Community Learning Campus: It Takes a Simple Message to Build a Complex Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pearson, George

2012-01-01

Education Canada asked Tom Thompson, president of Olds College and a prime mover behind the Community Learning Campus (CLC): What were the lessons learned from this unusually ambitious education project? Thompson mentions six lessons he learned from this complex project which include: (1) Dream big, build small, act now; (2) Keep a low profile at…

Building Vibrant Learning Communities: Framework and Actions to Strengthen Community Adult Learning Councils and Community Literacy Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, 2007

2007-01-01

Because of the important role played by community learning providers, Premier Ed Stelmach asked Canadian Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to increase support for community education and literacy programs. Community Adult Learning Councils and other community providers of adult literacy and family literacy programming are primarily…

Toward a Social Approach to Learning in Community Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooks, Leda; Scharrer, Erica; Paredes, Mari Castaneda

2004-01-01

The authors describe a social approach to learning in community service learning that extends the contributions of three theoretical bodies of scholarship on learning: social constructionism, critical pedagogy, and community service learning. Building on the assumptions about learning described in each of these areas, engagement, identity, and…

Improving the quality of learning in science through optimization of lesson study for learning community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setyaningsih, S.

2018-03-01

Lesson Study for Learning Community is one of lecturer profession building system through collaborative and continuous learning study based on the principles of openness, collegiality, and mutual learning to build learning community in order to form professional learning community. To achieve the above, we need a strategy and learning method with specific subscription technique. This paper provides a description of how the quality of learning in the field of science can be improved by implementing strategies and methods accordingly, namely by applying lesson study for learning community optimally. Initially this research was focused on the study of instructional techniques. Learning method used is learning model Contextual teaching and Learning (CTL) and model of Problem Based Learning (PBL). The results showed that there was a significant increase in competence, attitudes, and psychomotor in the four study programs that were modelled. Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation of learning strategies in Lesson study for Learning Community is needed to be used to improve the competence, attitude and psychomotor of science students.

Constructivist Learning Environments and Defining the Online Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Loren

2014-01-01

The online learning community is frequently referred to, but ill defined. The constructivist philosophy and approach to teaching and learning is both an effective means of constructing an online learning community and it is a tool by which to define key elements of the learning community. In order to build a nurturing, self-sustaining online…

Learning Communities: New Structures, New Partnerships for Learning. The First-Year Experience. Monograph Series, No. 26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Jodi H., Ed.

This monograph on learning communities and the first-year college experience presents 12 chapters which combine theory with examples of good practice and recommendations for building and sustaining effective learning communities. Following an introduction by the editor, the included chapters are: (1) "What Are Learning Communities?"…

Building a Community Memory in Communities of Practice of E-Learning: A Knowledge Engineering Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarirete, Akila; Chikh, Azeddine; Noble, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define a community memory for a virtual communities of practice (CoP) based on organizational learning (OL) concept and ontologies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on applying the OL concept to virtual CoP and proposes a framework for building the CoP memory by identifying several layers of…

Community-University Partnerships for Mutual Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gelmon, Sherril B.; Holland, Barbara A.; Seifer, Sarena D.; Shinnamon, Anu; Connors, Kara

1998-01-01

Discusses what has been learned about building school/community partnerships through the "Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program," a national demonstration program of service-learning in health-professions education. Issues include: the challenge of distinguishing service learning from clinical experience; community attitudes…

A Review of the Instructional Practices for Promoting Online Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Woei; Flom, Elicia; Manu, Jacob; Mahmoud, Enaz

2015-01-01

An effective learning community helps foster positive student learning experiences and outcomes. However, in distance learning environments, the communication barriers inevitably hinder the interaction among the students because of the lower levels of social presence. These barriers present challenges in building learning communities in an online…

Five Cities, One Vision. CORAL: Linking Communities, Children and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James G. Irvine Foundation, San Francisco, CA.

This booklet describes the CORAL (Communities Organizing Resources To Advance Learning) program within five California communities: Pasadena, Long Beach, San Jose, Fresno, and Sacramento. This initiative, begun in 1999, is committed to a community-based and community-building approach to supporting learning and focuses on improving academic…

Strong Community, Deep Learning: Exploring the Link

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Carole; Ramondt, Leonie; Smiley, Glenn

2005-01-01

This explores the constructivist understanding that shared practitioner research in collaborative online spaces leads to deeper learning. The research was developed within the context of building the National College of School Leaderships (NCSLs) online learning communities. A community and a learning scale, both emerging through grounded…

Building community capacity using web-supported work-based learning.

PubMed

Pearson, Pauline; Young-Murphy, Lesley; Yaseen, Jonathan; Shiel, Gillian

2013-02-01

Health visitors are a central component of policy to create strong, stable families and communities. The programme which is described here is intended to facilitate existing health visitors to gain confidence and extend or renew their skills in building community capacity (BCC). Networking and relationships are essential to effective community development. These are key skills for the health visitor, which along with professional principles support community capacity building. Learning in this programme is self-directed, supported by web-based resources over a 24 week period. Learning mainly takes place in practice. It involves carrying out a work based project through to completion. Participants register online, and follow a series of six phases. Evaluation of the pilot took place during 2011. Three main areas for improvement were identified: reflective software; signposting access to resources; and dealing with workload pressures. Community engagement for health improvement remains an important element of the vision for health visiting. The programme described is a core resource through which health visitors can build the skills and confidence of community groups and staff in other agencies to make a difference to health and wellbeing.

Empowerment evaluation: building communities of practice and a culture of learning.

PubMed

Fetterman, David M

2002-02-01

Empowerment evaluation is the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Program participants--including clients--conduct their own evaluations: an outside evaluator often serves as a coach or additional facilitator depending on internal program capabilities. Empowerment evaluation has three steps: 1) establishing a mission; 2) taking stock; and 3) planning for the future. These three steps build capacity. They also build a sense of community, often referred to as communities of practice. Empowerment evaluation also helps to create a culture of learning and evaluation within an organization or community.

Building Learning Communities: Foundations for Good Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Alison; Ramsay, Jill; Lindfield, Helen; Couperthwaite, John

2005-01-01

The School of Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham provided opportunities for the development of student learning communities and online resources within the neurological module of the BSc Physiotherapy degree programme. These learning communities were designed to facilitate peer and independent learning in core aspects underpinning…

Building Learning Communities: Partnerships, Social Capital and VET Performance. Support Document

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allison, Janelle; Gorringe, Scott; Lacey, Justine

2006-01-01

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report "Building Learning Communities: Partnerships, Social Capital and VET Performance." It provides regional summaries and the "facts and flavour" for each of the following areas: (1) Restructuring Rural Landscape (Wide Bay Burnett, Queensland); (2)…

Building Civic Bridges: Community-Centered Action Civics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeCompte, Karon; Blevins, Brooke

2015-01-01

Project-based learning is an example of powerful social studies learning in which student engage in active inquiry. Action civics is a relatively new educational practice in which students "act as citizens" through a cycle of research, action, and reflection about problems they care about in their community. "Building Civic…

Building Effective Community-University Partnerships: Are Universities Truly Ready?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curwood, Susan Eckerle; Munger, Felix; Mitchell, Terry; Mackeigan, Mary; Farrar, Ashley

2011-01-01

Community service learning and community-based research necessitate the development of strong community-university partnerships. In this paper, students, faculty, and a community partner critically reflect upon the process of establishing a long-term community-university partnership through the integration of a community service learning component…

Team-building activities as strategies for improving community-university partnerships: lessons learned from Nuestro Futuro Saludable.

PubMed

Ndulue, Uchenna; Peréa, Flavia C; Kayou, Bashier; Martinez, Linda Sprague

2012-01-01

Collaboration characterized by mutual capacity building, asset sharing, and tangible outcomes that work to further health equity are central tenets of community-based participatory (CBPR) approaches to research. Such efforts require the establishment, development, and maintenance of trusting relationships between community and institutional stakeholders. The objective of the strategies discussed here was to strengthen a community-academic partnership by facilitating communication and empowering project partners. Team-building activities and experiential exercises were intentionally utilized with project stakeholders to clarify roles and responsibilities, provide alternative avenues for authentic communication, and share power. Team-building activities can be effective in promoting CBPR partnerships when utilized appropriately. Through the course of the partnership building process, best practices emerged for utilizing experiential learning exercises to enhance partnership dynamics. Team-building activities provide a useful tool for developing supportive environments that encourage open dialogue.

Building a Community of Learning through Early Residential Fieldwork

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Cathy; Larsen, Carl; Parry, Damian

2014-01-01

The positioning of residential fieldwork early in students' higher education is an established way of attempting to build and engage them in a community of learning. In the study reported here, the benefits of such early residential fieldwork were investigated using Krausse and Coates's seven scales of engagement. These scales consider a number of…

Lost Soul or New Dawn? Lifelong Learning Lessons and Prospects from East Asia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duke, Chris

2015-01-01

Most learning takes place in communities, neighbourhoods and workplaces. Here practical solutions to big problems work or fall down. We may call this the iron law of social learning, recognised in "community development", "community capacity-building", "workplace", "work-based" and…

Examining a One-Hour Synchronous Chat in a Microblogging-Based Professional Development Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Fei; Li, Lan

2017-01-01

Research on microblogging in education has suggested its potential to promote community building and collaborative learning, but little is known about the nature of interaction in such microblogging communities. More research is needed to understand how online learning communities can be designed in a way that supports effective learning. The…

Management Classes as Online Learning Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shrivastava, Paul

1999-01-01

Conceptualizes management education in the digital economy through the development of online leaning communities. Essential elements for building community are described: technology and content infrastructure, organizational learning model, managed interactivity, and facilitator retraining. (SK)

Collaborative distance learning: Developing an online learning community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoytcheva, Maria

2017-12-01

The method of collaborative distance learning has been applied for years in a number of distance learning courses, but they are relatively few in foreign language learning. The context of this research is a hybrid distance learning of French for specific purposes, delivered through the platform UNIV-RcT (Strasbourg University), which combines collaborative activities for the realization of a common problem-solving task online. The study focuses on a couple of aspects: on-line interactions carried out in small, tutored groups and the process of community building online. By analyzing the learner's perceptions of community and collaborative learning, we have tried to understand the process of building and maintenance of online learning community and to see to what extent the collaborative distance learning contribute to the development of the competence expectations at the end of the course. The analysis of the results allows us to distinguish the advantages and limitations of this type of e-learning and thus evaluate their pertinence.

Analyzing Learning in Professional Learning Communities: A Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Lare, Michelle D.; Brazer, S. David

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to build a conceptual framework that informs current understanding of how professional learning communities (PLCs) function in conjunction with organizational learning. The combination of sociocultural learning theories and organizational learning theories presents a more complete picture of PLC processes that has…

Designing Professional Learning Communities through Understanding the Beliefs of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ke, Jie; Kang, Rui; Liu, Di

2016-01-01

This study was designed to initiate the process of building professional development learning communities for pre-service math teachers through revealing those teachers' conceptions/beliefs of students' learning and their own learning in China. It examines Chinese pre-service math teachers' conceptions of student learning and their related…

Effective Strategies for Sustaining Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Patricia R.

2010-01-01

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

Facebook as a Learning-Management System in Developmental Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingalls, Amy L.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether Facebook (FB), as an LMS (Learning Management System) may be used in a developmental writing course, may build a community of learners in ENG*K012, and may enhance the presence of a supportive shared community to build confidence in students' writing and/or sharing their writing. An additional…

Toward the 21st Century: Preparing Strategic Thinkers in Vocational, Technical, and Occupational Education for Building Learning Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groff, Warren H.

