SCI outcomes- what if it is NOT met?

We discussed the possibilities of not meeting the SCI intended outcomes during the network meeting yesterday. Several issues came up during the discussion:

1) Timeframe of the SCI project- timeframe to carry out the SCI could be too short. Students need time to adjust to the intervention being used in class. Furthermore, the carrying out of the SCI ususally spans over a period of about 1 term. There were cases shared whereby just when the students were about to get used to the intervention and found the intervention meaningful, it was stopped as data needs to be measured and collected.

2) Teacher development- teacher needs to be very good in using the intervention. Beginning Teachers who are carrying out the intervention might be grappling with other factors such as classroom management and pedagogy. It would be ideal if a senior teacher with years of experience and who is an expert in classroom management is deployed to carry out the intervention with the project class but not all schools might have the resources to do this.

3) Not meeting the expectations of the SCI outcomes- posttest results shows that the effect size is small or trivial, indicating that the intervention did not result in an increase in the students performance. Worse still, sometimes data might even show a decline in the performance, so the big question: what comes next?

I believe that if such an occurence happen and if the results did not meet the intended outcomes, we must be open and upfront about it. Report the results as it is without any qualms about it. The whole idea of the SCI project is NOT the success of the SCI itself. Of course, the success of it will be an added bonus! However, what is more important is the reflection and the depth of the level of thinking that the TEAM went through during the deliberating and the evaluation process. What is more important are questions such as : Why is the SCI useful? Why did it meet or did not meet the intended outcomes? What can be changed or what can be done better in future?

Hence, not meeting the SCI outcomes is actually OK! :)