Theory of Change

&

Research Process

December 2015

www.curriculumredesign.org

© Charles Fadel / Center for Curriculum Redesign – 2015 All Rights Reserved.

© Charles Fadel / Center for Curriculum Redesign – 2015 All Rights Reserved.

TheoryofChange

Therearemanyaspectsofeducationsystemsthatin3luencethequalityoflearninginaparticularschoolor classroom: socio-economic status, school culture, professional development, teacher quality,pressurefromstandardizedtests,etc.Foreveryfactor,therearemanyrelatedreformeffortsaimedatimprovingteachingandstudentoutcomes,andthesevaryinapproachandeffectiveness.Hereweaskadifferent question: Knowing what we know about how children learn and what is necessary forindividualsandsocietiestosucceedandthrive,whatshouldstudentsbelearning?

Our hope is to create a framework that can serve as the foundation for deep discussions about oureducationaldesigngoalsandhowwellweareachievingthem.Assessmentdriveschangeineducation,andwebelievethatitiscrucialtoaligncurriculumandassessmenttoourvalues,sothateducatorscanteachinanenvironmentthatsupportsandrewardsdeeplearningacrosstheframeworkofwhatneedstobelearned. 1

By creating a framework of educational goals, we can in3luence the discussion about standards foreducation,andhowstandardswillpavethewayforcraftingthedeepre-designofassessmentstomakethemmore holistic and relevant. When assessments re3lect updated views on what is important tolearn, itwill benecessary to redesign curriculum to alignwith thenewassessment approaches, andconcurrently, professional development to prepare educators to help students learn the updatedcurricula,asshownhere:

Progresswill be staggered.When renovating a house, it is important to drastically change only onesectionatatime,whilelivingintheothersections.Intryingtochangealargeentityliketheeducationsystem, we must understand that it will not happen all at once. Both the what (standards andassessment),andthehow(curriculumandprofessionaldevelopment)needtochangeovertime.

The CCR is now focused on the 3irst two rooms of renovation—standards and assessment. We arefocusingontheselevelsinordertoeventuallyeffectchangeacrossalllevels.Assessmentisapowerfullever for changeacross the system; as the saying goes, “what gets countedendsup counting.” Itwillthenbeup to individual countries and jurisdictions as tohow speci3ic progresswill bemadeon thecurriculumandprofessionaldevelopment, inwaysthatarealignedandharmoniouswiththeupdatededucationgoals,standards,andassessments,andarebestsuitedtothespeci3icstyle,needs,andvaluesofeacheducationsystem.

Inadditiontothefourareasofstandards,assessments,curriculaandprofessionaldevelopment,thereisoften, in many jurisdictions, a silent in3luence that has gone mostly unchallenged: college entrancerequirements. Such requirements, with their entrance tests, have been constructed to ascertain thestudent’s ability to succeed in university courses, mostly from a traditional knowledge perspective.Theyveryrarely,ifever,re3lectskills,character,andthemeta-learningabilitiesofthestudent,andarenotapredictorforlifesuccessoutsideacademia.Theyoftenbiastherequirementsofschoolsystems,in

Educatorswhohavereviewedthisframeworksometimesask,“Whyaren’tyouincludinginyoureffortsaparticularfocusonstudents1

whoarestrugglinginvariousways—lowsocio-economicstatus,learningdifferences,andsoon?”Webelievetheseareveryimportantissues,andthattherewillbeawidevarietyofwaystoadaptandmodifylearningpracticesforeachlearnernomatterwheretheyareonthespectraofindividuallearnerneeds.CCRisstimulatingchangeatthesystemiclevel,forallstudents,byworkingwithin3luentialstakeholders(suchastheOECD)increatingaframeworkthatisrobust,comprehensiveandadaptableforall.

© Charles Fadel / Center for Curriculum Redesign – 2015 All Rights Reserved.

deciding for instancehowmuchalgebrashouldberequired irrespectiveofhowuseful itmaybe,andnotrealizingthatitmaysimplybefunctioningasasortingmechanism,byapproximatingpersistence.

Asthisrealizationstartstosinkin,collegessuchasBardandjurisdictionssuchasBritishColumbiaarechallengingtheirhighereducationenvironmentstodeeplyrethinktheirentrancerequirements.Moreresearch, analysis, concentration, and innovative problem-solving are needed to understand how toaddress theneedofhighereducationto fairlysortapplicants,yetassess the full individual,andmostcritically,notholdbackprogressintransformingeducationstandardsandassessmentsystems.

