In schools we are often working within a process that asks our teachers and students to change their practises and routines.
At my school we have now been working for a few weeks on a whole-of-school initiative of making Learning Goals (LGs) and Success Criteria (SC) as visible and consistent as possible in every lesson.
I have been aware of some of the initial enthusiasm being eroded as our teachers work to embed the routine of writing and addressing LGs and SC. Consequently, I have made sure that our students and my colleagues know that they are very likely to experience the dreaded ‘Implementation Dip’. This is a well-known phenomenon and happens in all environments where there are changes in routines and processes.
I have warned teachers that students may complain about having to record LGs and SC, that some of our colleague teachers may feel that the practice is not as effective or as worthwhile as when they started using the initiative. The only way forward in these cases is that we must maintain and build the rigour of the process.
The concept of the Implementation Dip is similar to that of the ‘Learning Pit’ in that if we are prepared, determined, expect to feel the challenge and/or frustration of passing through the dip, and maintain our effort, then we will emerge successfully from the other side.
