Given our intended audience of discipline-based education researchers, we have opted for lower case letters in this commentary. Visit the Governance Soapbox to read the original posting of this blog. The four aspects of acceptance. For example, stages (1) establishing vision and (2) examining the landscape and conducting capacity analysis are envisioned as two looping and iterative processes that ultimately align a change effort with institutional priorities. When efforts have been successful, such as the FIRST project in biology and the New Faculty Workshops in physics, they have improved their impact over time through iterative evaluation research and revision (e.g., Henderson, 2008; Ebert-May et al. The process of creating the theory of change allows a team to reach consensus on its underlying assumptions, which are then codified in an explicit product (often displayed as a diagram). Regardless of the particular representation used, the theory guiding a particular organization or initiative should be informed by existing theory and research related to the desired outcomes. Single-loop and double-loop models in research on decision making. Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (1997). For instance, the NSF expects proposals to the Institutional and Community Transformation track of IUSE to include one or more theories of change to guide the proposed work (National Science Foundation, 2019). Promoting instructional change: Using social network analysis to understand the informal structure of academic departments. In contrast, change theories represent theoretical and empirically grounded knowledge about how change occurs that goes beyond any one project. Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A call to action. Operationalizing an indicator includes determining what variable will be measured, the target population for change, what threshold of change will be sufficient to conclude that a precondition or outcome has been met, and how long it is expected to take to achieve this threshold in the target population (Anderson, 2005; Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, 2003). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. We aspire to arrive at a common language that change agents, Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) scholars, and funding agencies can use to communicate about theory. Public Administration and Public Policy, 87, 611630. I have been fortunate enough to spend much of the last three months working on the designs of several health and governance programs across PNG, South Asia, and Africa. Generally, ToA provides some boundaries to the process and focuses on an organization, initiative or program's particular role in making change, while still asking some of the harder, deeper questions about how change happens, to be most effective. Figure 1 illustrates the four key steps for developing a theory of change and the importance of validating each step against available evidence. When to use theory of change tools for evaluation, strategic planning and fund raising for communities, nonprofits and other social work organizations. Where we can be fairly certain about the relationship between cause and effect (or input and output). We do more than solve the challenges our clients have today. (LogOut/ These factors are moderators of the change process, potentially speeding, slowing, initiating, or stalling change. Many possible indicators for teaching practices are described in a single report that reviews approaches to measuring and documenting STEM teaching practices (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2012). Lewin's three-stage model of change2 focuses on the driving forces that facilitate or hinder change, and how those involved in the change agree that the change is necessary, collaborate towards the desired result and In some countries, our ToCs are leading the program to work alongside the state. Because DATs focus on lasting, sustainable changes, they would be most appropriate for a multi-year effort that aims for cross-cutting improvements. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) started as the Theory of Reasoned Action in 1980 to predict an individual's intention to engage in a behavior at a specific time and place. Article Inclusive theory of change processes create space for multiple perspectives, experiences and voices and invite greater input into key choices and decisions. Quardokus, K., & Henderson, C. (2015). (2019). For instance, starting in 2014, the National Science Foundations (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program created a strand focused on Institutional and Community Transformation. Henderson, C., Beach, A., & Finkelstein, N. (2011). Change initiatives that are not informed by change research (including theory) have two major limitations: (1) the initiative is less likely to succeed, because it does not leverage the wealth of knowledge already developed by change researchers, and (2) without building on what is already known in the field, the initiative itself is less likely to contribute to generalizable knowledge, because it will be more difficult to cast the findings of the study in terms of existing scholarship. These include assumptions about the nature of the context and how it will moderate the change process, the preconditions that are necessary and sufficient to reach the long-term outcome, the rationales connecting preconditions to each other and to long-term outcomes, the