The research and development of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) has been on-going for decades in chemical education research. Although the impact of these practices on student outcomes has been studied extensively, most of these investigations do not measure and take into account in the analysis the extent to which the EBIP was implemented as intended by the developers. This lack of attention to the fidelity of implementation of EBIPs in the characterization of their impact compromises the validity and reliability of claimed student outcomes. Indeed, other factors than the EBIP could potentially explain the outcomes observed. In this talk, we will present a methodological framework that addresses this flaw. In particular, we leveraged the extensive literature on fidelity of implementation from other disciplines to develop a framework to measure fidelity of implementation in an educational setting. We will describe how this framework enhances the validity of impact studies and provide guidelines for its integration in this type of studies.

Fidelity of implementation: An overlooked construct in chemical education research

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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