Implementing a practice change in ECEC
Using evidence-based practices supports quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. Effective implementation gives practices the best chance of 'sticking' over time.
Effective implementation is
A deliberate and structured approach for embedding evidence-based practices in a service.
Tailored to individual contexts by considering what's appropriate and useful in each service.
Guided by 4 key components:
- a staged approach (Explore, Prepare, Deliver, Sustain)
- addressing enablers and barriers
- using strategies such as professional learning, regular professional conversations and networking
- monitoring implementation outcomes throughout.
A continuous process of equipping and supporting a team in a paced and consistent way that takes time, and can be used in a service's Quality Improvement Plan.
Built on relationships where trust, respect and collaboration contribute to meaningful and sustained practice change.
Effective implementation isn't
A one-off event or quick fix.
A standard checklist of activities. It must be responsive to the team's progress.
Just about equipping a team or sharing knowledge. It also involves monitoring the implementation process and adjusting where needed.
Simply changing templates or introducing new resources.
Why it works
- Positive impact: Well-implemented, evidence-based practices have positive impacts on children's learning, development and wellbeing.
- Context specific: A deliberate and structured approach to implementation that's tailored to the unique context of the service is more likely to be successful than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Paced and sustained change: The 4 key components support the planning, reflection, adaptation, monitoring and progression of the implementation, enabling leaders to lead, facilitate and share about implementation in a clear and focused way.
In practice
An Educational Leader comes across the Early Childhood Learning Trajectories when browsing AERO's website. She downloads a copy as she feels her team would benefit from using it when analysing children's learning and development. The next day, instead of making copies and distributing the learning trajectories to the team, she sits down with the Centre Director to discuss why she considers the learning trajectories a valuable resource for the team.
Together, they look at the resource and reflect on why the learning trajectories would benefit their team's assessment for learning practices. They proceed to collect some data on the team's current assessment for learning before developing an implementation plan. In the plan, they determine what they'd like their team to achieve through the implementation, identify what will support or get in the way of the implementation, identify strategies, and make plans for how they will facilitate and support the implementation over the next few months.
Keywords: evidence-based education, evidence-based teaching, ECCE