The 1992 component of Emergence of Vocational, Technical, and Occupational Education (E-VTO) focused on preparing strategic thinkers in vocational, technical, and occupational education (VTO) for building learning communities. The E-VTO seminar was one of the two seminars that comprised the VTO specialization of Nova University's doctoral program…

A Case for Community: Starting with Relationships and Prioritizing Community as Method in Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morton, Keith; Bergbauer, Samantha

2015-01-01

This paper describes an eight-year service-learning experiment that created four distinct spaces in which campus and community members meet, reflect, and act together. This work explores the tensions between traditional and critical service-learning, and points to the importance of building relationships with members of local communities and…

The Community-Building College: Leading the Way to Community Revitalization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlacher, Ervin L.; Gollattscheck, James F.

Arguing that the nation's educational system must be renewed to empower citizens and communities, this two-part monograph describes the importance of building learning communities and offers a blueprint to guide community colleges in this undertaking. The first part of the monograph provides three chapters focusing on creating a vision for the…

Building an Ethical Community in the Classroom: Community Meeting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClurg, Lois Gail

1998-01-01

Describes "community meetings" in early childhood classrooms, designed to create an intentional community devoted to learning to live with and consider the perspectives of others. Discusses how meetings work, community meeting and the topic of exclusion, students' learning about themselves, awareness as a kind of solution, airing a…

Toward the 21st Century: Preparing Proactive Visionary Transformational Leaders for Building Learning Communities. Human Resource Development. South Florida Cluster.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groff, Warren H.

The first part of this document describes Nova University's doctoral program in Vocational, Technical, and Occupational (VTO) Education, developed in response to the need to create high performance learners and leaders for building learning communities. It discusses how a curriculum change in 1990 resulted in the following: conversion of the…

Community Capacity Building in Regional VET: Small Business and Developing an Integrated Lifelong Learning Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plane, Karen

In a competitive market training economy, vocational education and training (VET) and small business in Australia face a number of challenges. They need to qualify the extent of lifelong learning skills being used in the small firm workplace, define the range of learning partnerships both within VET and the wider informal learning community in…

Effects of Leadership Practices on Professional Learning Communities: The Mediating Role of Trust in Colleagues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Xin; Yin, Hongbiao; Liu, Yuan; Ke, Zheng

2016-01-01

The building of professional learning communities has been widely recognized as an effective strategy for schools wanting to improve student performance and enhance teachers' professional capacity. This study explored the relationship between leadership practices and professional learning communities, with a particular focus on the mediating role…

Learning in Place: A Special Report to the Rural School and Community Trust.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rural School and Community Trust, Washington, DC.

The Rural School and Community Trust has made place central to its educational and community-building work. Because the understanding of a place is fundamental to building sustainable communities, Rural Trust schools and communities are committed to providing their children and young people with opportunities to explore, analyze, and contribute to…

Building Successful GitHub Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, A.

2014-12-01

Building successful online communities is hard, whether it's in open source software or web-based citizen science. In this presentation I'll share some lessons learned and outline some techniques employed by successful open source projects.

E-Model for Online Learning Communities.

PubMed

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2015-10-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the students' perspectives on the phenomenon of online learning communities while enrolled in a graduate dental hygiene program. A qualitative case study method was designed to investigate the learners' experiences with communities in an online environment. A cross-sectional purposive sampling method was used. Interviews were the data collection method. As the original data were being analyzed, the researchers noted a pattern evolved indicating the phenomenon developed in stages. The data were re-analyzed and validated by 2 member checks. The participants' experiences revealed an e-model consisting of 3 stages of formal learning community development as core courses in the curriculum were completed and 1 stage related to transmuting the community to an informal entity as students experienced the independent coursework in the program. The development of the formal learning communities followed 3 stages: Building a Foundation for the Learning Community, Building a Supportive Network within the Learning Community and Investing in the Community to Enhance Learning. The last stage, Transforming the Learning Community, signaled a transition to an informal network of learners. The e-model was represented by 3 key elements: metamorphosis of relationships, metamorphosis through the affective domain and metamorphosis through the cognitive domain, with the most influential element being the affective development. The e-model describes a 4 stage process through which learners experience a metamorphosis in their affective, relationship and cognitive development. Synergistic learning was possible based on the interaction between synergistic relationships and affective actions. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Learning for Social Justice: A Cultural Historical Activity Theory Analysis of Community Leadership Empowerment in a Korean American Community Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Junghwan

2012-01-01

Community organizations, especially those aiming at social change, play a significant role in establishing societal health and contributing to adult learning in daily communities. Their existence secures marginalized groups' involvement in society and enhances community development by building community leadership with multiple stakeholders…

Building online learning communities in a graduate dental hygiene program.

PubMed

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2014-08-01

The literature abounds with research related to building online communities in a single course; however, limited evidence is available on this phenomenon from a program perspective. The intent of this qualitative case study inquiry was to explore student experiences in a graduate dental hygiene program contributing or impeding the development and sustainability of online learning communities. Approval from the IRB was received. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants from a stratification of students and graduates. A total of 17 participants completed semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was completed through 2 rounds - 1 for coding responses and 1 to construct categories of experiences. The participants' collective definition of an online learning community was a complex synergistic network of interconnected people who create positive energy. The findings indicated the development of this network began during the program orientation and was beneficial for building a foundation for the community. Students felt socially connected and supported by the network. Course design was another important category for participation in weekly discussions and group activities. Instructors were viewed as active participants in the community, offering helpful feedback and being a facilitator in discussions. Experiences impeding the development of online learning communities related to the poor performance of peers and instructors. Specific categories of experiences supported and impeded the development of online learning communities related to the program itself, course design, students and faculty. These factors are important to consider in order to maximize student learning potential in this environment. Copyright © 2014 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

The Building as the Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Craig

2009-01-01

Teachers educate. Architects design. Students learn. Each serves a specific, unique purpose. But what happens when the three collaborate to achieve a greater good? In the state of Washington, a school building that is, in itself, a learning tool for students, teachers and the community happened. A school building that inspires students and…

Building Learning Communities: Partnerships, Social Capital and VET Performance. A National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation Program Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allison, Janelle; Gorringe, Scott; Lacey, Justine

2006-01-01

This study examines the nature of the impact of vocational education and training (VET), and its project-based activities and partnerships, on the development of sustainable communities in regional Australia. It finds that VET plays a critical role as the entry point to learning and builds considerable social and other forms of capital in regional…

Right Time, Right Place: Building an Online Learning Community for Afterschool Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balow, Nancy; Benard, Bonnie; Hipps, Jerry; Lauver, Sherri; McManus, John; Montgomery, Robert; Truebridge, Sara; Vitale, Alfred; Walker, Roy

2010-01-01

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a contract to a team of education, youth development, and web development specialists to develop an online professional learning community for grantees in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC). The online community, You for Youth (Y4Y, www.Y4Y.ed.gov) will support afterschool…

Building Community: Learning from Urban Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singson, Jamie

2003-01-01

Asserts that union professionals and urban planners share the overlying goal of building community, and that the theories of William H. Whyte, an urban researcher, have application in thinking about space and facilitating interaction on today's college campuses. (EV)

Engaging Latino Communities from the Ground Up: Three Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erbstein, Nancy; Moncloa, Fe; Olagundoye, Stacy Shwartz; Diaz-Carrasco, Claudia; Hill, Russell

2017-01-01

California's 4-H Youth Development Program has adopted an asset-based community development approach to extending programming with Latino youths and families. This approach entails learning and relationship building with local Latino communities and building on untapped existing resources, such as Latino-serving organizations and networks. Here we…

Building Trust and Shared Knowledge in Communities of E-Learning Practice: Collaborative Leadership in the JISC eLISA and CAMEL Lifelong Learning Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jameson, Jill; Ferrell, Gill; Kelly, Jacquie; Walker, Simon; Ryan, Malcolm

2006-01-01

Trust and collective learning are useful features that are enabled by effective collaborative leadership of e-learning projects across higher and further education (HE/FE) institutions promoting lifelong learning. These features contribute effectively to the development of design for learning in communities of e-learning practice. For this,…

Creating and Sustaining Online Professional Learning Communities. Technology, Education--Connections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, Joni K., Ed.; Drayton, Brian, Ed.

2009-01-01

This volume presents the work of trailblazing researchers and developers of electronic communities for professional learning. It illuminates the essential work behind the scenes in building successful online communities and scaffolding site interactions, including content selection, creation and management, administrative structures, tools and…

Teacher Networks Companion Piece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopkins, Ami Patel; Rulli, Carolyn; Schiff, Daniel; Fradera, Marina

2015-01-01

Network building vitally impacts career development, but in few professions does it impact daily practice more than in teaching. Teacher networks, known as professional learning communities, communities of practice, peer learning circles, virtual professional communities, as well as other names, play a unique and powerful role in education. In…

Learning Modalities and Delivery Systems for Officer Professional Development Period 3: Literature Review

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

Communication ............................................................................................................................... ......27 4.3.3... Community and Collaborative Learning ................................................................................................28 4.3.3.1...Courses as a way to build Networked Communities .................................29 4.3.4 Assessment and Feedback

Best Practices in Service Learning: Building a National Community College Network, 1994-1997. AACC Project Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Gail; Barnett, Lynn

As part of the Learn and Serve America Program of the Corporation for National Service, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) has helped develop campus-based programs that have instigated a growing community college service learning network. Ten colleges, selected in a national competition for grants ranging from $2,000 to $12,000…

Building Relationships: It's Not Always Easy, but Juggling Relationships with Board Members and Community Stakeholders Is Essential to Making Needed Campus Reforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collett, Stacy

2014-01-01

Building relationships is the essence of the community college. Higher education administrators learned long ago that building rapport with businesses, state and local government, and constituents is the best way to represent the interests of the community. But that does not make it easy. Board members come and go and the shifting dynamics of…

Building Strong Community Partnerships: Equal Voice and Mutual Benefits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberg De La Garza, Tammy; Moreno Kuri, Lissette

2014-01-01

This article explores an urban partnership and service-learning project deliberately created to improve literacy and strengthen learning communities in an urban, Latino neighborhood of Chicago. The project aligns activities and objectives with resources and needs of university participants, a Latino community organization, and local public…

LESSONS LEARNED AND NEXT STEPS FOR BUILDING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT TRIBAL MATERNAL, INFANT, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD HOME VISITING.

PubMed

Whitmore, Corrie B; Sarche, Michelle; Ferron, Cathy; Moritsugu, John; Sanchez, Jenae G

2018-05-16

Authors in this Special Issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal shared the work of the first three cohorts of Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grantees funded by the Administration for Children and Families. Since 2010, Tribal MIECHV grantees have served families and children prenatally to kindergarten entry in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities across the lower 48 United States and Alaska. Articles highlighted challenges and opportunities that arose as grantees adapted, enhanced, implemented, and evaluated their home-visiting models. This article summarizes nine lessons learned across the articles in this Special Issue. Lessons learned address the importance of strengths-based approaches, relationship-building, tribal community stakeholder involvement, capacity-building, alignment of resources and expectations, tribal values, adaptation to increase cultural and contextual attunement, indigenous ways of knowing, community voice, and sustainability. Next steps in Tribal MIECHV are discussed in light of these lessons learned. © 2018 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

C[superscript 4] (C Quad): Development of the Application for Language Learning Based on Social and Cognitive Presences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamada, Masanori; Goda, Yoshiko; Matsukawa, Hideya; Hata, Kojiro; Yasunami, Seisuke

2013-01-01

This research aims to develop collaborative language learning systems based on social and cognitive presence for learning settings out of class, and evaluate their effects on learning attitude and performance. The main purpose of this system is focusing on the building of a learning community, therefore the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework…

Community Building at Honors Programs in Continental Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brinkel, Nico; van Rees, Floris; Ruis, Margit; Sloots, Florian

2015-01-01

Many universities in the United States and Europe offer honors programs to meet the demands of gifted and intelligent students. One of the standard goals of these programs is to build an intellectual learning community. Establishing a community can be difficult because it requires that students show an active attitude and initiative. Many…

Building capability throughout a change effort: leading the transformation of a police agency to community policing.

