Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) is an approach to research that lies at the intersection of research, policy, and practice. DBIR seeks to reconfigure the roles of researchers and practitioners to better support long-term research practice partnerships aimed at producing innovations that are effective, equitable, and sustainable and that can be adapted successfully to meet the needs of diverse learners across diverse settings, including schools and community settings. DBIR teams don’t just design innovations; they also redesign the infrastructures needed to support equitable implementation of innovations.
Watch this video from the Improvement Scholars Network to get a sense for our work!
Tools are essential for organizing DBIR projects and for creating and maintaining the long-term research-practice partnerships in which such projects take place. Tools such as meeting protocols, heuristics for making design decisions, and processes for uncovering overlapping values among interest holders are critical for ensuring deep participation in different aspects of research and development. Such tools ideally consider power and history, and they enable people to dream new possibilities for systems.
Tools
Deciding on a Focus
for Joint Work
Teams form to accomplish jointly negotiated goals for promoting educational equity and justice, goals that reflect interest holders’ concerns and values
Organizing the
Design Process
To improve practice, teams commit to iterative, collaborative design
Doing Research in DBIR
To advance knowledge and theory, teams develop and study tools, processes, and infrastructures to promote learning and equitable implementation of innovations
Developing Capacity for Continuous Improvement
Teams commit to building collective capacity for creating and sustaining transformations to education systems
4 Core DBIR Principles
About Us
Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) is an approach to organizing research and development intended to promote effective, equitable, and sustainable improvements in education. It is an emerging method of relating research and practice that is collaborative, iterative, and grounded in systematic inquiry. DBIR builds the capacity of systems and partnerships to engage in evidence-based, continuous improvement as they work toward the transformation of teaching and learning.