Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice
The Center’s tool-development process uses research-based drafting, field testing with formative evaluation studies, revision leading to commercial publication, and summative evaluation of the final materials.
Our Iterative Design Process
Research
Our tools are grounded in what research says about how children learn and committed to translating that research into practice. The tool development process builds in time for the review and summary of relevant research. This part of the process often includes consultation with outside experts and internal products such as white papers that guide the drafting or revision of tools.
Field Test
UChicago STEM Education understands that tools are not valuable unless they are practical. This is why field testing is built into the tool-development cycle. During the development process, drafts of tools are shared with the appropriate stakeholders, who field test them in their own real-life contexts. Feedback from field testers is collected, analyzed, and shared to inform the development of the tool.
Revise
The feedback from field testing - as well as from internal and external reviewers - informs revisions to the tools under development before they are finalized. The feedback is invaluable in the creation of tools that are relevant and practical to real-world educational contexts.
Evaluate
When tools have been distributed and are being used more widely, there is an opportunity for external evaluation of the tools themselves. Evaluation gives data about the efficacy of the tools, and offers additional ways in which the tools might be revised, or further research that needs to happen to continue to iterative improvement of the tools.
Test
“We love figuring out how to use the latest findings from research in the learning sciences to build tools that help kids learn. And then— what’s even more fun—we get to study how teachers in schools all across the country use those tools so we can revise what we’ve created based on what really works.”