PubMed

Ford, J Kevin

2007-06-01

This case describes a change effort to move a police agency to become a community policing organization. The community policing effort was seen as a means to make a transformational change to become a learning organization with the goal of improving the delivery of police services. The case describes the steps taken to meet the new vision of community policing as well as the steps taken to deal with the challenges or realities of trying to make change happen. The lens for this case is the leadership role across the stages of change (exploration, planning, implementation, monitoring and institutionalization) in building capacity within the organization to sustain the change effort. The capacity building focused on incorporating systems thinking into the mindset of the members of the organization, breaking down the command and control mindset by building a new norm around high involvement of committed teams, and developing skill sets to support continuous learning and improvement in order to align organizational systems. A key lesson learned is that effective leaders do not just prepare an organization prior to a change effort. They must have the patience to constantly build the capacity for change among organizational members throughout the various stages of the change effort.

Building a Dynamic Online Learning Community among Adult Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Minjuan; Sierra, Christina; Folger, Terre

2003-01-01

Examines the nature of learning communities constructed among a diverse group of adult learners in an international online graduate-level course. Discusses independent work, team tasks, the variety of computer-mediated communication tools used, and implications for promoting adult learners' active participation in online learning and instructional…

Building Community in School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaps, Eric; And Others

1996-01-01

Evaluation studies of the Child Development Project revealed unexpected findings concerning students' sense of classroom community. Teachers should systematically build relationships with students, involve them in planning and problem solving, help them learn classmates' strengths and interests, downplay competition, and involve all children in…

Building Communities for the Exchange of Learning Objects: Theoretical Foundations and Requirements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koper, Rob; Pannekeet, Kees; Hendriks, Maaike; Hummel, Hans

2004-01-01

In order to reduce overall costs of developing high-quality digital courses (including both the content, and the learning and teaching activities), the exchange of learning objects has been recognized as a promising solution. This article makes an inventory of the issues involved in the exchange of learning objects within a community. It explores…

Applying the Learning Community Model to Graduate Education: Linking Research and Teaching between Core Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romsdahl, Rebecca J.; Hill, Michael J.

2012-01-01

In graduate education, there is often a great divide between classroom learning and research endeavors. Using learning community (LC) values and strategies, our goal is to build stronger and more meaningful ties between these two aspects of graduate education so that students see them as complimentary learning rather than separate components. This…

Negotiating Service Learning through Community Engagement: Adaptive Leadership, Knowledge, Dialogue and Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preece, Julia

2016-01-01

This article builds on two recent publications (Preece 2013; 2013a) concerning the application of asset-based community development and adaptive leadership theories when negotiating university service learning placements with community organisations in one South African province. The first publication introduced the concept of 'adaptive…

Internet Relationships: Building Learning Communities through Friendship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bikowski, Dawn

2007-01-01

The experiences of students in an online learning community were explored in this qualitative case study using social presence theory as an interpretive lens. Participants included five undergraduate students in a certificate program at a large Midwestern university. Students who felt a sense of community online most highly valued the friendship…

Collaborative Learning for Change. NALL Working Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mojab, Shahrzad; Wall, Naomi Binder; McDonald, Susan

This guide is designed as a community-based resource for women who are interested in developing leadership skills in group facilitation, community building, and community action. It provides an integrated feminist anti-oppression learning framework that links social justice issues and the questions of race, gender, class, and all other forms of…

Building the Future of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Les

2007-01-01

Could it be that in our excitement about e-learning we forgot about buildings? With the advent of the personal computer and ubiquitous networks were we enticed into thinking that they would suffice and learning would follow removing the need for places and communities for learners? We now seem to have woken up, however, as there is an enormous…

Developing Secondary Students' Epistemic Agency in a Knowledge-Building Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Kwok-Wing; Campbell, Madeline

2018-01-01

A key educational objective for the twenty-first century is developing students' epistemic agency. Epistemic agency is the active process of choosing when, what, where one learns and how one knows, as well as the capacity to create knowledge in a community. The knowledge-building communities model developed by Scardamalia and Bereiter was used in…

How Service Learning Addresses the Mental Health Needs of Students in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilczenski, Felicia L.; Cook, Amy L.

2009-01-01

Service learning promotes social-emotional and academic development through active engagement in community activities. It empowers students to think beyond themselves and to develop a commitment to serve others. In so doing, service learning builds connections with school and community that are critically important in urban settings. This paper…

Leadership to Build Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zepeda, Sally J.

2004-01-01

This study examined the work of a principal of a Midwestern urban elementary school who used instructional supervision as a means of developing a learning community for adults. Implementing a variety of approaches adapted to the culture of the school, the principal crafted a process to meet the learning needs of 125 teachers and created an…

Building Comprehensive High School Guidance Programs through the Smaller Learning Communities Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harper, Geralyn

2013-01-01

Despite many reform initiatives, including the federally funded initiative titled the Smaller Learning Communities' (SLC) Model, many students are still underexposed to comprehensive guidance programs. The purpose of this mixed method project study was to examine which components in a comprehensive guidance program for the learning academies at a…

Belonging Online: Students' Perceptions of the Value and Efficacy of an Online Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaPointe, Loralee; Reisetter, Marcy

2008-01-01

The proliferation of online course designs has changed the learning environments for many students and professors. Recommendations for best practice in online course design frequently include maximizing students' online peer connections, with the intention of building a viable, if virtual, online learning community. However, students' responses to…

Creating a Conference and Workshop Attendance Process with Teacher Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hironaka, Janet Hiroko

2009-01-01

This study aimed to build a professional learning community collaboratively among high school teachers for lifelong growth to minimize teacher isolation, discomfort, and fear. The study was driven by a compelling desire to extend personal learning in ways to impact the school learning community. The foundation for this study was the body of…

Education Diplomacy for Improving Learning of Vulnerable Children in Community Schools in Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murru, Anna C.; Miyato, Harriet; Vandenbosch, Tom E.

2018-01-01

Communities and governments can learn from each other to provide access to education and meet the learning needs of their most vulnerable children. Education Diplomacy can be used to prioritize education challenges, build mutual understanding, and shape consensus toward solutions that are supported by empowered parents/guardians, teachers, school…

A Professional Learning Community Activity for Science Teachers: How to Incorporate Discourse-Rich Instructional Strategies into Science Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Elizabeth; Baker, Dale; Watts, Nievita Bueno; Lang, Michael

2014-01-01

In this article we describe current educational research underlying a comprehensive model for building a scientific classroom discourse community. We offer a professional development activity for a school-based professional learning community, providing specific science instructional strategies within this interactive teaching model. This design…

Learning To Manage Change: Developing Regional Communities for a Local-Global Millennium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, Ian, Ed.

This book illustrates the benefits of integrating different approaches to community and regional development for rural Australia. The key theme is community capacity building through lifelong learning, seen as integration of formal, nonformal, and informal education and training at all levels. Other foci include the local-global context, issues…

Working Community-Related Interaction Factors Building Occupational Well-Being--Learning Based Intervention in Finnish and Estonian Schools (2010-2013)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pertel, Tiia; Laine, Sari; Saaranen, Terhi; Hansen, Siivi; Lepp, Kädi; Liiv, Krystiine; Tossavainen, Kerttu

2018-01-01

This article examines whether a three-year learning-based work community intervention resulted in changes in working community-related interaction factors and occupational well-being among Finnish and Estonian school staff. It reports the types of changes in working community-related interaction factors and their associations to the subjective…

Building Community through Online Learning in Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Bill; Austin, Roger

2015-01-01

In this paper the authors will review research on international projects which have used communications technologies, primarily email and web-based video conferencing, to bring learners together across geographic, political, religious and cultural boundaries in the interest of building more cohesive communities in places frequently characterised…

Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of service-learning through a school-based community project.

PubMed

Bassi, Sherry

2011-01-01

Service-learning (SL) is an experiential teaching method that combines instruction with community service, with the aim of enriching students' academic learning, interpersonal skills and sense of responsibility while making meaningful contributions to the community. However, measuring outcomes of service-learning projects is difficult. This article reports on the perceptions of 18 third-year undergraduate nursing students who took part in a pilot service-learning project targeting tobacco use in a local elementary school. Faculty members evaluated the program's outcomes by engaging students in structured reflection on the program about its relevance to their future careers as practicing professionals, especially in community-based settings. The students' perceptions were elicited through three sets of reflective assignments following the project. Findings from the reflective assignments suggest that the pilot program was successful in enhancing the students' academic, social, and personal development while building a partnership between the school of nursing and key players in the community, including school-based nurses, teachers, administrators, families, and community leaders. The author suggests that service-learning projects can help nursing students accomplish key developmental tasks of the college years (such as building their competence, autonomy, and integrity), while helping impart the skills and values they will need as they graduate and seek professional nursing roles.

Community gardens: lessons learned from California Healthy Cities and Communities.

PubMed

Twiss, Joan; Dickinson, Joy; Duma, Shirley; Kleinman, Tanya; Paulsen, Heather; Rilveria, Liz

2003-09-01

Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize around other issues and build social capital also emerge through community gardens. California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) promotes an inclusionary and systems approach to improving community health. CHCC has funded community-based nutrition and physical activity programs in several cities. Successful community gardens were developed by many cities incorporating local leadership and resources, volunteers and community partners, and skills-building opportunities for participants. Through community garden initiatives, cities have enacted policies for interim land and complimentary water use, improved access to produce, elevated public consciousness about public health, created culturally appropriate educational and training materials, and strengthened community building skills.

Community Gardens: Lessons Learned From California Healthy Cities and Communities

PubMed Central

Twiss, Joan; Dickinson, Joy; Duma, Shirley; Kleinman, Tanya; Paulsen, Heather; Rilveria, Liz

2003-01-01

Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize around other issues and build social capital also emerge through community gardens. California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) promotes an inclusionary and systems approach to improving community health. CHCC has funded community-based nutrition and physical activity programs in several cities. Successful community gardens were developed by many cities incorporating local leadership and resources, volunteers and community partners, and skills-building opportunities for participants. Through community garden initiatives, cities have enacted policies for interim land and complimentary water use, improved access to produce, elevated public consciousness about public health, created culturally appropriate educational and training materials, and strengthened community building skills. PMID:12948958

Tools to Make Online Students and Community Partners in a Service Learning Project More "AT-EASE"--Evidence from a Finance Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butchey, Deanne

2014-01-01

The impact of service learning as a pedagogy to ensure efficient and effective experiential learning is well recognized, but in business schools, there is a perception that a steep learning curve exists for the students, faculty, and community. We use a tool to motivate and build competence in participants of a service learning project undertaken…

Miami's Third Sector Alliance for Community Well-being.

PubMed

Evans, Scotney D; Raymond, Catherine; Levine, Daniella

2014-01-01

Traditional capacity-building approaches tend to be organizationally focused ignoring the fact that community-based organizations learn and take action in a larger network working to promote positive community change. The specific aim of this paper was to outline a vision for a Third Sector Alliance to build organizational, network, and sector capacity for community well-being in Miami. Building a foundation for social impact requires a strategy for organizational, network, and sector capacity building. Organizational, network, and sector capacity building can best be achieved through a cooperative network approach driven by a solid community-university partnership. Although a Third Sector Alliance for Community Well-being does not yet exist in Miami, Catalyst Miami and the University of Miami (UM) have partnered closely to articulate a vision of what could be and have been working to make that vision a reality.

