Bildung-Psychology and implementation science

Abstract

Bildung-Psychology encourages a long-term view of lifelong learning for individuals, educational organizations (e.g., schools), and systems (e.g., national education agencies). Learning on these levels does not happen independently from the other levels, as an individual’s education is interrelated to characteristics of educational institutions and systems. Likewise, implementing educational innovations requires activities on all levels of the educational system. In this article we present a cascading logic model where an independent variable at one level is a dependent variable at the next level from the classroom to the federal government. In line with lifelong learning, implementation is a growing science built on research and evaluation of practices that unfold over years and decades. This article will summarize some of the major findings from implementation science as they have unfolded over the past 50 years. It points out similarities between the Bildung-Psychology framework and implementation science in order to build a theoretical base for a future research discourse.