rationales for how interventions will achieve preconditions and the long-term outcome, and more. Change theory can be very useful for guiding sense-making and trouble-shooting that takes place when aspects of the project are stalled or unsuccessful. Regardless of its format, a useful theory of change will help define or clarify the same basic components. The workshop explicitly addresses personal factors, teachers thinking, and contextual factors in training newly hired chemistry assistant professors about evidence-based instructional practices (Stains, Pilarz, & Chakraverty, 2015). Theories of Change link outcomes and activities to explain HOW and WHY the desired change is expected to come about . Building a theory of change ensures that careful consideration has been given to how the activities will lead to preconditions and how preconditions contribute to achieving the long-term outcome. For example, using this lens, an effort to increase the hiring and retention of faculty from groups minoritized in STEM may recognize that their planned activities are grounded in deficit thinking because they aim to support new faculty in areas in which they are assumed to be lacking, rather than capitalizing on the unique strengths and capital of these new hires. These quotes suggest that NSF and HHMI may not mean the same thing when they refer to theory of change. This is indicative of the broader ambiguity in terminology within the discipline-based education research community. A collection of theory of change models offer readers different ways to approach program implementation and change. Indicators are how a project team determines if each precondition and the long-term outcome have been met. Whereas in others, to work though government systems. Though these two stages are the suggested starting place, the model is meant to be dynamic and the process can be entered at multiple points (Kezar & Elrod, 2015). Since change agents work from one particular vantage point of the system (e.g., a faculty member in a department, a dean in a college, a professional developer in a Center for Teaching and Learning), it can be hard for individual actors to recognize how more distant parts of a system will influence change efforts. And how does meeting precondition B help to achieve the long-term outcome? Inevitably they constitute simplifications or approximations of reality, but their power lies in selecting the key drivers of change. Rationales describe why particular preconditions are necessary and sufficient to achieve the long-term outcome, and how particular interventions will achieve preconditions. To utilize DATs a part of a larger change initiative, a project team would need to hire or develop skilled external facilitators who could lead DATs in academic departments. A theory of action maps out a specific pathway in that theory of change, or an organization's role with respect to achieving that change, based on an . A Theory of Change is a specific and measurable description of a social change initiative that forms the basis for strategic planning, on-going decision-making and evaluation. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Argyris, C. (1976). The River Model includes eight stages: (1) establishing vision, (2) examining the landscape and conducting capacity analysis, (3) identifying and analyzing challenges and opportunities, (4) choosing strategies, (5) determining readiness for action, (6) beginning implementation, (7) measuring results, and (8) disseminating results and planning next steps. The construction of such a diagram typically begins from the top down, with a user first identifying the long-term outcome, then the preconditions on the way to the outcome, and finally appropriate interventions. 2023 The Annie E. Casey Foundation. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 15(2), 117. They are tools that try to make sense of complexity so that activities, budgets and partners can be designed and stuff can happen. Use of research-based instructional strategies in introductory physics: where do faculty leave the innovation-decision process? Logic model development guide: Using logic models to bring together planning, evaluation, & action. CBELife Sciences Education, 10(4), 394405. Intuiting occurs at the level of the individual and involves developing insights based on personal experience that can be fed forward beyond the individual. We are not advocating that what we describe below is the only approach to developing a theory of change. (2004). Importantly, ToAs are good at explaining the bottom of the log frame, where we can be fairly certain about the relationship between cause and effect (or input and output). Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 8(2), 020104. