Evaluating change processes. Assessing extent of implementation (constructs, methods and implications)

Propósito: En demasiados casos las iniciativas de cambio en las escuelas al introducir nuevos programas, procesos y reformas no se traduce en la obtención de los resultados deseados. En este artículo se sugiere que la principal razón de estos resultados limitados es que ha habido un fallo tanto en aprender como en aplicar los constructos y las medidas relacionadas con comprender, facilitar y medir las dimensiones de los procesos de cambio. El objetivo de este artículo es introducir tres dimensiones de diagnóstico de los Problemas Basados en el Modelo de Adopción de la Innovación (CBAM) a través de ilustraciones de cómo cada una de estas tres dimensiones se puede utilizar para evaluar el alcance de la implementación. Asimismo, se presentan los aspectos más destacados del desarrollo y uso de cada una de estas construcciones en estás últimas cuatro décadas, así como una descripción vinculada con el desarrollo de la medición de cada uno de los tres constructos: Etapas de Preocupación (SoC), Niveles de Uso (LoU) y Configuraciones de la Innovación (CI). En del artículo también se hace referencia a estudios relevantes de la temática. Se destacan también las implicaciones de cada construcción para la investigación, la evaluación de programas y la facilitación de los procesos de cambio. La última parte del artículo explora las relaciones entre cada constructo. La exploración conceptual finaliza con las implicaciones sugeridas para la investigación, la evaluación y la práctica. A lo largo de todo el artículo, el autor incluye pequeñas anécdotas más personales sobre el razonamiento y las experiencias relacionadas con el desarrollo y aplicación de cada uno de los tres constructos. El artículo concluye con la influencia que otros factores, especialmente el liderazgo, son claves para conseguir el logro cuando se pone en práctica. Método: En el artículo se introduce tres constructos basados en la investigación medidos a través de estadios de Preocupación, Niveles de uso y Configuración de la innovación. Se analizan los hallazgos de estudios relacionados. Hallazgos: Las tres dimensiones de diagnóstico de los Problemas Basados en el Modelo de Adopción (CBAM) fueron aplicados a una amplia gama de innovaciones educativas, diferentes contextos y en diferentes naciones y culturas. Limitaciones del estudio: La aplicación de los instrumentos de los constructos tienen que ser evaluarse de forma directa. Implicaciones prácticas: Si se desea ampliar la aplicación debe ser llevado a cabo directamente en todos los tratamientos y los grupos de comparación/control. Implicaciones sociales: Sin una evaluación directa de la implementación de la evaluación no pueden determinarse los elementos generados y los resultados de los nuevos programas y las innovaciones. Originalidad: Las tres dimensiones de diagnóstico de las preocupaciones basadas en el Modelo de Adopción se han aplicado ampliamente. Las implicaciones conceptuales, especialmente cuando de las tres construcciones se interconectan dos a la vez, ofrecen sugerencias importantes para investigaciones evaluativas futuras y para un programa de evaluaciónPurpose: In far too many cases the initiatives to change schools by introducing new programs, processes and reforms has not resulted in obtainment of the desired outcomes. A major reason for limited outcomes suggested in this paper is that there has been a failure to learn from and apply constructs and measures related to understanding, facilitating and measuring dimensions of change processes. The aim of this paper is to introduce the three diagnostic dimensions of the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) along with illustrations of how each can be used to assess extent of implementation. Highlights from the four decades of development and use of each of these constructs are presented. Each of the constructs, Stages of Concern, Levels of Use and Innovation Configurations, is described along with review of the four decade story of its measurement development. Reference is made to selected studies. Implications of each construct for research, program evaluation and facilitating change processes are highlighted. The final section of the paper explores relationships between each construct. The conceptual explorations end with suggested implications for research, evaluation and practice. Throughout the author inserts short more personal anecdotes about the reasoning and experiences related to development and applications of each construct. The paper concludes with acknowledgement that other factors, especially leadership, are key to achieving implementation success. Design/methodology/approach: Introduction of three research-based constructs, Stages of Concern, Levels of Use and Innovation Configurations, their measures. Findings from selected studies are reviewed. Findings: The three diagnostic dimensions of the Concerns Based Adoption Model have been applied with a wide range of education innovations, different contexts, and across nations and cultures. Research limitations/implications: Implementation needs to be determined through direct measurement. Practical implications: Extent of implementation needs to be determined directly in all treatment and comparison/control groups. Social implications: Without direct assessment of the extent of implementation the outputs and outcomes of new programs and innovations may not be determined. Originality/value: The three Diagnostic Dimensions of the Concerns Based Adoption Model have been applied widely. The conceptual implications, especially when the three constructs are interconnected two at a time, offer important suggestions for future research and in program evaluation

Examining Relationships between Urban Principal Change Facilitator Style and Student Learning

The Change Facilitator Style of all 27 elementary school principals and student test scores in one urban school district were examined. Analysis of covariance was employed to identify relationships between principal Change Facilitator Style and fifth grade student scores on the Connecticut Mastery Tests in writing, editing & revising, reading comprehension, and a total score and two sub scores for mathematics (computational and conceptual). Students in Initiator and Manager CF Style schools had significantly higher test scores in comparison with students in schools with Responder CF Style principals. Students in schools with Manager CF Style principals had higher computational and conceptual mathematics sub scores when compared with students in schools with Responder CF Style principals

