Ellsworth's Framework of Educational Change

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 7 claims (4 for, 3 mixed) · 5 studies (2 qualitative, 1 causal, 1 review, 1 associational), q1–q2 · 0 of 5 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description

Ellsworth surveys the research on educational change and groups it into a small set of perspectives, or "models", each represented by one author or group. Following Rogers's observation that change is a special case of communication, Ellsworth arranges them into one framework. A change agent wishes to communicate an innovation to an intended adopter. This is done through a change process, which opens a channel through the change environment. The environment also contains resistance, which can disrupt the process or distort how the innovation appears to the adopter. Each model addresses one part of that picture:

Framework component	Model	What it helps with
Where to start (or stop an inappropriate change)	Fullan & Stiegelbauer, The New Meaning of Educational Change (1991)	Orientation for anyone trying to improve schools
The system being changed	Reigeluth & Garfinkle, Systemic Change in Education (1994)	Questioning the system's assumptions; its subsystems and stakeholders; the systems around it
The change process	Havelock & Zlotolow, The Change Agent's Guide (1995)	Planning, resourcing and trialling an innovation, and preparing the system to change again
The intended adopters	Hall & Hord's Concerns-Based Adoption Model (1987)	Tracking the concerns stakeholders have as change progresses, and timing interventions to them
Resistance	Zaltman & Duncan, Strategies for Planned Change (1977)	Diagnosing its cause: status threat, missing knowledge or skills, entrenched values, low confidence in the system
The innovation	Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1995)	The attributes of an innovation, or perceptions of them, that most influence adoption
The environment	Ely's conditions for change (1990)	Conditions that support implementation, such as evident leadership commitment and professional development

The models are not a fixed sequence. A change agent can enter at whichever component the situation raises, and the models are meant to be used together. Ellsworth gives two examples. When adjusting an innovation's attributes (Rogers), make an innovation-component checklist (Hall & Hord) so that a critical part is not removed by accident. When checking Ely's conditions, check Reigeluth and Garfinkle's systemic conditions as well. The chapter also points beyond education, to human performance technology and human resource development.

Its concluding argument is systemic. A single innovation foreign to the rest of the system may be rejected, "like an incompatible organ transplant", so success depends on a coordinated bundle of innovations that leaves a coherent system after implementation.

Implications

Context

• Any design that has to be adopted by people other than its designer: a new course model in a department, a platform or practice introduced into schools, training rolled out across an organisation
• Most useful after the design exists and before it is implemented at scale, when the question shifts from "does it work" to "will it be taken up and kept"

Target Learners

• The adopters of an innovation (teachers, administrators, trainers, learners), whose concerns and resistance the framework treats as things to understand rather than overcome by force
• Designers and change agents, for whom it is a map of the change literature

Target Learning Objectives

• Lasting adoption of an innovation, rather than a trial that fades
• A diagnosis of the system an innovation is entering, including what it would have to change around it

Claims

• An innovation foreign to the rest of its system tends to be rejected; lasting change needs a coordinated bundle of innovations. [+W]
• Change is a specialized instance of the general communication model [+W]
• One student's resistance to GenAI was entangled with neurodiversity, a biological conception of authentic effortful learning, and anxieties about rapid technological change [~W]
• Innovation attributes catalyse both intention to use and actual adoption of AI-enabled systems [~W]
• Student dyads given planning software enacted changed practices not intended by designers or facilitators [~W]
• Students at the same university interpreted and responded to GenAI policy in markedly different ways, from embracing adoption to principled resistance [+W]
• Two-way, genuine district-teacher communication is associated with more effective TPE implementation [+W]

The evidence by question

• Is an educational innovation more likely to be adopted and kept when it fits the system it enters and adopters perceive it as compatible and advantageous? An innovation foreign to the rest of its system tends to be rejected; lasting change needs a coordinated bundle of innovations. [+M]

Related Theories

• Fuller's Concerns Theory of Teacher Development — also describes concerns that shift in a predictable way over time, as the Concerns-Based Adoption Model does for adopters of a change
• Cultural-Historical Activity Theory — another way of seeing an innovation as entering a whole system of people, tools and rules
• Concerns-Based Adoption Model: change is a process with diagnosable dimensions
• Ellsworth's framework organizes educational change models around agent, innovation, adopter, process, environment, and resistance
• Six change-agent roles framework for regional staff development staff

Examples

• Stakeholder Mapping — a concrete way to look inside the system at its stakeholders, as Reigeluth and Garfinkle ask
• Theory of Change — makes explicit the chain from an innovation to the change it is meant to produce
• Continuous Improvement of Learning Materials — what follows once a design is adopted
• Guide change efforts with systemic understanding, focusing interventions on one framework component at a time as needed
• Diagnose resistance causes, then modify innovation attributes or their perceptions, using Rogers's influential attributes
• Address environmental deficiencies using Ely's Conditions for Change, such as leadership commitment and professional development

Key Sources

• Ellsworth, J. B. (2018). A survey of educational change models. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology (1st ed., pp. 339–345). EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/survey_of_educational_change_models (Originally published 2000 as ERIC Digest ED444597)

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	theory
title	Ellsworth's Framework of Educational Change
description	Ellsworth's organisation of the classic educational change models around a communication model, in which a change agent communicates an innovation to an intended adopter through a change process, across an environment that contains resistance.
status	review
canonical	True
generated	by claude/unspecified on 2026-09-24
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content

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