Implementation science is a new area of scientific, academic and practitioner interest focused on exploring and explaining what makes interventions work in real-world contexts. In education, psychological theory and empirical research have informed and continue to inform and develop many aspects of teaching and learning. Evidence-based intervention is developed by rigorous, systematic scientific procedures. Implementation scientists focus on the real-world contexts that make measurable effectiveness so difficult to achieve. This is central to the development of the concept of evidence-based practice in applied social contexts. It seems that implementation science has only begun to uncover the complexity of implementation and will continue to draw on eclectic perspectives, mixed models and wide-ranging evidence to create working models of reality and change. If effective implementation is the key to intervention effectiveness, then all practitioners involved directly and indirectly in education and related professions are pivotal to its success.