Fostering Success Within the Cyclic Workforce: Seminole Community College's Innovative Approach to Helping Apprenticeship Students Live, Work, and Learn

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garlich, Michael; Tesinsky, Suzanne

2005-01-01

A first of its kind in the state of Florida, the Seminole Community College's Center for Building Construction was constructed as a partnership project between Seminole Community College, industry persons and the state of Florida. A training facility for students in the Construction Trades Apprenticeship Program, the building stands on the SCC…

Designing and Implementing Service Learning Projects in an Introductory Oceanography Course Using the ``8-Block Model''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laine, E. P.; Field, C.

2010-12-01

The Campus Compact for New Hampshire (Gordon, 2003) introduced a practical model for designing service-learning exercises or components for new or existing courses. They divided the design and implementation process into eight concrete areas, the “8-Block Model”. Their goal was to demystify the design process of service learning courses by breaking it down into interconnected components. These components include: project design, community partner relations, the problem statement, building community in the classroom, building student capacity, project management, assessment of learning, and reflection and connections. The project design component of the “8-Block Model” asks that the service performed be consistent with the learning goals of the course. For science courses students carry out their work as a way of learning science and the process of science, not solely for the sake of service. Their work supports the goals of a community partner and the community partner poses research problems for the class in a letter on their letterhead. Linking student work to important problems in the community effectively engages students and encourages them to work at more sophisticated levels than usually seen in introductory science classes. Using team-building techniques, the classroom becomes a safe, secure learning environment that encourages sharing and experimentation. Targeted lectures, labs, and demonstrations build the capacity of students to do their research. Behind the scenes project management ensures student success. Learning is assessed using a variety of tools, including graded classroom presentations, poster sessions, and presentations and reports to community partners. Finally, students reflect upon their work and make connections between their research and its importance to the well being of the community. Over the past 10 years, we have used this approach to design and continually modify an introductory oceanography course for majors and non-majors. The goal was to provide students with an opportunity to do authentic research on water quality and marine resource issues in local coastal embayments. Student research supported several community organizations, most notably the Friends of Casco Bay, an NGO interested in improving the water quality in Casco Bay. This research helped the students to reach some of the learning goals for the course including an understanding of tides, currents, phytoplankton, water quality parameters, dissolved nutrients, and analysis and presentation of quantitative data. Using this pedagogical model allowed the basic structure of the course to remain the same over the years, while enabling us to flexibly respond to changes in the needs and interests of community partners. Gordon, R, Ed. (2003) Problem Based Service Learning: A Field Guide for Making a Difference in Higher Education, 2nd edition. Campus Compact for New Hampshire, Bedford, NH

Understanding and Enhancing Learning Communities in Tertiary Education in Science and Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forret, Michael; Eames, Chris; Coll, Richard

2007-01-01

This research aims to build upon current research in the area of teaching and learning at tertiary level and explore the nature of learning communities in tertiary science and engineering. This study uses a sociocultural approach to address the following question: "What are teachers' and learners' perceptions of the nature of the learning…

Building a Learning Community: Telecommunications, Collaborations, and Sharing on Long Island.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneiderman, Bette E.; Carriero, Corinne

The Long Island Team is a collaborative system of K-12 students and teachers, university students and faculty, and community members who have been linked by telecommunications and in-person sessions. Since 1993 the group has culminated their work together at an annual sharing event. This paper provides the history of the learning community, a list…

Community and School Gardens as Spaces for Learning Social Resilience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reis, Kimberley; Ferreira, Jo-Anne

2015-01-01

Can community and school gardens help people learn to build social resilience to potential food shortages? We seek to address this question through an examination of the ways in which gardens can teach individual and community resiliency in times of emergency, pockets of food insecurity, and the challenges presented by climate change. We focus on…

Partners in Character: Building a Moral Culture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sudeck, Maria; Dinovi, Raymond; Gehringer, Christine; Tonia, Rachael; Wuillermin, Monica

This paper describes the professional partnership between Rowan University, New Jersey, and Radix Elementary School, emphasizing the building of a moral culture in the learning community. The partnership is a driving force behind the movement to promote character education within the school community. This is being accomplished by facilitating…

Oral Storytelling: Building Community through Dialogue, Engagement, and Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkowitz, Doriet

2011-01-01

Oral storytelling supports young children's learning and development differently than stories read aloud from picture books. It gives children an opportunity to exercise their imagination, communicate effectively, enhance their social literacy, and build community in a different way. Oral storytelling encourages a heightened and more sophisticated…

NREL Partners with California to Accelerate Advanced Energy Communities |

Science.gov Websites

, heating, and or cooling Smart energy management systems for residential, commercial and industrial the residences, commercial and industrial buildings. Visit the NREL website to learn about how NREL's efficiency of both residential and commercial buildings, communities, and districts. -Linh Truong Mission

Improving Reading and Numeracy Outcomes in Nigeria through Strategic Trust Building

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ibrahim, Mikailu; Lawal, Nurudeen; Sylla, Fatimata Seye

2018-01-01

Non-governmental development organizations working with local government and community partners are often challenged by conflicting understandings of education practice and learning due to social, cultural, and political factors. Building trust so that education programs are implemented in equal partnership with communities is vital for addressing…

Professional Learning Communities That Initiate Improvement in Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Royer, Suzanne M.

2012-01-01

Quality teaching requires a strong practice of collaboration, an essential building block for educators to improve student achievement. Researchers have theorized that the implementation of a professional learning community (PLC) with resultant collaborative practices among teachers sustains academic improvement. The problem addressed specifically…

Technology Integration through Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cifuentes, Lauren; Maxwell, Gerri; Bulu, Sanser

2011-01-01

We describe efforts to build a learning community to support technology integration in three rural school districts and the contributions of various program strategies toward teacher growth. The Stages of Adoption Inventory, classroom observations, the Questionnaire for Technology Integration, interviews, STAR evaluation surveys, a survey of…

Making Dissatisfaction Divine: An Inspired Approach to Whole-School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweetland, Julie

2008-01-01

Building community and supporting learning are two principles of Whole Schooling. This article describes how Center for Inspired Teaching, a nonprofit educational reform organization, uses these principles to foster professional learning communities in public schools in Washington, DC. When change agents approach disengaged, disempowered faculties…

Learning Communities: A Structure for Educational Coherence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Roberta; And Others

1996-01-01

College and university learning communities build a sense of group identity. Institutions are establishing them for varied purposes and student populations, including first-year interest groups, general education core courses, gateway courses, developmental and basic studies, honors programs, and work in the major or minor. For implementation,…

Root Metaphors, Paradigm Shifts, and Democratically Shared Values: Community Service-Learning as a Bridge-Building Endeavor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheffield, Eric C.

2007-01-01

This paper claims that community service-learning (CSL) projects in schools and universities, if done well, might very well take us--all of us--to important new places. Under the conception of community service and democratic education more generally, CSL projects in schools and universities can take us to "the" most important place: a…

Building Community from Diversity: Connecting Students to Their Learning Environments. An Anthology of Classroom Projects Undertaken for the Kellogg Beacon Grant. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahony, Elizabeth M., Ed.; And Others

This five-part anthology presents descriptions of 22 classroom projects undertaken by a consortium of Missouri community colleges and elementary and secondary schools, directed by St. Louis Community College. The collection comprises the following articles: "Views of an Elementary Teacher" (Susan Biffignani); "Writing To Learn and…

Community Capacity Building and Sustainability: Outcomes of Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Hacker, Karen; Tendulkar, Shalini A.; Rideout, Catlin; Bhuiya, Nazmim; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau; Savage, Clara P.; Grullon, Milagro; Strelnick, Hal; Leung, Carolyn; DiGirolamo, Ann

2013-01-01

Background For communities, the value of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is often manifested in the outcomes of increased capacity and sustainable adoption of evidence-based practices for social change. Educational opportunities that promote discourse between community and academic partners can help to advance CBPR and better define these outcomes. Objectives This paper describes a community–academic conference to develop shared definitions of community capacity building and sustainability related to CBPR and to identify obstacles and facilitators to both. Methods “Taking It to the Curbside: Engaging Communities to Create Sustainable Change for Health” was planned by five Clinical Translational Science Institutes and four community organizations. After a keynote presentation, breakout groups of community and academic members met to define community capacity building and sustainability, and to identify facilitators and barriers to achieving both. Groups were facilitated by researcher–community partner teams and conversations were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis for thematic content was conducted by a subset of the planning committee. Results Important findings included learning that (1) the concepts of capacity and sustainability were considered interconnected; (2) partnership was perceived as both a facilitator and an outcome of CBPR; (3) sustainability was linked to “transfer of knowledge” from one generation to another within a community; and (4) capacity and sustainability were enhanced when goals were shared and health outcomes were achieved. Conclusions Community capacity building and sustainability are key outcomes of CBPR for communities. Co-learning opportunities that engage and mutually educate both community members and academics can be useful strategies for identifying meaningful strategies to achieve these outcomes. PMID:22982848

Meaningful Engagement in Scientific Practices: How Classroom Communities Develop Authentic Epistemologies for Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krist, Christina Rae

Recent reforms in science education, based on decades of learning research, emphasize engaging students in science and engineering practices as the means to develop and refine disciplinary ideas. These reforms advocate an epistemic shift in how school science is done: from students learning about science ideas to students figuring out core science ideas. This shift is challenging to implement: how do we bring the goals and practices of a discipline into classroom communities in meaningful ways that go beyond simply following rote scientific procedures? In this dissertation, I investigate how classroom communities learn to engage meaningfully in scientific practices, characterizing their engagement as a process of epistemic learning. I take a situated perspective that defines learning as shifts in how members engage in communities of practice. I examine students' epistemic learning as a function of their participation in a classroom community of scientific practice along two dimensions: what they do, or the practical epistemic heuristics they use to guide how they build knowledge; and who they are, or how ownership and authorship of ideas is negotiated and affectively marked through interaction. I focus on a cohort of students as they move from 6th to 8 th grade. I analyze three science units, one from each grade level, to look at the epistemic heuristics implicit in student and teacher talk and how the use of those heuristics shifts over time. In addition, I examine one anomalous 8th grade class to look at how students and the teacher position themselves and each other with respect to the ideas in their classroom and how that positioning supports epistemic learning. Taken together, these analyses demonstrate how students' engagement in scientific practices evolves in terms of what they do and who they are in relation to the knowledge and ideas in their classroom over time. I propose a model for epistemic learning that articulates how classroom communities develop practical epistemologies that guide their knowledge building work and how the development of these epistemologies is identity-laden. I find that for engagement in science practices to be meaningful, classroom communities' engagement is motivated by the unknowns in students' knowledge, or what they still need to figure out and explain. In contexts where knowledge is uncertain, practical epistemic heuristics become authentically useful for students' knowledge building work. However, using unknowns to motivate learning can be distressing for students. The anomalous case study suggests that students' meaningful engagement in science knowledge building requires particular affective supports from the teacher that allow students to take on and embrace new identities with respect to ideas in their classroom. Taken together, the model of epistemic learning that I propose suggests that both conceptual and affective supports are necessary to shift science classrooms in ways that engage students in meaningful science knowledge building.

