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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Volume IX, Number 2, Summer 2003
Issue Topic: Evaluating Education Reform
Promising Practices
Megan Beckett, Sandy Berry, and Kristin Leuschner of RAND Corporation describe a framework approach for transforming research findings into a practical tool for policymakers, parents, and practitioners.
A number of studies in recent years have focused on the role that community-based organizations take in supporting informal learning opportunities among youth in such locations as libraries, parks, museums, and youth centers. While the knowledge gained from these studies is valuable, its benefits have been limited. Institutional barriers and the need to operate in a day-to-day crisis mode have tended to keep practitioners in these organizations from sharing lessons across fields.
For example, small, underfunded community-based organizations serving disadvantaged youth are rarely able to look at what art museum personnel have learned about designing effective informal learning opportunities for their traditionally more advantaged audiences. In turn, most museum educators have not had the opportunity to apply lessons from youth development on how to reduce barriers to participation among disadvantaged youth.
Recognizing the value in synthesizing and disseminating important lessons about informal learning that cut across institutions, the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds is sponsoring RAND to research how youth come to participate in informal learning and how this participation might be expanded. Our approach to this task involves what is known as a framework.¹
What Is a Framework Approach?
The framework approach transforms the key lessons from studies into a practical tool that can be used by practitioners, parents, and policymakers. As illustrated in the figure, there are three main components.
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the field |
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The Framework Approach |
Advantages of the Framework Approach
The framework approach offers several advantages:
Although the framework draws on lessons learned in the field, it does not “tell you what to do” or try to define every aspect of a complex issue. The model recognizes that an individual’s decision to take a specific action involves a complex mix of attitudes, intentions, constraints, behaviors, and past experiences. The value of this approach lies in its ability to reduce, but not eliminate that complexity by elucidating the distinctions among types of influences on decisions. The approach can help us recognize the important differences between individuals as they go through the decision-making process.
For more information, visit RAND’s website at www.rand.org/child/projects/effinlearn.html.
¹ McCarthy, K. F., & Jinnett, K. (2001). A new framework for building participation in the arts. Santa Monica, CA: RAND. [Available at: www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1323]
Megan Beckett
Sociologist
Email: megan_beckett@rand.org
Sandy Berry
Senior Director, Survey Research Group
Email: sandra_berry@rand.org
Kristin Leuschner
Communications Analyst
Email: kristin_leuschner@rand.org
RAND Corporation
1700 Main St.
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
Tel: 310-393-0411