Scaling Just Like Experts Do: Results of an Expert Interview Study

Abstract

Scaling innovations such as adaptive educational technologies into practice is a complex endeavor. It requires both an increase in the number of users and a deep change on different school levels. The goal of this study is thus to investigate enabling conditions and limiting factors of scale and specifically how these factors relate to each other by applying a data-driven approach. That is, conducting interviews with experts in the field of scaling-up adaptive educational technologies. By conducting expert interviews, we had access to their accumulated expertise about scaling factors and the interplay between these factors. For our analysis, we applied Epistemic Network Analysis. The analysis positioned collaboration between stakeholders at the core of the network and revealed the strongest connection between collaboration and teacher characteristics such as teacher concerns, competencies and professional development. We discuss our findings in light of existing scale approaches and draw implications for future scale efforts.