Using Electronic Technologies To Support Teaching and Learning: Building a Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastwood, Kenneth W.; And Others

The Oswego City School District is committed to creating--through the implementation of its technology plan--an environment that supports effective teaching and learning and prepares all students to succeed in a technologically sophisticated world. This report summarizes the efforts to build a community-wide consensus for a meaningful technology…

The Effect of Centralization and Cohesion on the Social Construction of Knowledge in Discussion Forums

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tirado, Ramón; Hernando, Ángel; Aguaded, José Ignacio

2015-01-01

Interactive relationships in online learning communities can influence the process and quality of knowledge building. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between network structures and social knowledge building in an asynchronous writing environment through discussion forums in a learning management system. The…

The Effect of Centralization and Cohesion on the Social Construction of Knowledge in Discussion Forums

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tirado, Ramon; Hernando, Angel; Aguaded, Jose Ignacio

2012-01-01

Interactive relationships in online learning communities can influence the process and quality of knowledge building. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between network structures and social knowledge building in an asynchronous writing environment through discussion forums in a learning management system. The…

The Power of Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, Scott

2006-01-01

When students use classroom skills to build a wheelchair ramp, or teach their peers CPR, or grow vegetables for a food bank, or create children's books for preschoolers, or research and share local history, or educate the community about healthy living, or build and maintain nature trails, they are engaged in service learning (and are called…

Linking Research, Education and Public Engagement in Geoscience: Leadership and Strategic Partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spellman, K.

2017-12-01

A changing climate has impacted Alaska communities at unprecedented rates, and the need for efficient and effective climate change learning in the Boreal and Arctic regions is urgent. Learning programs that can both increase personal understanding and connection to climate change science and also inform large scale scientific research about climate change are an attractive option for building community adaptive capacity at multiple scales. Citizen science has emerged as a powerful tool for facilitating learning across scales, and for building partnerships across natural sciences research, education, and outreach disciplines. As an early career scientist and interdisciplinary researcher, citizen science has become the centerpiece of my work and has provided some of the most rewarding moments of my career. I will discuss my early career journey building a research and leadership portfolio integrating climate change research, learning research, and public outreach through citizen science. I will share key experiences from graduate student to early career PI that cultivated my leadership skills and ability to build partnerships necessary to create citizen science programs that emphasize synergy between climate change research and education.

Creating Learning Communities: An Introduction to Community Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Decker, Larry E.; Boo, Mary Richardson

Schools cannot succeed without collaboration with parents and the community. Defining community education as active community involvement in the education of children, this booklet describes aspects of community education. Community education, the booklet points out, can take place at physical locations such as formal school buildings, which lie…

Using Biographical Prompts to Build Community in an Online Graduate Course: An Adult Learning Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lohr, Kathy D.; Haley, Karen J.

2018-01-01

Adult learners are taking advantage of the availability and convenience of online education. Mature learners in online higher education classrooms bring a wealth of experience filtered through cultural, generational, and socioeconomical differences. The purpose of this research was to explore community building in an online graduate course by…

Women's Center Volunteer Intern Program: Building Community While Advancing Social and Gender Justice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Margaret A.; Vlasnik, Amber L.

2015-01-01

This program description explores the purpose, structure, activities, and outcomes of the volunteer intern program at the Wright State University Women's Center. Designed to create meaningful, hands-on learning experiences for students and to advance the center's mission, the volunteer intern program builds community while advancing social and…

A Tale of Two Cultures: Building Community by Researching Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drane, Jon; Cai, Wenjie; Wechsler, Andrea; Mussi, Eveline; Shi, Ye; Crommelin, Laura

2012-01-01

Upon beginning postgraduate research at the Faculty of Built Environment at UNSW, the authors were surprised to find themselves working in a library-like environment, where a culture of silence prevailed. Assuming initially that this was just how postgraduate research was, they soon learned that the building also housed a second postgraduate lab…

Applying the Design Framework to Technology Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curwood, Jen Scott

2013-01-01

Building on contemporary research on teacher professional development, this study examined the practices of a technology-focused learning community at a high school in the United States. Over the course of a school year, classroom teachers and a university-based researcher participated in the learning community to investigate how technology can…

Community College Strategies: Building a Model for Assessment within Student Affairs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haney, Richard; McClellan, Debralee

2009-01-01

Frederick Community College's assessment of student learning within student affairs has evolved as a result of the confluence of three transformative initiatives: (1) the institution's decision to shape itself into a learning college; (2) the revision of accreditation standards, placing increased emphasis on institutional assessment and assessment…

Acompanar Obediciendo: Learning to Help in Collaboration with Zapatista Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simonelli, Jeanne; Earle, Duncan; Story, Elizabeth

2004-01-01

Joint service-learning programs of Wake Forest University and the University of Texas-El Paso are working to develop an anthropologically-informed service model for/with the authors' Universities, our students, and our community colleagues. Building on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and experience leading experiential programs, the model results…

Organization Spotlight: The Power of an Association in Early Childhood Education and Care: ISSA--An Engine for Advocacy, Capacity Building, and Creating a Growing Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ionescu, Mihaela

2015-01-01

The International Step by Step Association (ISSA) is an association that believes in learning from each other across cultures and borders, building on each other's strengths, and tapping into the power of a network. Building on the strong legacy of the Open Society Foundations' Step by Step program, ISSA has nurtured a culture of belonging to a…

Pan-Canadian Forum on Community Learning Networks Conference Proceedings [and] A Discussion Guide (1st, Ottawa, Ontario, March 27-29, 1998).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Human Resources Development Canada, Hull (Quebec). Office of Learning Technologies.

This document contains information from and about the Pan-Canadian Forum on Community Learning Networks (CLNs) that was conducted to identify existing and emerging needs of CLNs and identify emerging trends and issues related to CLNs. The document begins with a discussion of role played by CLNs in building a lifelong learning culture. Presented…

Knowledge-Building Quality in Online Communities of Practice: Focusing on Learning Dialogue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sorensen, Elsebeth K.; Takle, Eugene S.; Moser, Heather M.

2006-01-01

This paper reports on a case study on the implementation of "language games" as a pedagogical tool for analyzing, assessing and promoting the quality and the level of collaborative knowledge building in online learning dialogues. Part of the overall objective is to explore the use, strength, weaknesses, and limitations of using the…

Building Benches and Learning Math Standards on Zia Pueblo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Anthony M.

2009-01-01

In this article, the author talks about a hands-on, community-supported project that he initiated with a group of middle school students on Zia Pueblo, in which students used measurement and numeracy skills to build benches for the school grounds. He talks about the theoretical framework of this project and the lessons he learned from this project.

Building Learning Communities through Social and Emotional Learning: Navigating the Rough Seas of Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kress, Jeffrey S.; Elias, Maurice J.

2006-01-01

Educators have come to recognize the importance of their efforts in building students' social and emotional skills. However, the creation of lasting programming often fails to keep pace with educators' best intentions. In this article, the authors suggest guidelines for ways in which school counselors can be involved in implementing sustained…

Engaging the University in Building Communities of Practice for Aging in Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Jessyna M.

2011-01-01

Based upon the principles of the Engaged University (Kellogg Commission 2001), The Institute of Gerontology (IOG) at the University of the District of Columbia developed a model for the scholarship of engagement by building communities of practice within the aging network which may support and enhance student learning outcomes and experiences. The…

Hawaii Literacy Hui Conference, 1997: Changing Lives, Building Communities. [Videotape].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darling-Hammond, Linda; Holt, Linda

This videotape presents the keynote speeches of the 1997 Hawai'i Literacy Hui conference on the theme of "Changing Lives, Building Communities." Featured in the videotape are two speeches: Linda Darling-Hammond's "The Right To Learn and Teach: Towards Democratic Education," in which she discusses how authentic assessment in the context of the new…

Building a community-based culture of evaluation.

PubMed

Janzen, Rich; Ochocka, Joanna; Turner, Leanne; Cook, Tabitha; Franklin, Michelle; Deichert, Debbie

2017-12-01

In this article we argue for a community-based approach as a means of promoting a culture of evaluation. We do this by linking two bodies of knowledge - the 70-year theoretical tradition of community-based research and the trans-discipline of program evaluation - that are seldom intersected within the evaluation capacity building literature. We use the three hallmarks of a community-based research approach (community-determined; equitable participation; action and change) as a conceptual lens to reflect on a case example of an evaluation capacity building program led by the Ontario Brian Institute. This program involved two community-based groups (Epilepsy Southwestern Ontarioand the South West Alzheimer Society Alliance) who were supported by evaluators from the Centre for Community Based Research to conduct their own internal evaluation. The article provides an overview of a community-based research approach and its link to evaluation. It then describes the featured evaluation capacity building initiative, including reflections by the participating organizations themselves. We end by discussing lessons learned and their implications for future evaluation capacity building. Our main argument is that organizations that strive towards a community-based approach to evaluation are well placed to build and sustain a culture of evaluation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding How Professional Learning Communities Impact Teaching Practice and What Influences the Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalal, Shilpa D.

2013-01-01

Problem: Professional learning communities (PLCs) are not a new trend in education but are getting more attention in schools today as a vehicle for establishing collegial relationships among teachers and for building capacity for change within schools (Dufour & Eaker, 1998; Fullan, 2004; Hord, 2004; Senge, 2000). Schools are working diligently…

Enhancing Intercultural Engagement through Service Learning and Music Making with Indigenous Communities in Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartleet, Brydie-Leigh; Sunderland, Naomi; Carfoot, Gavin

2016-01-01

This article explores the potential for music making activities such as jamming, song writing, and performance to act as a medium for intercultural connection and relationship building during service learning programs with Indigenous communities in Australia. To set the context, the paper begins with an overview of current international…

Building Capacity for Innovation: The Vanguard for Learning Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Beverly

When a school community is making a major investment in technology, the major challenge is to ensure that the technologies are used to support innovative practices that are responsive to the community's changing needs and opportunities for teaching and learning. How can implementation of technology be integrally embedded in and supportive of…

Building Bridges against Violence: Service-Learning for Second Language Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orban, Clara E.; Thompson, Martha E.

2007-01-01

In this essay, the authors argue that linking second language learners with communities that need their language skills can result in an empowering experience for students and for the communities with which they work. They describe a college-level service-learning project that was designed to help IMPACT Chicago, a women's self-defense…

Improving Learning and Teaching in Transnational Education: Can Communities of Practice Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keay, Jeanne; May, Helen; O' Mahony, Joan

2014-01-01

This article builds on the key findings of the UK Higher Education Academy study "Transnational Education Learning and Teaching" to explore the way in which Wenger's characteristics of communities of practice could help provide a theoretical framework for improving communication and creating more effective transnational education (TNE)…

How Social Network Position Relates to Knowledge Building in Online Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lu

2010-01-01

Social Network Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Content Analysis and other research methods were used to research online learning communities at Capital Normal University, Beijing. Analysis of the two online courses resulted in the following conclusions: (1) Social networks of the two online courses form typical core-periphery structures; (2)…

Repurposing Video Documentaries as Features of a Flipped-Classroom Approach to Community-Centered Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arbogast, Douglas; Eades, Daniel; Plein, L. Christopher

2017-01-01

Online and off-site educational programming is increasingly incorporated by Extension educators to reach their clientele. Models such as the flipped classroom combine online content and in-person learning, allowing clients to both gain information and build peer learning communities. We demonstrate how video documentaries used in traditional…

Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education: Contribution of Learner to Learner Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shackelford, Jo L.; Maxwell, Marge

2012-01-01

Distance learning technologies offer a multitude of ways to build interaction into online courses to support learning. Based on social constructivism theory, this study explored which types of interaction are most predictive of students' sense of community in online graduate courses at a regional comprehensive university. Surveys were used to…

The Ripple Effect: Lessons from a Research and Teaching Faculty Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hershberger, Andrew; Spence, Maria; Cesarini, Paul; Mara, Andrew; Jorissen, Kathleen Topolka; Albrecht, David; Gordon, Jeffrey J.; Lin, Canchu

2009-01-01

Building upon a related 2005 panel presentation at the 25th annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, the authors, several tenure-track assistant professors and tenured associate professors who have participated in a Research and Teaching Faculty Learning Community at Bowling Green State University, share their…

Bee SAFE, a Skill-Building Intervention to Enhance CAM Health Literacy: Lessons Learned.

