ABSTRACT
The generic model for design research presented in Chapter 3 shows all three core processes (analysis and exploration; design and construction; and evaluation and reflection) interacting with practice through the (anticipation of) implementation and spread of interventions. It also suggests that the interaction generally increases as the project matures. Even though actual implementation and spread cannot take place until an intervention has been constructed, researchers and practitioners jointly anticipate and plan for it from the very first stage of analysis and exploration, e.g. by tempering idealist goals with realistic assessments of what is possible; by taking practitioner concerns seriously; and by studying what intrinsic motives and natural opportunities are already present in the target setting. This chapter starts off describing the basic mindset underlying implementation and spread in educational design research on any scale: planning for actual use. Thereafter, implementation is described in terms of adopting, enacting, and sustaining interventions; spread is described in terms of dissemination and diffusion. Next, determinants of implementation and spread are addressed. These are clustered into four kinds of factors: attributes of the intervention; strategies for change; the context, including its surrounding system; and the actors involved. Based on the issues raised throughout the chapter, specific considerations for interacting with practice during educational design research are given for each of the three main phases in the generic model.
