Evidence-Based Practices (Part 2): Implementing a Practice or Program with Fidelity
Wrap Up
The implementation of a practice or program as intended by the researchers or developers is referred to as fidelity of implementation. Implementing an EBP with fidelity increases the likelihood that young children or students will experience the intended outcomes. However, research indicates that many education professionals often do not implement evidence-based practices or programs the way they were intended. To implement with fidelity, educators must:
- Learn how to implement the EBP skillfully through training or independent learning
- Gather and organize the resources necessary for implementation and be sure to have in place an effective classroom behavior management system
- Comply with the key components of fidelity: adherence, exposure/duration, and quality of delivery
Even though educators should always try to implement an EBP with fidelity, there are times when they might decide to adapt the EBP (i.e., omit, alter, or add components). Whenever a change is made to a core component of an EBP—what is taught, how it is taught, or the amount of time it is taught—it significantly increases the risk of not achieving the expected outcomes. The learner outcomes might be better, worse, or the same than if the EBP were implemented as designed. Although adaptations to non-core components do not pose as great a risk, educators are still taking some risk when making these types of adaptations.
Listen as Lisa Sanetti reviews key considerations for implementing a practice or program with fidelity (time: 3:45).
Lisa Sanetti, PhD
Co-PI, Project PRIME
Associate Professor, Neag School of Education
University of Connecticut
Transcript: Lisa Sanetti, PhD
So if we’ve identified an evidence-based practice—and we think it’s really going to work well for the particular case or student that we’re wanting to help—one of the most important things is really to implement that practice or program with fidelity. We know that interventions, when they’re evaluated and researched, they have a high level of fidelity, and so to get the same outcomes we have to implement at that same level. Fidelity is really implementing the intervention consistently and thoroughly across time. We know that to get high levels of implementation that training is going to be required, and so you need some didactic information about what is the intervention, as well as what are the processes or procedures that are needed to implement it. And then we know that getting a chance to demonstrate that skill or demonstrate that intervention or see somebody else do it can be really effective in helping to build fidelity to a new practice or program.
Unfortunately, sometimes educators will have to do some self-study and identify interventions and do the best that they can with the information that they have from research articles or other online resources to identify what those procedures are and do their best to implement them. Taking some time to prepare for implementation can be really helpful to being successful. So making sure that you have all the resources that you need in terms of any manuals or tools or manipulatives, any student materials, any equipment, as well as time for implementation. So sometimes interventions are things that get woven into the school day. Sometimes it’s something that you need to be working with a student one-on-one and think ahead of time about what will all the other students be doing? How will I manage the classroom while I’m working with this one particular student or group of students? And then, as you start to get those things set up and you’re really starting to implement, you really want to think about not only adhering to those particular intervention steps or components but also making sure that you have the ability to implement the intervention as often as is recommended and having sessions that are as long as recommended. So planning for that and then making sure that on an ongoing basis you build that into your planning for your classroom can be really very important. We know that there are risks to fidelity, that educators tend to drift over time or adapt intervention components, and again we really want to be careful about making sure that we implement as closely as possible to what was evaluated in the research studies. Knowing that that will get us the best outcomes for our students most likely.
Things that you may want to think about if you feel like you need to make adaptations is making more surface-level adaptations. Maybe you’re going to change some visual aids, or you’re going to change some materials to make them more culturally relevant, or you’re going to modify vocabulary. You need to translate, doing things to make them fit better into your classroom routine, so maybe slightly changing the timing of when they’re implemented. But not making major adaptations like changing the duration of the intervention, the number of sessions, completely eliminating core components of the intervention. We know that those more major adaptations are going to result in the intervention being probably less effective or less efficient in getting positive students outcomes that we’re looking for.
Revisiting Initial Thoughts
Think back to your initial responses to the following questions. After working through the resources in this module, do you still agree with your Initial Thoughts? If not, what aspects of your answers would you change?
What is fidelity of implementation?
How can an educator implement an evidence-based practice or program with fidelity?
When you are ready, proceed to the Assessment section.
