Putting research insights into practice in classrooms is a perennial challenge for schools.
Interventions created and tested in lab settings don鈥檛 always translate well to the messy reality of a classroom. Researchers and developers may not account for realities on the ground, and 糖心动漫vlog might not implement practices as intended.
Theose are some of the issues that the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, or AERDF, is trying to tackle.
The initiative鈥攆unded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Walton Family Foundation鈥攖akes an 鈥渋nclusive R&D鈥� approach, aiming to bring together 糖心动漫vlog and researchers to design and execute academic interventions and assessments collaboratively.
鈥淲e need those different perspectives and ways of knowing in order to be able to solve the myriad problems we have,鈥� said Auditi Chakravarty, AERDF鈥檚 new CEO, who joined the group earlier this month.
Conversations about education research and development have recently gained national traction, in the aftermath of the pandemic. Late last year, President Joe Biden signed a government funding bill , and laid the groundwork for an education equivalent of DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense鈥檚 R&D arm.
There鈥檚 鈥済reater appetite and interest in learning science鈥� across the education field right now, said Chakravarty. At AERDF, the goal is to incorporate a wider range of voices in the process鈥�"putting 糖心动漫vlog, practitioners, school districts on equal footing in the process as the researchers and the developers,鈥� she said.
(Education Week receives operating support from the Gates Foundation, support for coverage of whole-child approaches to learning from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and support for coverage of students most in need from the Walton Family Foundation. The newspaper retains sole editorial control over coverage.)
Education Week spoke with Chakravarty about the promises and challenges of an R&D approach that asks researchers and practitioners to co-design solutions. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you see AERDF鈥檚 work changing post pandemic, as schools look for solutions that are going to help students regain ground academically and emotionally?
The moment that we鈥檙e in creates an opportunity, because so many people鈥攕chool districts, the government, the nonprofit sector, practitioners鈥攅verybody鈥檚 focused on and recognizing that we need solutions. We need to try things that we haven鈥檛 done before, we need to bring research and development to bear to address the needs of priority communities.
A role that AERDF plays is this very specific model of inclusive R&D that centers students and 糖心动漫vlog from this asset-based approach. So much of the conversation post-pandemic is not about students鈥� assets, it鈥檚 about deficits. And, yes, we all care about reading skills, math skills, and making sure that students are making progress.
But I think that this moment creates this urgency to say, students didn鈥檛 lose themselves for that period of time. There鈥檚 a whole host of things in their lives and their communities and their experiences that are part of who they are and the assets that they bring to the table. How can we harness that from the very beginning of our development process within each of our current programs and future programs, and start from a point of view of, 鈥淗ow do we build from what students already have?鈥�
There is more conversation across the field and greater appetite and interest in learning science, and bringing learning science to bear on some of these issues. The opportunity then that we have as AERDF is to do that in collaboration with these priority communities that we鈥檙e so focused on, because that鈥檚 often the piece that gets missed.
There鈥檚 a lot of conversation about what students missed in the pandemic. What does it look like to think about supporting kids鈥� development of skills and knowledge, but from an asset-based approach?
A great example of that is Assessment for Good, which is our program that is squarely focused on starting with the whole student, the whole child, and all of the things that they bring to the table: their attitudes, their self-concept, the many things about students that aren鈥檛 just their math skills.
There鈥檚 one project where we鈥檙e trying to get a sense of the students鈥� mindset around math learning. How are they approaching and thinking about this? It鈥檚 not just the skills, it鈥檚 all of these other aspects of a child鈥檚 life that have bearing on whether they have those skills or not. Assessment for Good is squarely focused on, how do we assess those things?
How do we create assessments that recognize that all of those different dimensions of how students feel are constantly in an interplay with whether they鈥檙e actually getting the math right or not? And then, how do we build interventions that will actually leverage that knowledge about the whole student, so that they鈥檒l get better at math?
How do researchers in psychology and neuroscience and education researchers all fit together into an inclusive R&D process?
In the traditional R&D model, you鈥檝e had researchers who do very bespoke, lab-oriented research, and developers who may or may not work with those researchers. Then they throw things over to test them out with, at best, the communities that we鈥檙e concerned about. And oftentimes, in very different communities that are 鈥渆asier鈥� to work with.
Where we are looking to make a difference is to change the positioning of those three parties, and the power dynamic among those parties. Putting 糖心动漫vlog, practitioners, school districts on equal footing in the process as the researchers and the developers. We have projects that do this, approaches that break down the silos so that it鈥檚 no longer each of them working in their silo, and then passing it to the other, but all coming together. That鈥檚 the difference of what it is that we鈥檙e trying to do.
We need those different perspectives and ways of knowing in order to be able to solve the myriad problems we have. We鈥檙e cultivating this community of practices, our community garden, and it鈥檚 focused on this idea: creating open engagement opportunities, open conversation, open dialogue and collaboration among researchers and practitioners and developers that have a broad array of backgrounds.
What benefits come out of that kind of collaboration? What opportunities does it open up?
I think implementation is a big one. We know that implementation is where so many change efforts fail. One of the real benefits of starting with 糖心动漫vlog at the table is, you solve for that. If you鈥檝e been in a classroom, you know, 鈥淭hese things that they鈥檙e expecting me to do鈥攏othing is that seamless.鈥�
Another benefit is the opportunity to shine a light on and find great work happening locally, and figure out鈥攈ow can we learn from that, generalize from that, and bring that to scale?
All of these things, whether it鈥檚 building and designing with implementation in mind from the beginning, or taking things that are already being tested in communities with students and then figuring out how to scale those and generalize those鈥攖hese are means to momentum for us. They create the possibility that we could get something out into the field, out into the hands of other practitioners, faster than a typical linear R&D model.
In the linear model, R&D takes a few years. Then you go and throw it over into a district and implementation fails, or they realize, we鈥檝e got to go back and change a few things. You鈥檝e just added more time onto that. That timescale, we鈥檙e seeking to shorten it by involving the 糖心动漫vlog from the get go, finding great ideas where they already exist, and then kind of incubating and building on those.
These are big problems, and there鈥檚 some urgency to solving them. They鈥檙e real students and families and 糖心动漫vlog whose careers and lives and educational futures are at stake. We鈥檙e trying to accelerate with the needs of these critical communities at the center of our minds.