PubMed

Shreffler-Grant, Jean; Nichols, Elizabeth G; Weinert, Clarann

2018-05-01

The purpose is to describe a feasibility study of a skill-building intervention to enhance health literacy about complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies among older rural adults and share lessons learned. A study was designed to examine the feasibility of an intervention to enhance CAM health literacy. The theme was "Bee SAFE" for Be a wise user of CAM, Safety, Amount, From where, and Effect. Modules were presented face to face and by webinar with older adults at a senior center in one small rural community. The team achieved its purpose of designing, implementing, and evaluating the intervention and assessing if it could be implemented in a rural community. The implementation challenges encountered and lessons learn are discussed. By improving CAM health literacy, older rural adults with chronic health conditions can make well-reasoned decisions about using CAM for health promotion and illness management. The goal is to implement the Bee SAFE intervention in other rural communities; thus team members were attentive to lessons to be learned before investing time, effort, and expense in the larger intervention. It is hoped that the lessons learned can be instructive to others planning projects in rural communities.

Building a Learning Organization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohr, Nancy; Dichter, Alan

2001-01-01

Faculties must pass through several stages when becoming learning organizations: the honeymoon, conflict, confusion, messy, scary, and mature-group stages. Mature school communities have learned to view power differently, make learning more meaningful for students, and model a just and democratic society. Consensus is the starting point. (MLH)

Building Communities: ACE, Lifelong Learning and Social Capital. An Anthology of Word Portraits Reporting Research Conducted for the Adult, Community and Further Education Board.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, Ian; Golding, Barry; Balatti, Josephine

The 10 portraits, or case studies, in this book are intended to show how locally-owned adult education turns everyday learning into social and economic well-being. Taken alone, each portrait tries to give a particular insight into the daily transformation of adults and their local communities. Together, the group portrait shows how strongly adult…

Building the Reflective Capacity of Practicing Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rich, Robert A.; Jackson, Sherion H.

2006-01-01

Reflection is often used as a professional development tool in coaching and mentoring leaders. Outside of education, research is underway to learn how managers can develop as learning facilitators in the workplace. However, the current focus on learning communities and learning organizations within education makes reflective thinking particularly…

Building and Supporting Online Learning Environments through Web Course Tools: It Is Whippy, but Does It Work?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Tim H.; Lindner, James R.

This study describes and explores student perceptions regarding the use of WebCT in building and supporting online learning communities (a practical application). Participants were all students enrolled in "AGED 440: Principles of Technological Change," an undergraduate level course at Texas A&M University. Objectives were to describe and explore:…

Contradictions in Theorizing and Implementing Communities in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Wolff-Michael; Lee, Yew-Jin

2006-01-01

Past educational improvement endeavors were fundamentally centered on the learner as an individual. This changed by the early 1990s after an increasing number of educators and researchers embraced sociocultural learning concepts such as "communities of practice," "communities of learners," and "knowledge-building communities." These ideas are…

Do New Buildings, Equipment, and Technology Improve Student Outcomes? A Look at One Community College's Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Twyman-Brown, Danene

2014-01-01

During the last decade, community colleges have taken a close look at the way they educate and train students, and are using an assortment of student engagement indicators in an effort to assess and document learning outcomes of their students. While these indicators have proven helpful, the extent to which new buildings, equipment, and technology…

Enhancing Cancer Education through the Arts: Building Connections with Alaska Native People, Cultures and Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cueva, Melany; Kuhnley, Regina; Cueva, Katie

2012-01-01

Building upon the dynamic traditions of Alaska Native people, which include the arts as a viable way of knowing, the expressive arts were woven into a five-day cancer education course for Alaska village-based Community Health Workers (CHWs). Cancer is the leading cause of mortality for Alaska Native people. Course learning modalities included…

International Social Work Field Placement or Volunteer Tourism? Developing an Asset-Based Justice-Learning Field Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sossou, Marie-Antoinette; Dubus, Nicole

2013-01-01

This paper examines a developing model for building an international social work placement that meets the needs of the host agency and community first. The paper addresses the challenges for social work departments to develop a strong learning environment while also keeping primary the needs of the host community and agency.

Service-Learning Program at University and It's Role in Building Child-Friendly Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krumes Šimunovic, Irena

2014-01-01

This paper presents an action research associated with Faculty of Education in Osijek, dislocated study in Slavonski Brod with pre-service teachers during the four academic years. The study follows the process of improving student learning through collaboration colleges and local communities for the benefit of gifted children in lower grades of…

Community-Organizing Agent: An Artificial Intelligent System for Building Learning Communities among Large Numbers of Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Fan; Wang, Minjuan; Shen, Ruimin; Han, Peng

2007-01-01

Web-based (or online) learning provides an unprecedented flexibility and convenience to both learners and instructors. However, large online classes relying on instructor-centered presentations could tend to isolate many learners. The size of these classes and the wide dispersion of the learners make it challenging for instructors to interact with…

Adult Literacy and Socio-Cultural Learning at "Pina Pina Jarrinjaku" (Yuendumu Learning Centre)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauer, Ros

2018-01-01

The Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative commenced in July 2014, led by the Office of Pro Vice Chancellor of Indigenous Leadership at Charles Darwin University (CDU). WCE aimed to build the aspiration, expectation and capacity of six remote and very remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory to participate and achieve in…

An Internal Journey of the Heart: Building Community and an Empowerment Model of Graduate Education through Diversity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitfield, Patricia T.; Plumb, Robert

The concept of the learning community and the transition of both students and teachers to the teaching/learning relationship has become a focus of graduate programs at Heritage College (Toppenish, Washington). The mission of Heritage is to provide quality, accessible higher education to a multicultural population which has been educationally…

Mexican-Heritage Children's Attention and Learning from Interactions Directed to Others

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva, Katie G.; Correa-Chavez, Maricela; Rogoff, Barbara

2010-01-01

The study builds on ethnographic research noting an emphasis in many Indigenous communities of the Americas on learning through keen observation of and participation in ongoing community activities. Forty-four U.S. Mexican-heritage 5- to 11-year-old children whose families likely have experience with Indigenous ways more frequently attended to and…

Shifting the Role: School-District Superintendents' Experiences as They Build a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickson, John; Mitchell, Coral

2014-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative action-research study that explored how one group of district-level school superintendents conceptualized their role as they built their own learning community. Data analysis yielded four elements that supported the participants' efforts: (a) using a process as an entry point, (b) aligning various…

Building Sustainable Futures: Emerging Understandings of the Significant Contribution of the Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, Dorothy; Lewis, Marian

2004-01-01

This article draws on the experiences of a range of Australian schools engaging with a teacher-centred process of whole-school renewal known as IDEAS (Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievement in Schools). IDEAS enhances the professional capacity of teachers to improve school outcomes such as student learning, relationships with the community,…

Building an Online Academic Learning Community among Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Adele

2015-01-01

Online learning communities are frequently created for higher education students; however, these are most often designed to cater to a particular unit or subject. In an effort to strengthen the Bachelor of Arts course at the University of New England, the author sought to create an online space that would promote an interdisciplinary and collegial…

The Asian American Hepatitis B Program: Building a Coalition to Address Hepatitis B Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Trinh-Shevrin, Chau; Pollack, Henry J.; Tsang, Thomas; Park, Jihyun; Ramos, Mary Ruchel; Islam, Nadia; Wang, Su; Chun, Kay; Sim, Shao-Chee; Pong, Perry; Rey, Mariano Jose; Kwon, Simona C.

2012-01-01

Background Community coalitions are increasingly recognized as important strategies for addressing health disparities. By providing the opportunity to pool resources, they provide a means to develop and sustain innovative approaches to affect community health. Objectives This article describes the challenges and lessons learned in building the Asian American Hepatitis B Program (AAHBP) coalition to conduct a community-based participatory research (CBPR) initiative to address hepatitis B (HBV) among New York City Asian-American communities. Methods Using the stages of coalition development as a framework, a comprehensive assessment of the process of developing and implementing the AAHBP coalition is presented. Lessons Learned Findings highlight the importance of developing a sound infrastructure and set of processes to foster a greater sense of ownership, shared vision, and investment in the program. Conclusion Grassroots community organizing and campus–community partnerships can be successfully leveraged to address and prevent a significant health disparity in an underserved and diverse community. PMID:22080774

Professional Learning Communities: Building Skills, Reinvigorating the Passion, and Nurturing Teacher Wellbeing and "Flourishing" within Significantly Innovative Schooling Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Susanne

2016-01-01

Student-driven "deep learning", teachers as "coaches" and "activators of learning" and positive student-teacher relationships are all part of the changing and significantly innovative educational landscape which requires considerable pedagogical change in teaching and learning processes. Teacher professional learning…

Understanding Online Knowledge Sharing: An Interpersonal Relationship Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Will W. K.; Yuen, Allan H. K.

2011-01-01

The unique features and capabilities of online learning are built on the ability to connect to a wider range of learning resources and peer learners that benefit individual learners, such as through discussion forums, collaborative learning, and community building. The success of online learning thus depends on the participation, engagement, and…

Champions: District Leaders Build Skills to Boost Educator Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Psencik, Kay; Brown, Frederick; Cain, Laura; Coleman, Ramona; Cummings, C. Todd

2014-01-01

Fort Wayne Community Schools continue to increase student learning and meet state and national standards and expectations annually based on several factors that have made a difference for educators within the system: district and principal leadership, learning teams, effective learning designs, and deep commitment to a culture of learning. Fort…

How Community Development Programmes Can Foster Re-Engagement with Learning in Disadvantaged Communities: Leadership as Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Millar, Pat; Kilpatrick, Sue

2005-01-01

Family and community capacity building projects in Tasmania are attempting to address the disadvantage of communities marginalised by socio-economic and other influences. Collaborations between the projects, community members and groups, and education and training organisations, have resulted in a leadership process which has fostered reengagement…

Giving Life to Data: University-Community Partnerships in Addressing HIV and AIDS through Building Digital Archives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Lange, Naydene; Mnisi, Thoko; Mitchell, Claudia; Park, Eun G.

2010-01-01

The partnerships, especially university-community partnerships, that sustain globally networked learning environments often face challenges in mobilizing research to empower local communities to effect change. This article examines these challenges by describing a university-community partnership involving researchers and graduate students in…

Photovoice as Methodology, Pedagogy, and Partnership-Building Tool: A Graduate and Community College Student Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latz, Amanda O.; Phelps-Ward, Robin; Royer, Dan; Peters, Tiffany

2016-01-01

Participatory action research, photovoice, diversity, and immersive learning comprised the most important aspects of the Community Colleges and Diversity graduate course taught during the 2014 spring semester. This project involved eight graduate students, five community college students, three community college administrators, and one university…

Educational Restructuring and the Community Education Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Decker, Larry E., Ed.; Romney, Valerie A., Ed.

This document explores the application of the community education process to restructuring activities at both the state and local level. The monograph contains the following papers: "In the Forefront of Restructuring" (Larry Decker, Valerie Romney); "Building Learning Communities: Realities of Educational Restructuring" (Larry…

Building research infrastructure in community health centers: a Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) report.

PubMed

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E

2013-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and "matchmaking" between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings.

Building Research Infrastructure in Community Health Centers: A Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) Report

PubMed Central

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E.

2015-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and “matchmaking” between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings. PMID:24004710

"The magic is in the mix": lessons from research capacity building in the Canadian tobacco control community, 2000-2010.

