whole school level, it can help us to answer this question at the implementation-specific level.
And once we have checked our mirrors, we are ready to embark on the implementation process. Buckle up!