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.8.020104. Additionally, projects may sometimes flow upstream rather than downstream in the pursuit of change. Ongoing projects constantly reconsider and revise their theory of change as they gather data that indicates whether and how their efforts are working. The change theories and research we have used to illustrate each category do not represent endorsements of the utility or value of these particular theories, nor a negative evaluation of theories not mentioned. Educational Researcher, 40(7), 331337. As teams clarify core elements of their strategies, assumptions and expectations, they will have opportunities to determine a number of value-affirming details. Which change interventions have been designed and revised with change theory in mind may become obvious as a team builds their own theory of change around an intervention and is faced with questions about how the suggested activities will result in the desired outcomes. In a teleological process theory, an agent "constructs an envisioned end state, takes action to reach it and monitors the progress" (p . The preconditions included in a theory of change should be necessary and sufficient to achieve the long-term outcome. A theory of change is a purposeful model of how an initiativesuch as a policy, a strategy, a program, or a projectcontributes through a chain of early and intermediate outcomes to the. American Education Research Journal in review. Science Education. Increasing student success in STEM: A guide to systemic institutional change. Kellogg Foundation. Studies in this strand aim to generate knowledge about how educational change happens. This can lead to enhanced mental models among individuals and improved organizational knowledge. The assumptions we are making in our ToCs (about how public servants are incentivsed to perform, where the potential for collective action lies, whether procurement systems follow the rules etc) are informing these judgements. Both agencies seem to expect clear articulation of how and why the planned activities are likely to lead to the desired outcomes, and may also want proposers to draw on the existing research and theory about how change occurs. Ultimately, we argue that change efforts should develop their own theory of change that is grounded in change theory. (LogOut/ Some theory of change advocates make a clear distinction between a theory of change and Logic Model, arguing that a theory of change is much more flexible and has more explanatory power, because a Logic Model does not always make explicit the underlying assumptions about how change will happen (e.g., Clark & Anderson, 2004). Grunspan, D. Z., Wiggins, B. L., & Goodreau, S. M. (2014). These theories, and others like them, help change efforts recognize the various parts of their system that are likely to be important to a change effort. The historical roots of a theory of change come from the field of theory-driven evaluation, which came to prominence in the 1990s (Chen, 1990; Coryn, Noakes, Westine, & Schrter, 2011). To evaluate complex community initiatives focused on social change, a theory of change was designed as a tool to help clearly articulate underlying assumptions from the offset. Figure 2. For instance, research on social networks can be useful because it helps identify opinion leaders and tracks relationships across a social system, such as a department (e.g., Andrews, Conaway, Zhao, & Dolan, 2016; Grunspan, Wiggins, & Goodreau, 2014; Hayward & Laursen, 2018; Quardokus & Henderson, 2015). Organizing research and development at the intersection of learning, implementation, and design. Change research can also reveal other assumptions that may be implicit in a theory of change. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our data, reports and news in your inbox. The Theory of Planned Behavior. A theory of change serves as a good basis for measurement, experimentation and learning. Henderson, C. (2008). Derting, T. L., Ebert-May, D., Henkel, T. P., Maher, J. M., Arnold, B., & Passmore, H. A. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) started as the Theory of Reasoned Action in 1980 to predict an individual's intention to engage in a behavior at a specific time and place. BioScience, 61(7), 550558. . Thus, in building a theory of change, a team may identify multiple interventions that can be used and adapted to the particular context of interest. (LogOut/ Interventions are often described as a list of steps, even though the steps may be nonlinear and not all steps are always followed in order. They are tools that try to make sense of complexity so that activities, budgets and partners can be designed and stuff can happen. These represent the projects concrete activities. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-0202-3, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-0202-3. By making the underlying rationale of an initiative explicit, it can be interrogated, assessed, and revised systematically as it is being implemented (cf. Some of these steps are expected to occur in a loop and through multiple iterations, resulting in the change project being caught in an eddie as team members work toward shared understandings and consensus. PubMedGoogle Scholar. Throughout the process, information is regularly altered. A theory of change denotes those mechanisms whereby certain social reform is set to take place. A program can be a strategy for instruction in a classroom, a training session for a group of teachers, a grade-level curriculum, a building-level intervention, or a district- or statewide initiative. Theory of Change can help you: Clarify how change happens, what progress and success look like, and what it takes to get there Identify and account for factors that may affect success Know what resources are needed to create change Define what is within (and outside of) your "sphere of accountability" A comprehensive description of the elements of a theory of change was developed through the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change (Anderson, 2005; Weiss, 1995). Attitudes encompass the individuals favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior. In contrast, HHMI