Educators as human beings? Applying behaviour change science to teaching practice
Guest post by Dr. Danielle D’Lima, University College London
The last year has brought huge challenges and opportunities for those designing and delivering teaching and training in Higher Education settings. As we move into the next academic year, there are decisions to be made about what to take forward and what to leave behind. In doing so, it may be worth considering that adapting to remote delivery during a global pandemic was not just about technical changes, such as the introduction of new online learning platforms, but also required significant changes to human behaviour.
I have already written about this from a student perspective here, highlighting that as behavioural scientists, we have a unique advantage in understanding what students might need in order to engage with online learning. Engagement, after all, is a behaviour or set of behaviours and we know that in order to enact a behaviour people require Capability, Opportunity and Motivation.
Of course, educators are also human beings and therefore require the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation to demonstrate the behaviours required for successful online teaching (e.g. pre-recording a lecture, creating learning activities, communicating to students, etc.). In many ways, this is the behaviour change we need to get right first before we can expect to see optimal engagement behaviours in our students.
Opportunities to apply behaviour change science to the behaviours of educators include, but are not limited to:
- Identifying desired behaviours for evidence-based teaching practice within and across institutions;
- Understanding barriers and facilitators to those behaviours in different contexts;
- Systematically designing interventions to improve evidence-based teaching practice;
- Systematically refining existing interventions to improve evidence-based teaching practice.
Below I explore each of these in turn, drawing upon the Behaviour Change Wheel framework and in line with the step-by-step diagram included here:
1. Identifying target behaviours for evidence-based teaching practice within and across institutions
Ultimately, whenever we implement new, or improve existing ways of working, we are asking people to change their behaviour. A precise understanding of exactly which behaviour(s) need to change and who needs to perform them supports a better understanding of what might be preventing them from happening as well as opportunities to track improvements over time. Such behaviours may vary both within and across institutions and are likely to be situated within a complex system of multiple levels and multiple actors. Target behaviour(s) can be selected by considering their likelihood of change, the impact they would be likely to have if they did change and any expected positive or negative spill over effects onto other behaviours. An example of a target behaviour for evidence-based teaching practice is “educators providing specific and actionable written feedback to all students within four weeks of receiving an assignment”.
2. Understanding barriers and facilitators to those target behaviours in different contexts
Once we know which behaviour(s) we are trying to change we can explore which aspects of capability, opportunity and motivation might need to be targeted to change them. For example, to perform the behaviour of “educators providing specific and actionable written feedback to all students within four weeks of receiving an assignment”, teaching staff will likely need the knowledge and skills on how to produce such feedback (Capability), the belief that it will make a difference to their students (Motivation) and perhaps most importantly, the time to produce it amongst many other competing commitments (Opportunity).
The key to success when understanding barriers and facilitators will be involving the right people. To gain a rich and contextualised understanding of the barriers and facilitators to particular ways of working we need to speak to the people that have understanding and experience of what they are. This is likely to include, but not be limited to, the people that will need to change their behaviour in line with evidence-based practice and those that work closely with them.
3. Systematically designing behaviour change interventions to improve evidence-based teaching practice
The above ‘behavioural diagnosis’ gives us a clear idea of what our intervention needs to achieve (i.e. which aspects of Capability, Opportunity and Motivation it needs to change to have an impact on the target behaviour(s)). Tools such as the Behaviour Change Wheel support us to select congruent intervention strategies to target the identified barriers and facilitators and help to change behaviour.
Let’s say that from talking to educators we found out that the main barrier to providing the feedback is a lack of time. This is a Physical Opportunity barrier. The Behaviour Change Wheel suggests that the most congruent intervention options for targeting Physical Opportunity are Training, Restriction, Environmental Restructuring and Enablement. Drawing upon our understanding of the local context, and with input from key stakeholders, we can make selections about which options might be most appropriate to implement. In this case, Training and Restriction are unlikely to be appropriate. Environmental restructuring and Enablement, however, may be fruitful.
4. Systematically refining existing behaviour change interventions to improve evidence-based teaching practice
Of course, we do not always have the luxury of starting from scratch and our ‘behavioural diagnosis’ can instead be helpful for making small refinements to existing interventions to ensure that the appropriate barriers and facilitators in the particular context are in fact being targeted. Let’s say, for example, that an institution had already implemented activities to educate and train teaching staff in how to provide effective feedback to students and why it matters. The example ‘behavioural diagnosis’ reported above would quickly identify that the wrong barriers are being targeted here and resources could be better directed.
The Behaviour Change Wheel is one of a range of tools to support the application of behaviour change science to different contexts. I have used it here to illustrate opportunities for harnessing this expertise when implementing new, or improving existing, ways of working in Higher Education. After all, educators (and the many different professionals that they work alongside) are human beings performing many different behaviours in the midst of a complex system. We must ensure that they have the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation to do so.
Implications for faculty development
As we move forward into a new academic year, with decisions to make about how to carry forwards experience and learning, these tools provide an opportunity for faculty developers to work alongside educators to understand the barriers and facilitators to key behaviours and identify intervention options that are likely to be feasible in the local context. Looking back on the many successes of the previous year, it is also important to remember that successful behaviour change requires maintenance. Therefore, if we want to sustain the positive outcomes of remote delivery, this will also require our attention.
Dr. Danielle D’Lima is the Senior Teaching Fellow for the MSc Behaviour Change at the Centre for Behaviour Change, University College London. Her role includes designing and delivering teaching and training as well as overseeing research projects on implementation science and health professional behaviour change. She also has an evolving interest in the application of behaviour change science to teaching and training.
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