Innovation in education has become a necessity for those who are unsatisfied with the status quo and available solutions. The mantra of evidence-based practice is contrary to this view because it calls for a rational development of practice based on evidence generated by research in the past. This tension between past and future has led professionals in education to innovate in their specific contexts. Yet innovation without embedded evaluation is insufficient on its own if it should lead to spread and impact both policy and practice beyond the context of the innovation.

 This paper presents the vignette as an evaluation tool for innovation developed within the OECD’s Innovative Learning Environments project in the context of school reform in Austria. The vignette as a method for capturing lived experience as it occurs is a viable alternative for providing at least tentative answers to a key question regarding the educative value beyond measurable outcomes of an innovation: How do the learners experience the learning trajectory in this environment? Capturing vignettes in the innovation context for vignette-driven interviews with innovators enables evaluators and innovators to engage in sense-making dialogue, which can support innovators’ decision-making as they progress. As will be shown through the above-mentioned project, which includes curriculum innovation in the classroom, school and professional development programmes, the evidence-generating nature of innovation has an impact on education research. Rather than research driving practice in a rational, linear and orderly manner, practitioners become the drivers of research, revealing new issues, gaps and needs through the innovation. This switch from evidence-based to evidence-generating practice has significant implications for the roles of researchers, in particular in applied education research and the external evaluation of innovations in educational contexts.

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