PubMed

Riley, Barbara L; Viehbeck, Sarah M; Cohen, Joanna E; Chia, Marie C

2013-02-25

Global public health issues, including tobacco use, will be addressed most effectively if informed by relevant evidence. Additional capacity is needed to undertake and sustain relevant and rigorous research that will inform and enable learning from interventions. Despite the undisputed importance of research capacity building (RCB), there is little evidence about how to create relevant capacities. RCB for tobacco control in Canada from 2000-2010 offers a rich experience from which to learn. Lessons were derived using structured data collection from seven capacity-building initiatives and an invitational workshop, at which reflections on major contributions and lessons learned were discussed by initiative leads. Ten years of RCB for tobacco control in Canada revealed the importance of a) taking an organic approach to RCB, b) targeting and sustaining investments in a mix of RCB activities, c) vision and collaborative leadership at organizational and initiative levels, d) a focus on building community, and e) studying capacity building. The experience also provided tangible examples of RCB initiatives and how independent investments can be linked to create a coherent approach. Looking ahead, promising directions may include positioning RCB within a broader context of "field building", focusing on practical approaches to sustainability, and enhancing research on RCB.

Coalition for Healthier Schools Position Statement. Improving Education, Child Health, the Environment, and Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Healthy Schools Network, Inc., 2010

2010-01-01

Each day over 53 million school children and 6 million adults--20 percent of the entire U.S. population--enter the nation's 120,000 school buildings to teach and learn. Unfortunately, in too many cases, they enter "unhealthy" school buildings," that undermine learning and health. In a recent five-state survey, more than 1,100 public schools were…

The State as Community in Community-based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Goold, Susan Dorr; Rowe, Zachary; Szymecko, Lisa; Coombe, Chris; Danis, Marion; Hammad, Adnan; Calhoun, Karen; Salman, Cengiz

2017-01-01

Background Community-based participatory research (CBPR) typically defines communities by geography, ethnicity, shared health needs, or some combination. Objectives We describe a CBPR project aiming to engage diverse minority and underserved communities throughout Michigan in deliberations about health research priorities. Methods A Steering Committee (SC) with 15 members from minority and underserved communities, and 4 members from research organizations led the project, with the help of regional advisory groups (RAGs) formed at the SC’s request. Evaluation of the SC used questionnaires, focused group discussion, and review of SC meetings to describe engagement, partnership, and communication. Lessons Learned An academic-community partnership with a diverse, dispersed and broadly defined community found value in RAGs, dedicated academic staff, face-to-face meetings, varied communication modalities, capacity building tailored to varying levels of CBPR experience, and ongoing evaluation. Conclusions A geographically and culturally diverse partnership presents challenges and opportunities in representativeness, relationship building, capacity building, and communication. PMID:28569676

Building an Online Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yu-Chein

2004-01-01

The Internet was not invented for education at beginning (Pett Grabinger, 1995), but it has influenced educational systems considerably, especially by providing another way for distance learning. This powerful communication function is superior to any other educational media. Students can conduct their own self-directed learning without…

Building and strengthening infrastructure for data exchange: lessons from the beacon communities.

PubMed

Torres, Gretchen W; Swietek, Karen; Ubri, Petry S; Singer, Rachel F; Lowell, Kristina H; Miller, Wilhelmine

2014-01-01

The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program supports interventions, including care-delivery innovations, provider performance measurement and feedback initiatives, and tools for providers and consumers to enhance care. Using a learning health system framework, we examine the Beacon Communities' processes in building and strengthening health IT (HIT) infrastructures, specifically successes and challenges in sharing patient information to improve clinical care. In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the three-year program, which provided $250 million to 17 Beacon Communities to invest in HIT and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure. Beacon Communities used this funding to develop and disseminate HIT-enabled quality improvement practices found effective in particular community and practice environments. NORC conducted 7 site visits, November 2012-March 2013, selecting Communities to represent diverse program features. From August-October 2013, NORC held discussions with the remaining 10 Communities. Following each visit or discussion, NORC summarized the information gathered, including transcripts, team observations, and other documents the Community provided, to facilitate a within-Community analysis of context and stakeholders, intervention strategies, enabling factors, and challenges. Although each Community designed and implemented data-sharing strategies in a unique environment, similar challenges and enabling factors emerged across the Beacons. From a learning health system perspective, their strategies to build and strengthen data-sharing infrastructures address the following crosscutting priorities: promoting technical advances and innovations by helping providers adapt EHRs for data exchange and performance measurement with customizable IT and offering technical support to smaller, independent providers; engaging key stakeholders; and fostering transparent governance and stewardship of the infrastructure with neutral conveners. While all the Communities developed or strengthened data-exchange infrastructure, each did this in a unique environment of existing health care market and legal factors. The Communities, however, encountered similar challenges and enabling factors. Organizations undertaking collaborative data sharing, performance measurement and clinical transformation can learn from the Beacon Communities' experience.

Student Experiences on Interaction in an Online Learning Environment as Part of a Blended Learning Implementation: What Is Essential?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salmi, Laura

2013-01-01

Interaction and community building are essential elements of a well functioning online learning environment, especially in learning environments based on investigative learning with a strong emphasis on teamwork. In this paper, practical solutions covering quality criteria for interaction in online education are presented for a simple…

Peer Training of Community Health Workers to Improve Heart Health Among African American Women

PubMed Central

Willock, Robina Josiah; Mayberry, Robert M.; Yan, Fengxia; Daniels, Pamela

2015-01-01

Introduction Training community health workers (CHWs) builds a workforce that is essential to addressing the chronic disease crisis. This article describes a highly replicable CHW training program that targets heart disease risk among African American women. Background African American women suffer disproportionately from heart disease mortality and morbidity. Well-trained CHWs are uniquely positioned to close this disparity gap. Method We used a Learning Circle approach to train CHWs in heart health education. The curriculum blended web-based, self-directed learning and in-person peer coaching. CHWs learned through (a) peer-to-peer sharing, (b) problem solving and brainstorming, and (c) leadership and experiential activities. Training evaluation measures were CHWs' (a) self-confidence, (b) heart health knowledge, (c) satisfaction with training, (d) training retention, and (e) replication of training within 90 days after training. Results This training resulted in appreciable effects on four of five outcome measures. Heart health knowledge increased significantly among experienced CHWs (p = .011). CHWs were satisfied with training and retention was 100%. CHWs initiated and subsequently delivered 122 person hours of community heart health education and CHW training in their communities. Discussion/Conclusion CHW heart health training using Learning Circles is a practical and replicable method of training CHWs and holds significant potential for building capacity in resource-poor community organizations. PMID:24891525

Peer training of community health workers to improve heart health among African American women.

PubMed

Josiah Willock, Robina; Mayberry, Robert M; Yan, Fengxia; Daniels, Pamela

2015-01-01

Training community health workers (CHWs) builds a workforce that is essential to addressing the chronic disease crisis. This article describes a highly replicable CHW training program that targets heart disease risk among African American women. African American women suffer disproportionately from heart disease mortality and morbidity. Well-trained CHWs are uniquely positioned to close this disparity gap. Method. We used a Learning Circle approach to train CHWs in heart health education. The curriculum blended web-based, self-directed learning and in-person peer coaching. CHWs learned through (a) peer-to-peer sharing, (b) problem solving and brainstorming, and (c) leadership and experiential activities. Training evaluation measures were CHWs' (a) self-confidence, (b) heart health knowledge, (c) satisfaction with training, (d) training retention, and (e) replication of training within 90 days after training. This training resulted in appreciable effects on four of five outcome measures. Heart health knowledge increased significantly among experienced CHWs (p = .011). CHWs were satisfied with training and retention was 100%. CHWs initiated and subsequently delivered 122 person hours of community heart health education and CHW training in their communities. CHW heart health training using Learning Circles is a practical and replicable method of training CHWs and holds significant potential for building capacity in resource-poor community organizations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Learners at the Heart of Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hankins, Enid

2010-01-01

Adult community learning in Wales covers a number of curriculum areas, delivered by a range of providers, including the voluntary sector. Classes reflect Welsh Assembly Government policy priorities, including improving levels of literacy and skills, decreasing economic inactivity and building community regeneration. A variety of community-based…

Web 2.0 Technologies and Building Online Learning Communities: Students' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdelmalak, Mariam Mousa Matta

2015-01-01

The purpose of this action research was to explore students' perspectives regarding using Web 2.0 technologies to develop a community of learners. The course described in this study was a fully online course in an Educational Learning Technologies master's program at a medium-sized university in the U.S. Southwest. A variety of Web 2.0 tools…

Revisiting Professional Learning Communities to Increase College Readiness: The Importance of Pedagogical Content Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bausmith, Jennifer Merriman; Barry, Carol

2011-01-01

For over a decade, professional learning communities (PLCs) have been touted as an effective way to build upon the knowledge and skills of experienced teachers, yet much of the evidence base is derived from self-reports by practitioners. Although several generations of school reform (the standards movement, No Child Left Behind, and now the Common…

Making a Difference: Leading and Managing for Quality Improvement in Adult and Community Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ravenhall, Mark; Kenway, Mike

This guide looks at demands on leaders and managers in adult and community learning (ACL) in the roles and issues they face in the context of quality improvement (QI). It suggests practical approaches for improving the quality of provision for adults. The guide's design builds on current practice toward the desired state of excellence in all…

Play with the Slinky[R]: Learning to Lead Collaboration through a Statewide Training Project Aimed at Grants for Community Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curry, Elizabeth A.

2005-01-01

How can training develop the philosophical commitment that library staff members need to successfully lead collaborative projects? How do conversation as a training model and play as an activity shape the collaborative learning process? How do we stimulate libraries and library staff to assume leadership roles in community building? This article…

Web Applications That Promote Learning Communities in Today's Online Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reigle, Rosemary R.

2015-01-01

The changing online learning environment requires that instructors depend less on the standard tools built into most educational learning platforms and turn their focus to use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and free or low-cost commercial applications. These applications permit new and more efficient ways to build online learning communities…

Critical elements in the development and implementation of Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs)

Treesearch

Pamela Jakes; Sam Burns; Antony Cheng; Emily Saeli; Kristen Nelson Rachel Brummel; Stephanie Grayzeck; Victoria Sturtevant; Daniel Williams

2007-01-01

Community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) are being developed and implemented in communities across the United States. In a series of case studies, researchers found that the process of developing a CWPP can lead to benefits beyond those associated with fuels reduction, including enhancing social networks, developing learning communities, and building community...

Learning from the Youth Opportunity Experience: Building Delivery Capacity in Distressed Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Linda

2006-01-01

In May 2000, the United States Department of Labor awarded sizable Youth Opportunity (YO) Grants to 36 high-poverty urban, rural, and Native American communities. These communities were among the most economically distressed communities in the nation, all characterized by high drop out rates, high youth unemployment rates, greater incidence of…

Final Thoughts on Community in Adult ESL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larrott, Clarena

2009-01-01

Community building is an important, if not essential, element of adult English as a second language (ESL) learning. Communities, whether civic, work, religious, or identity-based, are the contexts within which people cease to be alone and become connected with others. Language is the main tool for communicating with others in communities. For…

Building Community in Online Doctoral Classrooms: Instructor Practices That Support Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Sharla

2017-01-01

Instructors play a role in helping online students develop a sense of community in virtual classrooms, but little is known about instructors' roles in online graduate programs. To explore the ways in which online instructors helped students create a learning community, defined as a space of connection, closeness and interactivity, the researcher…

Growing partners: building a community-academic partnership to address health disparities in rural North Carolina.

