The IDDEAS framework: a behavioural science approach to intervention design in online EMI contexts

Behavioural science offers systematic methods for identifying why educational practices occur and how they might be changed, yet these approaches remain underused in language-related education. This conceptual and methodological paper presents IDDEAS (Intervention Design, Delivery, Evaluation and Adoption System), an integrative framework that brings together the Behaviour Change Wheel, COM-B, the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), behaviour change techniques, APEASE criteria, and implementation and reporting tools. IDDEAS is operationalised through eight iterative stages: Identify, Define, Diagnose, Design, Deliver, Evaluate, Adapt and Adopt, and Share. The paper explains the logic of these stages and illustrates their relevance to digitally mediated English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education. The EMI illustration draws on three linked studies from the Future of English project that used COM-B and/or the TDF to examine student engagement, teachers and support staff, and senior-management perspectives. These studies provide an empirical basis for the diagnostic stages of IDDEAS; the later stages are used to show how identified barriers and enablers can be translated into intervention design, delivery, evaluation, and institutional adoption. The framework offers applied linguistics researchers a structured way to connect behavioural diagnosis with pedagogical intervention and evaluation while retaining the contextual sensitivity required in multilingual educational settings.