QED offers a variety of services in support of systems change for transformational learning systems. The QED Transformational Change Model (or TCM), first developed in 2008, provides a visual map of pathways to school-based transformational learning environments.

TCM 5.1

(Click to view larger image.)

While most schools recognize the need for change, not all change is created equal. QED’s Transformational Change Model looks at  23  indicators of learning environments across three different strata of change:

  • Traditional – where change is about making improvements to current practices, thus effectively maintaining the status quo.
  • Transitional – where change aims to change current practices to improve outcomes, with tangential impact on the status quo.
  • Transformational – where change aims to change not only practices, but outcomes, thereby disrupting the status quo

As  change progresses from left to right (from traditional to transformational), the depth of the color blue increases accordingly, indicating the depth (and fidelity) of implementation required. For some indicators the progression from one degree of change to another is not a smooth or natural one; these are illustrated by a white gap in the row. The white gaps indicate the need for the educational system to break with one practice – and often a corresponding set of beliefs and assumptions – in order to embrace the next. The two practices cannot exist side-by-side in any meaningful way.

Similarly, as the model moves from left to right, the 22 discrete indicators of traditional change begin to merge into a more holistic transformational picture of a student-centered learning environment, supporting simultaneous change in other indicators.

Download a PDF version of the Transformational Change Model.