Tool #9

Documenting Learning

A simple and flexible template that allows local Joining Forces team members to keep track of different kinds of “learning questions” whether they are practical or theoretical. The template asks you to record what was learned about each questions and reflect on the implications of that learning.

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Taking time to reflect regularly on key learning questions provides the opportunity to identify useful insights on adaptation and scale up. Decisions and actions may seem like clear choices in the moment, but we may forget later what and why those adaptations were made. Recording our learning helps us share and use this information later when scaling up to other sites. It is also a way to ensure that Joining Forces interventions/activities contribute to the broader Joining Forces research and learning agenda.

How to use this tool

  1. Select a few key “learning questions” to track. Something you are curious about, want to monitor, or where there are many unknowns.
  2. Write this question down. Document what happened in relation to this question, how intervention/activity changes influenced the program, what resulted, and if further change is needed. Do this at least quarterly.
  3. This tool can be used by Joining Forces partners to focus on their role managing scale up, or by local non-consortium partners across different sites. The information can then be shared to draw lessons learned from and for scale-up efforts at the national level.

Children’s Engagement

Documenting Learning is a great area to engage children. When using this tool Joining Forces seeks children’s engagement in two distinct ways: 1) integrating information about children’s views and perspectives as it relates to the tool’s topic and 2) as a source of data for each tool. Locating opportunities for child participation and child safeguarding (as separate and complementary) is a shared responsibility of all Joining Forces partners. In this tool, children can pose learning questions, share their opinion on how well activities are going and suggest mid-course changes and learning for future endeavors. This can be done by holding your own meetings, or involving existing children’s boards and groups. Many of the tools listed in the “Tools and Techniques for Children’s Engagement” compendium can generate conversations in which important questions will arise.