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After extensive research and development, an innovative instructional practice is ready for dissemination. The developers were familiar with Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations model, so the innovation's attributes (and their marketing strategies) have been carefully crafted to facilitate rapid adoption. Independent studies have shown the new practice to produce statistically significant increases in learning over the most comparable practice currently in use.
The lead developer leans back in her chair and smiles. She knows how much effort goes into successful change; she's had to work hard for her successes. But this one should be easy. With a sound pedagogy backed by such favorable validation results, what else is necessary?
The developers in this example are confident of a straightforward and successful dissemination effort--and, one might expect, with good reason. It has long been conventional wisdom that the most important factor in determining an innovation's success--some would say the only real factor--is the quality of the innovation itself. Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. Early models of educational change often reinforced this assumption (Burkman, 1987, p. 437). Still, attempts to diffuse innovations of "proven" or "obvious" effectiveness have failed--sometimes repeatedly--throughout history (see Rogers, pp. 7-10). Understanding what else is necessary sometimes demands a focus on the change environment situated within the change effort as a whole.
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