Abstract:

The use of implementation science has long been used for studying the effectiveness of medical/health related initiatives, yet it has not yet been widely used for broad studies of the impacts of educational initiatives (Walters, W. & Barber, W. 2025). Educational reforms are constantly changing, however analysis of these reforms has not been consistently measured to assess implementation success. The purpose of this scoping literature review is to examine the recent research on Implementation Science and its applications to research in education. Specifically, the authors aim to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature related to the instrument used to measure program impact, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), and to explore how these commonalities and research strategies used in health care settings might be applied to post-secondary preservice teacher education.

The CFIR is a comprehensive taxonomy of operationally defined constructs that may impact the implementation success of complex programs. The CFIR defines five domains (intervention characteristics, outer setting, inner setting, characteristics of individuals and process), each with constructs and some sub-constructs which can affect implementation success. To date, the CFIR has been applied to a wide variety of quantitative, qualitative and mixed healthcare related studies pre, post or during implementation for a variety of purposes across five domains:
1. Intervention Characteristics: These are the features of an intervention that might influence implementation. Eight constructs are included (e.g., stakeholders’ perceptions about the relative advantage of implementing the intervention, complexity).
2. Outer Setting: This includes the features of the external context or environment that might influence implementation. Four constructs are included (e.g., external policy and incentives).
3. Inner Setting: This domain includes features of the implementing organization that might influence implementation. Twelve constructs are included (e.g., implementation climate, leadership engagement).
4. Characteristics of Individuals: This domain focuses on individual factors involved in implementation that might influence implementation. Five constructs are related to (e.g., knowledge and beliefs about the intervention).
5. Process: This includes strategies or tactics that might influence implementation. Eight constructs are related (e.g., engaging appropriate individuals in the implementation and use of the intervention, reflecting, and evaluating).

Methodology of this literature review involves use of several databases, including but not limited to Google Scholar, Omni, Ebsco, ERIC and Proquest. Two authors independently coded the articles, with clear inclusion and exclusion criteria focused on health care and business settings as well as post-secondary education settings. A total of 50 articles were reviewed, coded using NVivo software and organized for themes.

In conclusion, the authors contend that the CFIR can be modified as a new tool for measuring program impact in post-secondary pre-service teacher education.

Keywords:

Physical education, teacher education, implementation science.