Jamie Clark

@HughesHaili session on "Lethal Mutations" in education with @XpatEducator is very much needed. Many think that teachers shouldn't really know principles, just strategies. But that’s one big mishap that leads to gradual lethal mutation and that's only one of many phases a mutation becomes lethal, starting from the original research all the way to the daily classroom. This is where education needs to learn much from health care implementation science. Health care uses methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings clinical guidelines, and evidence-based interventions into routine health care practice. In healthcare, if a surgeon or nurse incorrectly modifies a clinical protocol, it can be fatal for the patient. In education, if a teacher distorts an evidence-based pedagogical strategy (e.g., turning "retrieval practice" into a repetitive, distracting 5-question quiz every single day), it makes the teaching method ineffective, a lethal mutation. Healthcare developed one method that directly solves this "Context Tailoring via Active Ingredients Execution". It relies on a clinical tool called :The Intervention Interface Matrix". Education needs to develop its own robust implementation methods. A model in health care called "SMILe Integrated Care Model" is used to manage the care of stem cell transplant patients. And that's how healthcare protects its interventions. For example, when introducing a new school program, you do not force teachers to follow a rigid script. Instead, like the SMILe model, you explicitly show them: "You must do X (the active ingredient), but you are entirely free to change Y (the platform, the tone, or the timing) to fit your specific classroom." (And explain the principles behind the constants amd permissible variations).