Adopting and adapting ‘what works’: Core components as a guide

There is growing interest in using evidence-backed approaches to help prioritise scale-up efforts by governments and donors. Influential reviews by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel have helped to generate evidence menus which highlight cost-effective approaches to improve learning. Multilaterals and bilaterals such as the World Bank and FCDO have taken notice, with an uptick in projects mentioning these menus and approaches in large-scale government partnerships, including two of the most prominent ‘great buys’ in global education: structured pedagogy and targeted instruction.

Figure 1: An uptick in referencing ‘what works’ in global education

As menus of evidence-based approaches gain traction, two central questions arise around how to both adopt and adapt them:

• Adopt: How do we ensure these evidence-based approaches get adopted and implemented with fidelity to the evidence?
• Adapt: How do we adapt approaches across countries and contexts, preserving evidence-based principles, while localising them to differing contextual realities?

Enter core components, a guide to doing both and finding the sweet spot.

Core components can help adopt what works, by laying out clearly the essential elements of an effective approach, unpacking the black box. For example, as shown in Figure 2 below, in the case of teaching at the right level, we have identified 5 core components in the classroom, 2 components for pedagogical support by middle-tier government officials, and 2 components at higher policy levels. This spelling out of specific components can enable government policies, World Bank project appraisal documents, and FCDO business cases, among other programme and policy planning documents, to ensure these core components of effective approaches are captured.

Core components can also help adapt what works, by laying out what is and is not essential, with a goldilocks level of specificity – not too much, not too little.

For example, one core component includes ‘regular assessment to identify current learning levels.’ In terms of what to adopt, this core component makes specific and clear that regular assessment is crucial. Once-off or ad-hoc assessment would not count as adoption of the core component, resulting in less effective programming, based on the evidence to date. In terms of what to adapt, this component deliberately does not specify the exact type of assessment to use. For example, a common assessment used in the literature has been oral one-on-one ASER assessments. Yet emerging innovations show that other forms of assessment and grouping can generate learning gains too, such as paper and group classroom ASER assessments, and might scale more easily in government systems.

This goldilocks approach helps ensure that the evidence-based component – ‘regular assessment to identify current learning levels’ – is adopted with fidelity, while also leaving room for it to be adapted to local realities. Figure 3 conceptualises how core components help find the sweet spot of adoption and adaptation. This is consistent with careful thinking on the generalisability of evidence, adapting evidence-based principles, rather than activities, across settings.

Table 1 lists several examples of evidence-based core components, and how they can both be adopted with fidelity to work in principle, while being adapted to the context to work in practice, building on several case studies.

Figure 2: The core components and causal principles of teaching at the right level

Figure 3: Adopting and adapting core components of an evidence-based approach

Table 1: Adopting and adapting core components of teaching at the right level

The way forward

These examples of what gets ‘adopted’ and what gets ‘adapted’ are just the beginning. As calls grow for more evidence-backed solutions and prioritisation, the list of lessons on how to best adopt and adapt evidence is bound to grow. We look forward to continuing to learn what works in principle and in practice.

References

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Curtiss Wyss, M., Qargha, G.O., Arenge, G., Mukoyi, T., Elliott, M., Matsheng, M. & Clune, K. 2023. Adapting, innovating, and scaling foundational learning: Four lessons from scaling Teaching at the Right Level in Botswana. Washington, D.C.: Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Scaling-TaRL-in-Botswana-_-Report-_-Web.pdf

Glennerster, R. & Bates, M.A. 2017. The generalizability puzzle. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 15(3), 50–54. https://doi.org/10.48558/EYY5-3S89

Kaffenberger, M., Angrist, N., Hwa, Y.Y., Kayton, H.L., Jukes, M. & Stern, J. 2026. Core components of teaching at the right level: Unpacking the black box of proven programmes into a set of ‘core components’ by systematically combining multiple sources of rigorous evidence with implementer insights. What Works Hub for Global Education. Core Components Synthesis 2026/001. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-WhatWorksHubforGlobalEducation-WP_2026/001