Originally published in The Teaching Professor (June 10, 2024) as “Overcoming the Knowing-Doing Gap: Moving from a Good Idea to Action”.
Most professors love to learn. Our bookshelves are full of books, our inboxes full
of newsletters, and our files (paper or electronic) full of possibilities! Each one
contains excellent resources, techniques, and ideas we plan to try someday. But for
many of us, someday doesn’t come. We are tired at the end of the semester and never
quite get around to implementing these new ideas. We learn about new strategies aligned
with cognitive science, trauma-informed pedagogy, or our disciplines. Still, many
of these ideas don’t make it into our classrooms or syllabi to help our students learn
and grow.
Sometimes, we are hard on ourselves: if we were more motivated or cared more, we would
implement our new learning. We may even believe we have a personal flaw stopping our
newest learning from making it into the classroom. We have good intentions but are
upset that we haven’t accomplished our goals of improving our teaching or designing
that new unit.
The knowing-doing gap is a well-known phenomenon in organizational change theory.
A company spends thousands of dollars to send their employees to training on the newest
innovation, and everyone comes back enthused. They have the right resources, and then
six months later, the leaders realize that nothing has changed. Failure doesn’t mean
the idea was wrong or the employees were incompetent. It often means that people mistook
plans or good intentions for results.
The knowing-doing gap is at work in our personal and professional lives. Let’s say
we want to make a change (e.g., exercise more or provide better feedback to our students).
We gain knowledge and tools, but we do not follow through. Again, we are not unmotivated,
uncaring, or flawed. We need new approaches to move from learning to application or
to close the knowing-doing gap. Here are a few approaches to get you started and leverage
your colleagues as implementation partners.
Stop thinking you don’t know enough and take your own advice. Being a professor can be tough. People expect us to be experts, and in many areas
of our work, we are. But when implementing new ideas, we may stall, thinking we don’t
know enough. We may purchase the next book, keep asking our colleagues for advice,
and never think we have enough knowledge. We also know that learning is risk-taking.
We encourage our students to take risks, but we often fail to take our own advice.
Being an expert at everything is a high bar to clear, and we might fear failure when
thinking about implementing new learning. Thoughts of poor student evaluations or
flopping in front of our students often stop us from trying something new.
Instead, we can make students part of our learning journeys. We can model risk-taking
and tell our students that we are trying something new. I like to ask students for
their opinions through debriefing the learning activity. At the end of a new learning
activity, reading, or project, I ask them about the pros and cons of using it. I also
use mid- and end-of-semester evaluations to gain student perspectives when implementing
new ideas. Other professors like to conduct small action research projects to analyze
student learning results on an assessment or project, comparing student results of
both teaching methods.
Remember that plans are not the same as action. We often make plans and have good intentions but do not implement our new learning.
In Atomic Habits, Clear (2018) mentions that practice, not planning, is the most effective
way to develop new habits and explains that being in motion is not the same as taking
action. Professors are sometimes obsessed with perfection or finding the optimal solution.
I agree with Clear that planning and strategizing are good things but don’t produce
results. Professional learning is often motion toward a goal. But we need to act—try
a new strategy or change our course material—to get closer to our goals of improving
student learning or using more culturally relevant sources. Instructors don’t need
to have the whole blueprint before implementing new learning, as focusing on the “how”
can be counterproductive.
Start with small, actionable steps. Implementing new learning does not have to mean creating a new course, large unit,
or grandiose project. Lang (2021) in Small Teaching offers several strategies aligned
with cognitive science and claims that the ultimate aim of his book is “to convince
you that you can create powerful learning for you and your students through the small,
everyday decisions you make” (p. 237). He suggests that rethinking the first five
minutes of class can be a way to start implementing new strategies. I suggest that
incorporating one reading from an author from another culture or who offers a different
perspective is a step toward creating a more culturally relevant course and that revising
your late-work policy is one step toward creating a more trauma-informed classroom
environment.
Learn in community. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are semester- or yearlong professional learning
opportunities that are great vehicles to support taking new learning to application.
FLCs are often peer-led groups that engage in structured learning that can stimulate
innovation within a collaborative learning environment. FLCs bring professors from
various disciplines together for topics such as anti-racist pedagogy, online learning,
or engagement strategies. Groups usually meet once per month and discuss new learning
based on articles, podcasts, or information that the facilitator has prepared. Participants
come ready to learn and are usually assigned an application activity to complete before
the next session. During subsequent sessions, participants share what they tried,
how it worked, their reflections, and their next steps. FLCs can provide the right
amount of spaced learning and expectation of application needed to implement the learning.
Facilitate a book study. Book studies are similar to FLCs in that there is new learning (based on a book)
at each session, time for discussion to deepen everyone’s understanding of the material,
and usually a call to apply the new learning between sessions. Book study facilitators
help assemble the group, choose learning goals, and determine dates, times, norms,
and processes. There are many ways to help members demonstrate their learning, including
keeping learning logs or journals, responding to discussion questions, recording group
minutes and learning, asking members to bring examples of the ideas they used in their
classes, creating a shared resource or lesson bank, or having a culminating event
where participants showcase what they did to implement their learning.
Find a learning or accountability partner. One of the best ways I have been challenged to implement new ideas is through a learning
or accountability partner. Sometimes, the word accountability has negative connotations.
We see it as a top-down approach that implies evaluation or checking up on us; however,
the word partner indicates mutual collaboration and shared goals. I have been paired
with two learning partners in different FLCs: a biology teacher and a nursing educator.
Participating in an FLC allowed both of us to appreciate each other’s work and pedagogy,
be challenged, and discuss ways to incorporate new ideas. Then, a month later, we
held each other accountable when we discussed what we accomplished and how it went.
Having this type of mutual responsibility to implement new learning has accelerated
my implementation.
The next time you read a book, attend a conference, or participate in a webinar, reflect
with yourself, a partner, or your department colleagues about how you will use this
information in your teaching, not just what you learned. Then, follow the Nike slogan
and “Just Do It!”
References
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy and proven way to build good habits and break
bad ones. Avery.
Lang, J. (2021). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning (2nd
ed.). Jossey-Bass.
