Beyond Re-Teaching: Exploring the Process of Instructional Change for Teachers Using Continuous Improvement and Design Methods

• In Event: Teacher Reflection and Shifting Instructional Practices

Abstract

In response to the failures of top-down and accountability-based reforms to spur meaningful changes to instructional practice, new approaches to improving teaching and learning that draw on the principles of continuous improvement and design (CID) have experienced increased popularity. However, to date we have a limited understanding of how—and to what extent— teachers experience these methods as contributing to instructional change. Drawing on in-depth teacher interviews from a longitudinal comparative case study of CID methods, we identified four factors related to the design of CID methods that influenced the process of instructional change: the teacher’s level of involvement in the CID method, availability of relevant instructional infrastructure, scope of the problem of practice, and access to precise measures.

Authors

• Maxwell Yurkofsky, Radford University

• James Jack, Harvard University

• Kim Frumin, Harvard University

• Amelia Peterson, Harvard University

• Rebecca Horwitz-Willis, Harvard University

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University