appears to be referring to a project-specific articulation of planned activities and how they are expected workwhich is referred to as a theory of change in the evaluation community. Lewis, C. (2015). Theory of Action vs. (2005). The four frames model of organizational change can draw attention to different aspects of the system, because it focuses specifically on culture within organizations. These shared understandings then provide the basis for a change that can affect the organization as a whole. A theory of change includes these factors, where appropriate, throughout the model. An inclusive process considers barriers to and levers for advancing equity, and it involves asking questions like: How do the participating systems or institutions treat people differently based on their race, home language, ZIP code or background? It explores theory of change models, processes and products as well as key theory of change concepts, benefits and limitations. I have been fortunate enough to spend much of the last three months working on the designs of several health and governance programs across Papua New Guinea (PNG), South Asia and Africa. Outcomes can be mapped in a linear or causal sequence, though change is typically more complex than a simple cause-and-effect relationship. A theory of change describes the logical sequence of steps expected to lead to a desired outcome or impact. Drawing on diverse work is crucial for developing a theory of change with preconditions and rationales that are based on more than our own intuitions about how to achieve change. This allows a project to assess the degree to which implementation of project activities is having the intended impact. Theory-driven evaluation aimed to move beyond a simplistic input-output notion of evaluation and instead required that program designers explicitly state how they expected a program to work, thereby making their implicit assumptions explicit. As readers advance through each step of creating a theory of change, they can use templates to https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21526. Our ToA is then guiding decisions about grants vs technical assistance, local vs international NGOs, and activity choice: depending on what we assess is the most likely pathway to change (again back to our ToC assumptions). Higher Education, 70(3), 315335. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. We direct the reader elsewhere for examples of theories of change in STEM education (Connolly & Seymour, 2015) and for guides about how to create a theory of change for your work (Anderson, 2005; Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, 2003). Educational Policy, 0895904819843594. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819843594. Hayward, C. N., & Laursen, S. L. (2018). As such, a logic model is descriptive while a theory of change is explanatory. A scientific theory is a structured explanation to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world that often incorporates a scientific hypothesis . Each project is unique, which means that existing research and theory must be adapted to the specific initiative. Other researchers used TCSR as a framework for analyzing data about what influenced the use of the SCALE-UP model within one university (Enderle, Southerland, & Grooms, 2013), demonstrating that a change theory may become useful for considering context late in a change initiative. We also hope to provide a starting place for researchers who are new to studying change and are grappling with how to ground a change initiative existing knowledge and contribute to our collective knowledge about how to achieve change in undergraduate STEM education. This work can help the funders and leaders of a social change effort clearly articulate their objectives, discuss equity considerations, define roles of decision-making authority and enable useful measurement and learning. Here, we highlight two lenses that propose alternative ways of thinking about areas relevant to change in undergraduate STEM education: community cultural wealth and appreciative inquiry. Ebert-May, D., Derting, T. L., Henkel, T. P., Middlemis Maher, J., Momsen, J. L., Arnold, B., & Passmore, H. A. Nonetheless, because our collective knowledge of how change occurs in STEM higher education is incomplete, teams will still rely on some assumptions when they design a project. the second of two Theory of Action tools that should be used in sequence. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. (2005). We thank Alice Olmstead, Erika Offerdahl, Isabel White, and Susan Shadle for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Theory of Change and Theory of Action: Whats the difference and why does it matter? Creating Communities of Innovation Educator Tool: THEORY OF ACTION Project ero Harvard Graduate School of Education This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4. It also provides formative feedback to support revision of activities and the theory of change as a whole. Crossan, M. M., Lane, H. W., & White, R. E. (1999). 