Ofcourse,therearefeedbackloopsfromeachleveltoeachoftheotherlevelsinthismodel.Educationisalargeandcomplicatedsystem,whichiswhyweneedtotakeastepback,lookatthebigpicture,andbeintentionalwithhowweapproachthishistoriceducationchallenge.

TheCCRProcessAsanindependent,non-partisan,internationalorganization,theCenterforCurriculumRedesign(CCR)usesanevidence-andresearch-basedprocessfordevelopingandre3iningitsframeworks.Thisprocessdrawsfromthreedistinctcollaborativeefforts:synthesis,analysis,andorganization.

SynthesizeTheCCRrecognizesthatalotofworkhasalreadybeendonealreadyinidentifyingpromisingareasofeducationreform.Inordertonotreinventthewheel,theCCRusesmeta-synthesesonpriorandexistingframeworks developed by jurisdictions and national bodies (such as ministries of education),professionalbodies(suchastheNationalCouncilofTeachersofMathematics)andorganizations(suchasP21.org).Italsodrawsfromanalysesofemployers’needs(suchasanIBMstudyof15,000CEOsfrom60 countries and 33 industries). The CCR also ensures that its concepts are current by constantlymonitoringandsynthesizingresearchfromthelearningsciencesandbyaligningitselfwithanalysesofglobaltrendsandfuturestudies.

SYNTHESIZE:-prior&exis4ngframeworks-inputfromemployers-researchfromthelearningsciences-futurestudiesandglobaltrends

ANALYZE:-surveysfromteachers-feedbackfromglobalconferences-socialmedia-literaturereviews+expertpanels

ORGANIZE:-comprehensive:nomajorelementsmissing-compact:ac4onableanddeployable-uncorrelated:noduplica4onorconfusion-appropriatelayerofabstrac4on:sensical-globallyrelevant:forbroadacceptability

© Charles Fadel / Center for Curriculum Redesign – 2015 All Rights Reserved.

AnalyzeThe CCR believes in the importance of collaboration with relevant parties in the creation of aframeworkthatwillsupport themintheirgoals.Todoso,wehavegathered feedback fromover600teachersfromaroundtheworld,andheldinternationalconferencesandcolloquiaonissuesdiscussedintheframework(suchasmathematics,character,metacognition,employabilityetc.).TheCCRalsowillbegin to gather information via social media regarding what students and parents want from theireducation.Finally, theCCRconductsspeci3ic literaturereviewsanddraws fromexperts fromaglobalnetworkofthoughtleadersandpartneringorganizations(suchastheOECD).

OrganizeAstheCCRdrawsfromsomanysources,itiscrucialthatthe3inalproductbeaccurateandactionable.TheCCRframeworkaimstoaccomplishthisusingthefollowing3ivedesigngoals:

1.ComprehensiveThisattributeisthemostself-explanatory.Itisnotenoughtocreateaframeworkforasubsetoftheeducationalgoalsonehopestoachieve(forexample,onlyskills).Educationsuffers from an overabundance of programs attempting to 3ix a single aspect ofeducation. No one approach is a silver bullet, and one needs to think carefully andholisticallyabouteducationasasystem.Furthermore,byfocusingonjustoneaspectatatime, discussionsbecomepolarized and force a choicebetweenaspects of the currenteducationsystem.It iscrucialtonot leaveoutanyimportantideas,sothatotherswhohavebeenthinkingofsimilarconceptsindifferentformulationsareabletoseethewaysinwhichtheir thinkingcanbemappedontoour framework.Forexample,resilience(acharacterquality), includestheconceptsofgrit,perseverance,andsoon.Bycreatingaframework that is comprehensive, the CCR is hoping to organize all of the high-levelthinkingabouteducationdesign, soeveryonecanconsiderhowthedifferentelementsinteractand3ittogether.

2.CompactAsdescribedabove, it isadif3iculttasktosynthesizeresearchinawaythatmakestheconclusionsactionable,yetkeepsthemaccurate.Frameworksthatattempttoincludeallofthenuancesoftheresearchliteratureendupbeingtoodif3iculttodeploy,realistically.Miller’slawfrompsychologystatesthatpeoplecanrememberonlyseven(plusorminustwo) items in their working memories, but they can chunk items into groups, thusrememberingmore itemsusingahierarchical structure,with themaximumremainingsevenplusorminustwo.Ourframeworkthereforehasfourcategories,eachcontainingfewerthansevencomponents.Thisensuresthattheframeworkisconciseenoughtobememorableandthusactionable.

