2011 Symposium - DOC

							Lead Author:       Michelle Graef
Affiliation:       Center on Children, Families and the Law
                   University of Nebraska—Lincoln
Mailing Address:   206 S. 13th Street, Suite 1000
                   Lincoln, NE 68588-0227
Email:             mgraef1@unl.edu
Telephone:         402-472-3741

Additional Authors:     Robin Leake
Affiliation:      University of Denver
Mailing Address: 2148 South High Street, Denver, CO, 80208
Email:            rleake@du.edu
Telephone:        303-871-6813


Title of the Workshop: Re-examining the role of professional development and
                    training evaluation through an Implementation Science
                    Lens

Key Words:           Professional development, training evaluation,
                     Implementation science

                                      Abstract
Many leaders in human services are looking to implementation science research
to help bridge the “science to service” gap. Decades of failed attempts to
implement policy and practice changes with fidelity to improve outcomes for
children and families in public child welfare agencies has motivated funders,
researchers and practitioners to search for implementation processes and
strategies to provide a coherent and consistent framework for approaching
systems change (Fixen, 2008). Implementation of policy and practice changes in
human services has relied heavily, and oftentimes, exclusively, on classroom
training as the primary pathway to implementation. While experts have long
recognized training to be a necessary but insufficient method for achieving
systems change, frameworks based on implementation science, such as the one
developed by NIRN, provide tools and language for referencing training within
a comprehensive system of “drivers” and “stages” needed for successful
implementation. The Children’s Bureau is currently funding five implementation
centers (IC) across the country that are using implementation science, and the
NIRN framework specifically, to guide their work in helping states and tribes
implement systems change. The presenters will provide a brief overview of the
NIRN model, discuss some of the approaches used by the ICs to evaluate
training and professional development within the broader implementation
framework and facilitate a discussion about how implementation science might
change the way we think about training evaluation and implications for the field.
Discussion questions may include: “How does implementation science (and the
systematic languaging of contextual issues) influence how we identify and
measure successful training outcomes?” “How can our knowledge about training
evaluation inform implementation science and improve the development of
these emerging frameworks?” and “How does implementation science invite us
to think more broadly about professional development, rather than training, as
an implementation driver?”

Fixsen, D. L., Naoom, S. F., Blase, K. A., Friedman, R. M., & Wallace, F. (2008).
Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature. Tampa, FL: University of
South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, The National
Implementation Research Network (FMHI Publication #231).