2015-2). Yet in practice, the distinction between a theory of change and Logic Model is often murky. Springer Nature. Guided example: Project Superwoman. explicitly identifying how a theory of change can and should advance equity and engage community members in meaningful ways; and. WCER Working Paper No. Inclusive excellence new competition announcement. The intervention provides an organizing framework for the types of project activities that a change effort engages in. volume7, Articlenumber:2 (2020) However, research on why faculty adopt evidence-based teaching strategies indicate that they rely on personal experiences to a much greater extent than empirical evidence (Andrews & Lemons, 2015; Dancy et al., 2016). For members of a project team, assessing indicators can help provide motivation as it makes progress towards outcomes visible. Whereas a ToC describes the processes through which change comes about for individuals, groups or communities. Leading change. A single change theory can contribute to multiple aspects of a theory of change, or it can only contribute to one. Integrating is the third process and it connects the group and organizational levels. The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a network of 38 research institutions, used the 4I model of organizational learning to analyze the impact that CIRTL had on member institutions (Hill, Savoy, Austin, & Bantawa, 2019). DATs focus on a single department as a unit of change, recognizing that (a) departments tend to have relatively consistent cultures, and (b) making sustainable changes to education requires cultural change (Reinholz et al., 2019). Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. A step in the right direction Logic models and theories of change also differ in how they progress from one step to the next. It "connects the dots" explaining in a commonsense way which features are expected to produce results that lead to the final desired outcome (Haertel, National Academy of Science, 2009) . Retrieved from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/logic-model-development/main. Journal of Chemical Education, 92(9), 14661476. These include: whose voices to include, who makes key decisions and how to identify and address historic biases. Finally, a project team articulates the assumptions behind the above elements and the linkages between them. The theory of planned behavior. An intervention is what a project does to try to achieve change. Resources in Developing a Theory of Change, Key Takeaway About an Effective Theory of Change, Part One: Overview of Theory of Change Concepts and Language, Part Two: Step-By-Step Guidance and Examples, use templates to Sample theory of change diagram (pathway of change). There is no point selecting delivery modalities, partners or activities (ToA) without knowing how change happens and what the most likely interventions are a project can use to try and nudge things in a certain direction. Theory of Change and Theory of Action: Whats the difference and why does itmatter? https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T. The intellectual roots of the theory of action are John Dewey's theory of inquiry and Kurt Lewin's formulations of action research. Battle Creek, MI: W.K. By comparison, ToCs are useful at explaining whats happening (or whats not happening) higher up the log frame. Penuel, W. R., Fishman, B. J., Cheng, B. H., & Sabelli, N. (2011). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. The Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 522537. All Rights Reserved. Change in STEM higher education occurs within a complex system and attending to various parts of the system helps change agents consider factors that may influence the way in which a change initiative plays out. Departmental Action Teams: Supporting faculty learning through departmental change. This supports the creation and implementation of an action plan, as well as monitoring of that plan. For those out there who don't subscribe to the development jargon (good for you): Theory of Change or Action (ToC and ToA) are two common, but not always well understood or defined, tools used by donors and implementers when designing aid projects. Change). This page is optimized for a taller screen. UN Environment evaluations are structured around a project or programme's Theory of Change to assess the causal logic of the intervention and determine whether all external factors affecting outcomes . By comparison, ToCs are useful at explaining whats happening (or whats not happening) higher up the log frame: the point at which outputs are, Visit the Governance Soapbox to read the original posting of, Small Business Programs and Supplier Diversity. Enhanced mental models among individuals and improved organizational knowledge how particular interventions will preconditions... What a project team articulates the assumptions behind the above elements and the linkages between them, work! Change models, processes and products as well as key theory of change models, processes products. Faculty learning through departmental change explicitly identifying how a theory of Action: Whats the difference why... Relationship between cause and effect ( or Whats not happening ) higher up the log frame often murky to.... Each step of creating a theory of change that can affect the organization as whole... And decisions as teams clarify core elements of their strategies, assumptions and expectations, they would be most for... Guide to systemic institutional change any one project and sufficient to achieve change, (... Indicative of the behavior individual and involves developing insights based on personal experience that can the. Be very useful for guiding sense-making and trouble-shooting that takes place when aspects of project... Occurs that goes beyond any one project this blog Policy, 87,.... 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