Our approach and framework
The What Works Hub for Global Education aims to advance implementation science in education. There is growing evidence about what works to improve learning, but much less is known about how to implement effective approaches at scale, within government systems. Our work focuses on understanding how evidence is taken up into policy, how policies are translated into widespread practice, and how implementation can be improved and sustained.
Our intellectual framework, recently published in Science, brings these questions together, providing a forward-looking research agenda and a shared language for researchers, policymakers and practitioners.
Our intellectual framework
The framework includes four phases: two in an evidence strand: efficacy trials and effectiveness trials, and two in a policy and practice strand: policy plans and practice at scale. It also focuses on the connections between these phases.
The framework is not intended to prescribe a single pathway. Policies and programmes may move through the phases in different ways, and may require multiple cycles of iteration and adaptation.
The four key areas
Efficacy trials
Evidence from controlled studies that test whether an intervention can improve learning outcomes under defined conditions. These studies are important for establishing whether an approach can work, but implementation science seeks to understand how promising approaches can move beyond tightly controlled settings to be tested and implemented across different contexts and delivery models.
Effectiveness trials
Evidence that tests whether interventions are effective when they expand beyond controlled settings and are delivered at larger scale, within government systems, across different settings and populations, and through scalable delivery models. Effectiveness research considers efficiency and equity: asking not only what works, but what works for whom, where and at what cost.
Policy plans
These include policies, frameworks, regulations, laws and other plans developed by governments. These may or may not be evidence-based and may or may not translate into practice at scale. Implementation research examines how evidence is taken up into policymaking, how political and institutional factors shape decisions, and how policy plans can translate into effective and equitable practice at scale.
Practice at scale
This represents what is being implemented throughout education systems, reaching classrooms and students at scale. Practice may or may not reflect government policy or the available evidence. Implementation research examines how policy is translated into practice. Practice at scale in turn informs pressing research questions in need of investigation.
The ultimate goal is sustained effectiveness at scale with equity: ensuring that effective approaches deliver lasting improvements in learning for all children.
Effectiveness, equity and sustainability are relevant throughout the framework. Achieving this goal may require policies and programmes to move through the framework multiple times, adapting and learning along the way.
Priorities for implementation research
The framework motivates four priority areas for advancing implementation research in global education:
Evidence evolution
Moving beyond initial proof-of-concept studies to generate evidence about whether interventions are expansive, efficient and equitable across different contexts and delivery models. This includes adaptive testing approaches, evaluations of what is working at scale and through government delivery, and more.
Evidence uptake
Understanding evidence use and decision-making, including the political and institutional factors that shape policymaking and the types of evidence that are most useful to decision-makers.
Service delivery
Understanding regulation and incentives, as well as bureaucratic delivery mechanisms. This includes studying how policies and programmes are delivered through education systems, including the role of government institutions, bureaucratic norms, incentives and the middle tier in translating policy into effective practice.
Measurement
Improving the measurement of implementation, learning and cost. Consistent and disaggregated measurement can help identify implementation gaps, understand differences in effectiveness and equity, and support real-time improvement.
How the Hub contributes
The What Works Hub for Global Education network supports implementation science by generating and synthesising evidence, studying how evidence is used in policy and practice, and working with governments and partners to understand and improve implementation at scale.