Macro and Micro Implementation

Regardless of new technologies or changed curricula, significant educational innovation demands institutionalization of new behavior patterns, new roles and relationships for teachers, administrators, and students. Effective implementation involves mutual adaptation between school and project. Receptivity to such change varies from one local school system to another; this variability presents a micro planning problem. There are a number of strategies that facilitate micro-level implementation: broad-based participation in planning; materials development; local decisionmaking; ongoing staff training; and iterative planning keyed to the local setting. A critical mass of project participants is also essential. National macro plans are ineffective unless congruent with local commitments, desires, and capacities. The macro problem of implementing centralized change involves differentiating among localities' capacities to change, and adopting policies to promote development of adaptive structures and strategies at the local level. (Presented at IMTC Training Course, "Towards a New Secondary School--Problems of Implementation," Federal Republic of Germany, June 1975.)