Introducing Improvement Research in Education
Item
Title
Introducing Improvement Research in Education
Alternate name
Chapter 1
Abstract/Description
Improvement research, as described in this handbook, is characterized by coordinated, disciplined methods of iterative inquiry, design, implementation, and evaluation. The notion of working iteratively toward incremental systemic change is central to improvement research and often embedded in routines that organize cycles of design, intervention, and reflection (Cobb et al., 2018; Lewis, 2015). Typically, the work is participatory, with team members from different backgrounds contributing to multiple aspects of the work—design, testing, and evaluation of change.
While the particular methods different models use vary, a common feature is that design and evaluation activities are tightly coordinated with one another, so that evidence from tests of innovations plays an integral role in informing iterative design. Finally, a systemic perspective is fundamental to improvement research: Building on the idea that every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it does, an important first step of teams is to come to see the system as it is and to imagine how it could be (LeMahieu et al., 2017).
Approaches to improvement research include design-based implementation research as enacted in research-practice partnerships (Fishman et al., 2013); improvement science as enacted in networked improvement communities (Bryk et al., 2015; Russell et al., 2017, 2019); interdisciplinary problem solving as enacted in long-term field sites (Donovan et al., 2013); and multi-method analysis and problem solving as enacted in research alliances (Moeller et al., 2018). While the social organization of these approaches vary, each is advanced through arrangements that bring researchers, educational professionals, community members, and other stakeholders together to understand and improve learning and development processes and outcomes.
While the particular methods different models use vary, a common feature is that design and evaluation activities are tightly coordinated with one another, so that evidence from tests of innovations plays an integral role in informing iterative design. Finally, a systemic perspective is fundamental to improvement research: Building on the idea that every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it does, an important first step of teams is to come to see the system as it is and to imagine how it could be (LeMahieu et al., 2017).
Approaches to improvement research include design-based implementation research as enacted in research-practice partnerships (Fishman et al., 2013); improvement science as enacted in networked improvement communities (Bryk et al., 2015; Russell et al., 2017, 2019); interdisciplinary problem solving as enacted in long-term field sites (Donovan et al., 2013); and multi-method analysis and problem solving as enacted in research alliances (Moeller et al., 2018). While the social organization of these approaches vary, each is advanced through arrangements that bring researchers, educational professionals, community members, and other stakeholders together to understand and improve learning and development processes and outcomes.
[Quoted from p. 5]
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Editor
Pages
1-20
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Resource type
Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Commentary/Editorial
Synthesis/Overview
Historical
IRE Approach/Concept
Featured case/project
Open access/full-text available
No
ISBN
978-1-5381-5234-8
Other related resources/entities
Citation
Peurach, D. J., & Russell, J. L. (2022). Introducing Improvement Research in Education. In D. J. Peurach, J. L. Russell, L. Cohen-Vogel, & W. R. Penuel (Eds.), The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education (pp. 1–20). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538152348/The-Foundational-Handbook-on-Improvement-Research-in-Education
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