The Nucleus of Continuous Improvement: Knowledge Conversion

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Systems and Supports for Organizational Improvement (Table 13)

Abstract

Continuous Improvement (CI) is an emerging innovation model in education. CI provides well-structured procedures and protocols to help educators solve practical problems in their work. While the concern for the implementation of these procedures makes sense, we argue that the power of these procedures relies on the extent to which they enable sustained learning in schools and local systems. CI logic may bring about such learning by facilitating the meeting of two different knowledge sources: innovative technical knowledge and educators’ practical knowledge. Yet, when it comes to understanding how this knowledge integration occurs, the literature is rather thin. In this work, we theorize the mechanisms that may articulate technical knowledge often externally developed through systematic R-and-D with educators’ practical knowledge.

Authors

• Miguel Órdenes, Universidad Diego Portales

• Elizabeth Zumpe, University of Oklahoma

• Rick Mintrop, University of California - Berkeley