Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Lessons for improved systems performance
Barbara Dale-Jones17 March 2015
1. The work of BRIDGE2. Approaches to
improving maths education
3. Recommendations
Focus
• Knowledge management agency
• Rooted in practice• “Research” in BRIDGE’s context
requires sense-making through engagement with practice, evaluations and literature
• Knowledge products: tools and guidance segmented for end-users
BRIDGE
1. Planning around key factors2. Being deliberate about
scale & systems impact3. Committing to knowledge
management4. Ensuring proper evaluation
4 ways of improving maths education
• Identify the processes that occur between inputs and outputs
• Capacitate and support school principals
• Don’t forget the role of language in mathematics (for teachers and learners)
• Choose intervention level (e.g. Foundation phase) and intervention type (e.g. teacher development)
1. Planning
• Ensure teacher buy-in
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
• Identify ‘performance stage’ of the system
1. Understand the systemic context
2. Use a staged and iterative approach to scale.
3. Carefully select projects/approaches to scale.
5. There is more than one way of achieving scale.
4. Scale requires change management, planning and effort.
6. Sustainability requires deep shift in attitude, buy-in, ownership, perceived value, motivation.
2. Scale & Systems Impact
3. Managing knowledge
• Commit to sharing knowledge • Learn from practice – what worked and what did
not work• Sector needs knowledge products other than
research and reports, such as:– Guidelines – Databases:
• Map of funders • Map of service providers (NGOs and commercial) • A ‘project register’
– Tools
4. The role of evaluation
• “Monitoring” and “evaluation” are different.• Define impact.• Need for evidence-based, long-term, impact
evaluation data in sector.• Need for post-project evaluation to track
sustainability.• Role of ‘meta-evaluations’.• Stop the culture of secrecy!
What can the education sector do?
1. Commit to collaboration
• Partnerships and collaboration can increase the scope and reach of an intervention.
• Collaboration and resource sharing can minimise costs.
• Different types of collaboration have different levels of intensity.
• Build the ability to work collaboratively and work in partnership.
• Build a shared understanding of the problem.
• Mobilise resources that match the scale of the challenges.
• Work together to test a range of possible solutions.
• Create feedback loops and systems for sharing.
• Commit to learning from experience.
2. Commit to knowledge management
3. Commit to rigorous evaluation
• Invest in knowledge management• Share learnings of what has worked and what has not• Publicise specific learnings
• Standardise evaluation processes and tools across different projects.
• Ensure M&E information has quick turnaround time, so interventions and adaptations can be made if required.
• Apply standards for appointing external evaluation agencies and for assessing evaluations.
• Allocate sufficient budget for M&E processes and expertise, including pre-, during and post-project phases.
• Include a theory of change linked to impact indicators in project design, preferably bringing in evaluation expertise in the design phase.
