Article type
Abstract
Background
Implementation science is a current trend in the healthcare area; however, in education, the knowledge transfer (KT)/knowledge implementation (KI) is underdeveloped and the impact of the best available evidence on practice/policy is insufficient. Practice not supported by evidence decreases educational outcomes and can be harmful both socially and economically. Therefore, our team has recently started pilot projects to explore how the JBI methodology for evidence transfer (ET)/evidence implementation (EI) may be applied in education. These projects are based on cooperation of experts from Palacký University Olomouc, JBI, and Campbell.
Objectives
The aim of this presentation is to summarize specific challenges of JBI methodology application for KT/KI into the field of education and strategies identified to overcome these challenges.
Methods
A reflective team approach based on the experience from projects on evidence summaries generation and EI into educational practice will be used, eg, the project on implementation of cooperative learning strategies into preparation of future teachers at tertiary education.
Results
Some of the identified challenges included the following. 1) Quality and/or lack of evidence compromises creation of evidence summaries and decreases the certainty of evidence implemented into the practice. 2) Recommendations supported by assessed evidence, as they exist in the medical and healthcare fields, are not common in pedagogy. This implies that audit criteria to be used for initial and follow-up audits in EI according to the JBI methodology are also missing. 3) There are misconceptions and misunderstanding of “what the best available evidence is” among practitioners/policy makers in the educational field. 4) There is a low level of collaboration between teachers and other educational staff at schools and researchers in the field.
Conclusions
There is a huge need (although not a huge demand yet) for KT and EI in education. However, trained teams of experts in required methodologies are not currently available in this field that lacks experiences in application of these methodologies related to challenges specific for the area of education. Continuing education of policymakers and practitioners focused on KT/KI is necessary. Also, developments on the level of evidence generation/synthesis could improve the trustworthiness and accessibility of evidence and develop more consistent audit criteria.
Implementation science is a current trend in the healthcare area; however, in education, the knowledge transfer (KT)/knowledge implementation (KI) is underdeveloped and the impact of the best available evidence on practice/policy is insufficient. Practice not supported by evidence decreases educational outcomes and can be harmful both socially and economically. Therefore, our team has recently started pilot projects to explore how the JBI methodology for evidence transfer (ET)/evidence implementation (EI) may be applied in education. These projects are based on cooperation of experts from Palacký University Olomouc, JBI, and Campbell.
Objectives
The aim of this presentation is to summarize specific challenges of JBI methodology application for KT/KI into the field of education and strategies identified to overcome these challenges.
Methods
A reflective team approach based on the experience from projects on evidence summaries generation and EI into educational practice will be used, eg, the project on implementation of cooperative learning strategies into preparation of future teachers at tertiary education.
Results
Some of the identified challenges included the following. 1) Quality and/or lack of evidence compromises creation of evidence summaries and decreases the certainty of evidence implemented into the practice. 2) Recommendations supported by assessed evidence, as they exist in the medical and healthcare fields, are not common in pedagogy. This implies that audit criteria to be used for initial and follow-up audits in EI according to the JBI methodology are also missing. 3) There are misconceptions and misunderstanding of “what the best available evidence is” among practitioners/policy makers in the educational field. 4) There is a low level of collaboration between teachers and other educational staff at schools and researchers in the field.
Conclusions
There is a huge need (although not a huge demand yet) for KT and EI in education. However, trained teams of experts in required methodologies are not currently available in this field that lacks experiences in application of these methodologies related to challenges specific for the area of education. Continuing education of policymakers and practitioners focused on KT/KI is necessary. Also, developments on the level of evidence generation/synthesis could improve the trustworthiness and accessibility of evidence and develop more consistent audit criteria.