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Originally published in The Teaching Professor (June 10, 2024) as 鈥淥vercoming the Knowing-Doing Gap: Moving from a Good Idea to Action鈥�. 

Most professors love to learn. Our bookshelves are full of books, our inboxes full of newsletters, and our files (paper or electronic) full of possibilities! Each one contains excellent resources, techniques, and ideas we plan to try someday. But for many of us, someday doesn鈥檛 come. We are tired at the end of the semester and never quite get around to implementing these new ideas. We learn about new strategies aligned with cognitive science, trauma-informed pedagogy, or our disciplines. Still, many of these ideas don鈥檛 make it into our classrooms or syllabi to help our students learn and grow.

Sometimes, we are hard on ourselves: if we were more motivated or cared more, we would implement our new learning. We may even believe we have a personal flaw stopping our newest learning from making it into the classroom. We have good intentions but are upset that we haven鈥檛 accomplished our goals of improving our teaching or designing that new unit.

The knowing-doing gap is a well-known phenomenon in organizational change theory. A company spends thousands of dollars to send their employees to training on the newest innovation, and everyone comes back enthused. They have the right resources, and then six months later, the leaders realize that nothing has changed. Failure doesn鈥檛 mean the idea was wrong or the employees were incompetent. It often means that people mistook plans or good intentions for results.

The knowing-doing gap is at work in our personal and professional lives. Let鈥檚 say we want to make a change (e.g., exercise more or provide better feedback to our students). We gain knowledge and tools, but we do not follow through. Again, we are not unmotivated, uncaring, or flawed. We need new approaches to move from learning to application or to close the knowing-doing gap. Here are a few approaches to get you started and leverage your colleagues as implementation partners.

Stop thinking you don鈥檛 know enough and take your own advice. Being a professor can be tough. People expect us to be experts, and in many areas of our work, we are. But when implementing new ideas, we may stall, thinking we don鈥檛 know enough. We may purchase the next book, keep asking our colleagues for advice, and never think we have enough knowledge. We also know that learning is risk-taking. We encourage our students to take risks, but we often fail to take our own advice. Being an expert at everything is a high bar to clear, and we might fear failure when thinking about implementing new learning. Thoughts of poor student evaluations or flopping in front of our students often stop us from trying something new.

Instead, we can make students part of our learning journeys. We can model risk-taking and tell our students that we are trying something new. I like to ask students for their opinions through debriefing the learning activity. At the end of a new learning activity, reading, or project, I ask them about the pros and cons of using it. I also use mid- and end-of-semester evaluations to gain student perspectives when implementing new ideas. Other professors like to conduct small action research projects to analyze student learning results on an assessment or project, comparing student results of both teaching methods.

Remember that plans are not the same as action. We often make plans and have good intentions but do not implement our new learning. In Atomic Habits, Clear (2018) mentions that practice, not planning, is the most effective way to develop new habits and explains that being in motion is not the same as taking action. Professors are sometimes obsessed with perfection or finding the optimal solution. I agree with Clear that planning and strategizing are good things but don鈥檛 produce results. Professional learning is often motion toward a goal. But we need to act鈥攖ry a new strategy or change our course material鈥攖o get closer to our goals of improving student learning or using more culturally relevant sources. Instructors don鈥檛 need to have the whole blueprint before implementing new learning, as focusing on the 鈥渉ow鈥� can be counterproductive.

Start with small, actionable steps. Implementing new learning does not have to mean creating a new course, large unit, or grandiose project. Lang (2021) in Small Teaching offers several strategies aligned with cognitive science and claims that the ultimate aim of his book is 鈥渢o convince you that you can create powerful learning for you and your students through the small, everyday decisions you make鈥� (p. 237). He suggests that rethinking the first five minutes of class can be a way to start implementing new strategies. I suggest that incorporating one reading from an author from another culture or who offers a different perspective is a step toward creating a more culturally relevant course and that revising your late-work policy is one step toward creating a more trauma-informed classroom environment.

Learn in community. Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are semester- or yearlong professional learning opportunities that are great vehicles to support taking new learning to application. FLCs are often peer-led groups that engage in structured learning that can stimulate innovation within a collaborative learning environment. FLCs bring professors from various disciplines together for topics such as anti-racist pedagogy, online learning, or engagement strategies. Groups usually meet once per month and discuss new learning based on articles, podcasts, or information that the facilitator has prepared. Participants come ready to learn and are usually assigned an application activity to complete before the next session. During subsequent sessions, participants share what they tried, how it worked, their reflections, and their next steps. FLCs can provide the right amount of spaced learning and expectation of application needed to implement the learning.

Facilitate a book study. Book studies are similar to FLCs in that there is new learning (based on a book) at each session, time for discussion to deepen everyone鈥檚 understanding of the material, and usually a call to apply the new learning between sessions. Book study facilitators help assemble the group, choose learning goals, and determine dates, times, norms, and processes. There are many ways to help members demonstrate their learning, including keeping learning logs or journals, responding to discussion questions, recording group minutes and learning, asking members to bring examples of the ideas they used in their classes, creating a shared resource or lesson bank, or having a culminating event where participants showcase what they did to implement their learning.

Find a learning or accountability partner. One of the best ways I have been challenged to implement new ideas is through a learning or accountability partner. Sometimes, the word accountability has negative connotations. We see it as a top-down approach that implies evaluation or checking up on us; however, the word partner indicates mutual collaboration and shared goals. I have been paired with two learning partners in different FLCs: a biology teacher and a nursing educator. Participating in an FLC allowed both of us to appreciate each other鈥檚 work and pedagogy, be challenged, and discuss ways to incorporate new ideas. Then, a month later, we held each other accountable when we discussed what we accomplished and how it went. Having this type of mutual responsibility to implement new learning has accelerated my implementation.
The next time you read a book, attend a conference, or participate in a webinar, reflect with yourself, a partner, or your department colleagues about how you will use this information in your teaching, not just what you learned. Then, follow the Nike slogan and 鈥淛ust Do It!鈥�

References
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. Avery.
Lang, J. (2021). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.