Interpret, Improve, Implement, Iterate: Designing and Testing District Implementation of Cooperative Learning

Abstract

The Kagan Publishing and Professional Development company (Kagan) provides support in classroom instructional strategies surrounding cooperative learning. This capstone provides an overview of my strategic project, working directly with the founder and one of the executive directors, Dr. Spencer Kagan. The project addressed the question: How might Kagan interpret, improve, implement, and iterate its system-implementation approach to guide partner districts towards successful implementation of cooperative learning instructional strategies? Despite abundant research supporting effective educational practices, closing the gap between these strategies and their implementation within school systems remains challenging. A second gap exists between existing research-based implementation frameworks and their use by educational consulting organizations. The Strategic Project described in this Capstone aimed to integrate research-based practices from implementation science and institutional theory into Kagan's system implementation approach through an internal design process. From this project, I share implications: for the education sector, for Kagan, and for myself in my continued development as a leader. For the education sector, implications include the benefits of using shared leadership models to inform design processes, including those involving implementation. For Kagan, implications include the challenges of considering outside research on implementation science, which potentially contradicts the ideas based on the experience of current team members and leaders. Finally, implications for myself include being more assertive in involving key leaders in the cultivation and analysis of emerging ideas from the field, such as implementation science.