Leading and Managing the 21st Century Research University: Creating, Implementing, and Sustaining Strategic Change

Universities are competing in an environment in which only the most adaptable to sustainable change will prosper. In order to evolve in this challenging time, universities must embrace strategies for transformational change. This paper reviews two case studies that illustrate the universal applicability of theories of Change Science for achieving sustainable change in stressful times of prosperity and austerity. Understanding the phases of the Change Process that include Creating Vision, Implementing Vision, and Sustaining Vision can promote sustainable change directly related to the culture and mission of the institution

Empowering Internal Stakeholders Through the Dissemination of Useful Information: A Review of Crisis Management Concepts

In this article, we define crisis management as not only a problem, but also an opportunity for leaders to be flexible, creative, and innovative that contributes to social change. In the past, organizational leaders often looked at crisis management as a quick fix or stopgap to business as usual. Empowering internal stakeholders and disseminating useful information that is relevant, valid, timely, and reliable to people within the organization can lead to crisis resolution at the closest point of action and contribute to social change. We look at the primary and secondary stakeholders and stewardship of the employees during the crisis and discuss crisis management as the action research process and the relationship to social change. Moreover, corporate social responsibility from the perspective of the for-profit business leader can be a marketing and branding effort to improve organizational performance from the crisis management process that also contributes to social change

Nuclear receptors of the honey bee: annotation and expression in the adult brain

The Drosophila genome encodes 18 canonical nuclear receptors. All of the Drosophila nuclear receptors are here shown to be present in the genome of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Given that the time since divergence of the Drosophila and Apis lineages is measured in hundreds of millions of years, the identification of matched orthologous nuclear receptors in the two genomes reveals the fundamental set of nuclear receptors required to ‘make’ an endopterygote insect. The single novelty is the presence in the A. mellifera genome of a third insect gene similar to vertebrate photoreceptor-specific nuclear receptor (PNR). Phylogenetic analysis indicates that this novel gene, which we have named AmPNR-like, is a new member of the NR2 subfamily not found in the Drosophila or human genomes. This gene is expressed in the developing compound eye of the honey bee. Like their vertebrate counterparts, arthropod nuclear receptors play key roles in embryonic and postembryonic development. Studies in Drosophila have focused primarily on the role of these transcription factors in embryogenesis and metamorphosis. Examination of an expressed sequence tag library developed from the adult bee brain and analysis of transcript expression in brain using in situ hybridization and quantitative RT-PCR revealed that several members of the nuclear receptor family (AmSVP, AmUSP, AmERR, AmHr46, AmFtz-F1, and AmHnf-4) are expressed in the brain of the adult bee. Further analysis of the expression of AmUSP and AmSVP in the mushroom bodies, the major insect brain centre for learning and memory, revealed changes in transcript abundance and, in the case of AmUSP, changes in transcript localization, during the development of foraging behaviour in the adult. Study of the honey bee therefore provides a model for understanding nuclear receptor function in the adult brain

Collusion through Joint R&D: An Empirical Assessment

This paper tests whether upstream R&D cooperation leads to downstream collusion. We consider an oligopolistic setting where firms enter in research joint ventures (RJVs) to lower production costs or coordinate on collusion in the product market. We show that a sufficient condition for identifying collusive behavior is a decline in the market share of RJV-participating firms, which is also necessary and sufficient for a decrease in consumer welfare. Using information from the US National Cooperation Research Act, we estimate a market share equation correcting for the endogeneity of RJV participation and R&D expenditures. We find robust evidence that large networks between direct competitors – created through firms being members in several RJVs at the same time – are conducive to collusive outcomes in the product market which reduce consumer welfare. By contrast, RJVs among non-competitors are efficiency enhancing

Why sequence all eukaryotes?

Life on Earth has evolved from initial simplicity to the astounding complexity we experience today. Bacteria and archaea have largely excelled in metabolic diversification, but eukaryotes additionally display abundant morphological innovation. How have these innovations come about and what constraints are there on the origins of novelty and the continuing maintenance of biodiversity on Earth? The history of life and the code for the working parts of cells and systems are written in the genome. The Earth BioGenome Project has proposed that the genomes of all extant, named eukaryotes-about 2 million species-should be sequenced to high quality to produce a digital library of life on Earth, beginning with strategic phylogenetic, ecological, and high-impact priorities. Here we discuss why we should sequence all eukaryotic species, not just a representative few scattered across the many branches of the tree of life. We suggest that many questions of evolutionary and ecological significance will only be addressable when whole-genome data representing divergences at all of the branchings in the tree of life or all species in natural ecosystems are available. We envisage that a genomic tree of life will foster understanding of the ongoing processes of speciation, adaptation, and organismal dependencies within entire ecosystems. These explorations will resolve long-standing problems in phylogenetics, evolution, ecology, conservation, agriculture, bioindustry, and medicine