3.Uncorrelated In reality, many of the goals of education (creativity, optimism, courage, etc.) arecorrelatedtovariousdegrees.Thatis,someonewhoisoptimisticmayalsobemorelikelytohavezest,comparedtosomeonewhoisnotoptimistic.Researchintotheseconceptsoften tries to isolate the effects of each factor to understand its importance. Tosynthesize thesedifferent constructs,most correlated itemsaregrouped together, andleastcorrelateditems(oruncorrelated,oranti-correlated)arekeptseparate.Questionsguiding this process include: Is it possible to have onewithout the other? How oftendoes that happen? Has research shown a relationship? That way, each concept isimportant on its own, and its importance is notmostly captured in another concept,makingitmoreconfusingtothinkofeachoneindependently.

© Charles Fadel / Center for Curriculum Redesign – 2015 All Rights Reserved.

This clearsupconfusion that results fromdifferent constructshavingdifferentoriginsand overlapping de3initions. For example, by separating meta-learning into its owndimension, decision-making is removed from the realm of critical thinking. Now itsuggests that one uses all of her knowledge, skills (including critical thinking), andcharacter qualities when making decisions. Linguistic and ontological perfection isillusory,becausetheconceptsallinteracttovariousdegrees.Theultimategoal,however,is for the concepts to be a useful grouping that re3lects how these ideas are used ineveryday learning and for educators to keep them as helpful checklists in theireducationalpractices.

4.AppropriatePeoplenaturallythinkoftheworldinavarietyofwaysandatavarietyoflevels.Tyingone’s shoelaces and learning how to learn are both referred to as skills, but at verydifferentlayersofabstraction.Clearly,it’simportantforourstudentstobegoodpeople,andit’salsoimportantthattheyknowhowtoadd.Inthisframework,goalsandconceptsareplacedinasensiblewayaccordingtotheirlevelofabstraction,andtheirorigin.So,addition and ethics belong in different dimensions and in different levels of theframework. Low-level mechanical skills (e.g., multiplication) are in subcategoriesaccordingtotheirrelevantacademicknowledgeconcepts,whileethicsisinacategoryata higher level, under character qualities. In this way, the framework becomes afoundation for clear discussions that respect the complexity of the many relatedvariablesrelevanttoeacheducationalcomponent.

5.GloballyRelevantAstheworld is increasing inconnectivity, itbecomesmore important tobemindfulofculturaldifferencesandthespectrumofdeeperhumangoalsandconnections.TheCCRframework is meant to be broad and deep enough to not be culture-dependent, butrather toprovideacommonunderstanding foreffectivecross-culturalcommunication.Theideasdiscussedherearerelevanttoeveryoneintheworldwhowillbeparticipatingin constructing the future together. All countries, then, can use this framework andcustomizeitaccordingtotheirownvaluesandneeds.

The CCR framework synthesizes existing research with the overarching complementary goals ofmaximizing both accuracy and clarity. This leverages all the 3indings from scholarly research andexemplary practice without getting bogged down in hair-splitting, endless academic debates. Byestablishingaframeworkthatincorporatesthefoundationalworkthathasbeendoneonthesetopics,andformulatingitinaclearway,thedesigngoalsofeducationbecomecrisperandprovideacommongroundforengaging inmeaningfulworktowardredesigningeducation.Onthecognitivescienceside,the questions that needmore empirical research become clearer, so that educatorsmaymake theireducationaldecisionsasinformedaspossible.

IsCCR’sframeworkradicalorincremental?Weprefertocallit“incrementallyambitious”:ifitweretooradical,itwouldstandnochanceofbeingadopted,givenhowcomplicateditistomodifythecourseoftheformaleducationsystem.But if it istooincremental, itwillcontinuemissingthemarkonwhatisrelevantandneededforthiscentury.Theanalogyisthatofabutter3lycomparedtoitscaterpillar:theybothshare thesameDNA,butclearly thebutter3lyhasbe3itted fromasubstantial transformation—ithasbecomeunrecognizableasacaterpillar,yetre3lectsthefoundationaltenets.