Identify & Implement Changes
Overview
At the Searle Center, we encourage a mindset of continuous improvement in which evidence is regularly reviewed and actions are adjusted accordingly. This iterative approach supports the ongoing enhancement of learning and teaching practices and student outcomes.
To clarify, the cycle does not end with making a change. Courses and programs learn from what happened and feed that learning back into the next iteration of the assessment cycle.
Approach
Guiding Principles of Continuous Improvement
- Focus on Evidence: Decisions should be grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
- Commit to Action and Iteration: Faculty act on evidence, consider what happens as a result, and make further adjustments to improve learning and teaching.
- Leverage Collaboration: Effective teamwork and shared responsibility support meaningful and sustainable improvement.
- Elevate Student Voice: Students are important partners in the process, and their perspectives can provide insights that inform decisions.
Key Considerations
When identifying and implementing changes, consider the following:
Characteristics
- Appropriately scoped and feasible, recognizing that meaningful improvement can involve targeted adjustments rather than large-scale change.
- Documented, so there is a clear connection between the evidence considered, the decision made, and the action taken.
Connections
- Grounded in evidence, with changes connected to what was learned through assessment rather than assumptions.
- Focused on student learning, with a clear connection between the identified issue or opportunity and the intended educational experience.
- Responsive to context, recognizing local priorities, resources, student needs, and disciplinary expectations.
- Connected back to the assessment cycle, informing future learning outcomes, assessment methods, curriculum mapping, or evidence gathering as appropriate.
Engagement
- Collaboratively considered and implemented, with relevant faculty, staff, students, or other stakeholders involved where appropriate.
- Followed by reflection, considering what happened after a change was implemented and what was learned from it.
- Iterative, recognizing that changes may need to be refined, expanded, reconsidered, or discontinued as new evidence emerges.
Examples of Evidence
Evidence may take many forms. Courses and programs are not expected to provide every type of evidence listed below. Depending on the context, one or more of the following may be appropriate:
- Documentation connecting assessment findings to a decision or change.
- Changes to curriculum, courses, assignments, assessment methods, learning outcomes, policies, or student supports.
- Faculty or committee meeting notes documenting discussion and decision-making.
- Evidence of student or other stakeholder input informing a change.
- An implementation plan identifying responsibilities, timing, or next steps.
- Follow-up evidence examining what happened after a change was implemented.
- Reflection on why a proposed change was not made when the evidence supported maintaining current practice.
- Documentation showing how findings informed the next iteration of the assessment cycle.
Resources and Tools
- "Looking at Data through an Equity Lens" (2022) by Candice Bocala and Kathryn Parker Boudett
Explores how examining assessment data through an equity lens can help educators identify disparities in student learning and guide more inclusive program and instructional improvements. - "Data Wise Improvement Process" by the Data Wise Project
Showcases an eight-step continuous improvement process that helps educators collaboratively analyze data, identify problems of practice, and implement instructional improvements to support student learning.