PubMed

De Marco, Molly; Kearney, William; Smith, Tosha; Jones, Carson; Kearney-Powell, Arconstar; Ammerman, Alice

2014-01-01

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) holds tremendous promise for addressing public health disparities. As such, there is a need for academic institutions to build lasting partnerships with community organizations. Herein we have described the process of establishing a relationship between a research university and a Black church in rural North Carolina. We then discuss Harvest of Hope, the church-based pilot garden project that emerged from that partnership. The partnership began with a third-party effort to connect research universities with Black churches to address health disparities. Building this academic-community partnership included collaborating to determine research questions and programming priorities. Other aspects of the partnership included applying for funding together and building consensus on study budget and aims. The academic partners were responsible for administrative details and the community partners led programming and were largely responsible for participant recruitment. The community and academic partners collaborated to design and implement Harvest of Hope, a church-based pilot garden project involving 44 youth and adults. Community and academic partners shared responsibility for study design, recruitment, programming, and reporting of results. The successful operation of the Harvest of Hope project gave rise to a larger National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study, Faith, Farming and the Future (F3) involving 4 churches and 60 youth. Both projects were CBPR efforts to improve healthy food access and reducing chronic disease. This partnership continues to expand as we develop additional CBPR projects targeting physical activity, healthy eating, and environmental justice, among others. Benefits of the partnership include increased community ownership and cultural appropriateness of interventions. Challenges include managing expectations of diverse parties and adequate communication. Lessons learned and strategies for building and maintaining similar partnerships are discussed. The benefits of community-based research for addressing health disparities are many, and there are lessons to be learned that can strengthen community-academic partnerships.

Historic Preservation and Elementary Student Extracurricular Community Service

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Ronald V.

2016-01-01

Elementary students survey buildings in an extracurricular community service project to learn social studies and historic preservation. From these experiences students formed values and dispositions by engaging in a constructivist process of creating knowledge by examining their community. They gathered data, transformed it into information, and…

Lessons Learned and Challenges in Building a Filipino Health Coalition

PubMed Central

Aguilar, David E.; Abesamis-Mendoza, Noilyn; Ursua, Rhodora; Divino, Lily Ann M.; Cadag, Kara; Gavin, Nicholas P.

2010-01-01

In recent years, community-based coalitions have become an effective channel to addressing various health problems within specific ethnic communities. The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to describe the process involved in building the Kalusugan Coalition (KC), a Filipino American health coalition based in New York City, and (b) to highlight the lessons learned and the challenges from this collaborative venture. The challenges described also offer insights on how the coalition development process can be greatly affected by the partnership with an academic institution on a community-based research project. Because each cultural group has unique issues and concerns, the theoretical framework used by KC offers creative alternatives to address some of the challenges regarding coalition infrastructures, leadership development, unexpected change of coalition dynamics, and cultural nuances. PMID:19098260

Building and Strengthening Infrastructure for Data Exchange: Lessons from the Beacon Communities

PubMed Central

Torres, Gretchen W.; Swietek, Karen; Ubri, Petry S.; Singer, Rachel F.; Lowell, Kristina H.; Miller, Wilhelmine

2014-01-01

Introduction: The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program supports interventions, including care-delivery innovations, provider performance measurement and feedback initiatives, and tools for providers and consumers to enhance care. Using a learning health system framework, we examine the Beacon Communities’ processes in building and strengthening health IT (HIT) infrastructures, specifically successes and challenges in sharing patient information to improve clinical care. Background: In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the three-year program, which provided $250 million to 17 Beacon Communities to invest in HIT and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure. Beacon Communities used this funding to develop and disseminate HIT-enabled quality improvement practices found effective in particular community and practice environments. Methods: NORC conducted 7 site visits, November 2012–March 2013, selecting Communities to represent diverse program features. From August–October 2013, NORC held discussions with the remaining 10 Communities. Following each visit or discussion, NORC summarized the information gathered, including transcripts, team observations, and other documents the Community provided, to facilitate a within-Community analysis of context and stakeholders, intervention strategies, enabling factors, and challenges. Results: Although each Community designed and implemented data-sharing strategies in a unique environment, similar challenges and enabling factors emerged across the Beacons. From a learning health system perspective, their strategies to build and strengthen data-sharing infrastructures address the following crosscutting priorities: promoting technical advances and innovations by helping providers adapt EHRs for data exchange and performance measurement with customizable IT and offering technical support to smaller, independent providers; engaging key stakeholders; and fostering transparent governance and stewardship of the infrastructure with neutral conveners. Conclusion: While all the Communities developed or strengthened data-exchange infrastructure, each did this in a unique environment of existing health care market and legal factors. The Communities, however, encountered similar challenges and enabling factors. Organizations undertaking collaborative data sharing, performance measurement and clinical transformation can learn from the Beacon Communities’ experience. PMID:25848619

A Survey of Student Attitudes on the Use of Social Networking to Build Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arndt, Timothy

2012-01-01

Post-secondary students are increasingly receiving instruction by distance learning. This mode of learning can result in the students learning in isolation, with bad results in learning outcomes. The same type of isolation can occur for part-time students and those who are working while taking classes. In such circumstances, we believe that it…

A Service-Learning Exercise in Building Civil Engagement in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moguel, David L.

2003-01-01

Service learning can be a vehicle to promote democracy in the teacher education classroom. Incorporating service learning into a teacher education program is an uphill battle: teacher candidates lead complicated lives with professional and family responsibilities, some continue long-standing volunteer commitments to their communities, and course…

Restorative Practices: Graduate Students' Perspectives Seen through a Transformative Learning Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adamson, Craig W.

2012-01-01

This dissertation explores students' learning experiences in a newly accredited graduate school focused on Restorative Practices Theory, which enables people to restore and build community collectively. This exploration was conducted using a Transformative Adult Learning Theory lens in order to understand graduate students' perspectives regarding…

Mobile Learning: At the Tipping Point

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Teresa

2011-01-01

Mobile technologies are interfacing with all aspects of our lives including Web 2.0 tools and applications, immersive virtual world environments, and online environments to present educational opportunities for 24/7 learning at the learner's discretion. Mobile devices are allowing educators to build new community learning ecosystems for and by…

Challenging Common Sense: Cases of School Reform for Learning Community under an International Cooperation Project in Bac Giang Province, Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Eisuke; Tsukui, Atsushi

2008-01-01

This paper aims to discuss the challenges in the process of building a learning community in Vietnamese primary schools. Five lessons emerge from the cases. First, changing teachers' beliefs is time-consuming. Second, because of the reluctance of teachers to change, large-scale delivery of the educational project should be critically revisited…

Popular Education for the Environment: Building Interest in the Educational Dimension of Social Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whelan, James

2005-01-01

Community-based environmental education is an important part of the sustainability project. Along with regulation and market-based instruments, adult learning and education in non-formal settings consistently features in the sustainability strategies advocated and implemented by government, community and industry entities. Community-situated…

Assessing Community College Student Learning Outcomes: Where Are We? What's Next?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syed, Syraj; Mojock, Charles R.

2008-01-01

The Community College Leadership Consortium is building the Bellwether Coalition for Instructional Leadership toward the development of a voluntary system of accountability for community colleges. In response to the Spellings Commission's national call for accountability in higher education, the consortium and its partners convened an Independent…

Poverty Simulations: Building Relationships among Extension, Schools, and the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franck, Karen L.; Barnes, Shelly; Harrison, Julie

2016-01-01

Poverty simulations can be effective experiential learning tools for educating community members about the impact of poverty on families. The project described here includes survey results from three simulations with community leaders and teachers. This project illustrated how such workshops can help Extension professionals extend their reach and…

Using Community-Based Research to Improve Bsw Students' Learning in Community Practice: Bringing the Macro into Focus for Traditional and Distance Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lucero, Jessica L.; Evers, Jenifer; Roark, Jennifer; Parker, David

2017-01-01

This article describes community-university partnership building, course development/management, and evaluation outcomes related to an intensive community-based research project that was integrated in two sections of an undergraduate course on community practice. Pre- and posttest data were collected from 60 BSW students who were enrolled in…

Science Alive!: Connecting with Elementary Students through Science Exploration.

PubMed

Raja, Aarti; Lavin, Emily Schmitt; Gali, Tamara; Donovan, Kaitlin

2016-05-01

A novel program called Science Alive! was developed by undergraduate faculty members, K-12 school teachers, and undergraduate students to enrich science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literacy at community schools located near the university. The ultimate goal of the program is to bolster the scientific knowledge and appreciation of local area students and community members and serve as a model for similar programs. Through the program, we observed that elementary school students made gains toward learning their grade-level science curricula after a hands-on learning experience and had fun doing these hands-on activities. Through the program, undergraduate students, working with graduate students and alumni, build scientific learning modules using explanatory handouts and creative activities as classroom exercises. This helps better integrate scientific education through a collaborative, hands-on learning program. Results showed that elementary school students made the highest learning gains in their performance on higher-level questions related to both forces and matter as a result of the hands-on learning modules. Additionally, college students enjoyed the hands-on activities, would consider volunteering their time at such future events, and saw the service learning program as a benefit to their professional development through community building and discipline-specific service. The science modules were developed according to grade-level curricular standards and can be used year after year to teach or explain a scientific topic to elementary school students via a hands-on learning approach.

Building capacity for cognitive behavioral therapy delivery for depression in disaster-impacted contexts.

PubMed

Ngo, Victoria K; Centanni, Angela; Wong, Eunice; Wennerstrom, Ashley; Miranda, Jeanne

2011-01-01

Numerous challenges exist in implementing evidence-based practices, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, in resource poor, ethnic minority, and/or disaster-affected communities with disparities in mental health. Community-academic participatory partnerships are a promising approach to addressing disparities by implementing community-appropriate, evidence-based depression care. A community-academic collaborative was formed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to expand resources for effective depression care, including cognitive behavioral therapy. In this article, we: 1) describe our model of building capacity to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in post-disaster community-based settings; 2) discuss the impact of this training program on therapist reported practice; and 3) share lessons learned regarding disseminating and sustaining evidence-based interventions in the context of a disaster impacted community. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that this model was feasible, acceptable, and disseminated knowledge about cognitive behavioral therapy in community settings. Over the course of two years, community providers demonstrated the feasibility of implementing evidence-based practice and potential for local community leadership. The lessons learned from this model of implementation may help address barriers to disseminating evidence-based interventions in other low-resource, disaster-impacted community settings.

Learning Spaces as a Strategic Priority

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, Gene; Erwin, Tom; Barnes, Briony

2009-01-01

In April 2007 Butler Community College made learning spaces one of its five strategic priorities. The college had just completed a major renovation of the work spaces for the IT division and had started a project to build a student union and create informal learning spaces at the Andover campus. With learning spaces becoming a strategic priority,…

Mobile Blogs in Language Learning: Making the Most of Informal and Situated Learning Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comas-Quinn, Anna; Mardomingo, Raquel; Valentine, Chris

2009-01-01

The application of mobile technologies to learning has the potential to facilitate the active participation of learners in the creation and delivery of content. Mobile technologies can also provide a powerful connection between a variety of formal and informal learning contexts and can help to build a community of learners. However these versatile…

A whole community approach to emergency management: Strategies and best practices of seven community programs.

PubMed

Sobelson, Robyn K; Wigington, Corinne J; Harp, Victoria; Bronson, Bernice B

2015-01-01

In 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published the Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes, and Pathways for Action, outlining the need for increased individual preparedness and more widespread community engagement to enhance the overall resiliency and security of communities. However, there is limited evidence of how to build a whole community approach to emergency management that provides real-world, practical examples and applications. This article reports on the strategies and best practices gleaned from seven community programs fostering a whole community approach to emergency management. The project team engaged in informal conversations with community stakeholders to learn about their programs during routine monitoring activities, site visits, and during an in-person, facilitated workshop. A total of 88 community members associated with the programs examples contributed. Qualitative analysis was conducted. The findings highlighted best practices gleaned from the seven programs that other communities can leverage to build and maintain their own whole community programs. The findings from the programs also support and validate the three principles and six strategic themes outlined by FEMA. The findings, like the whole community document, highlight the importance of understanding the community, building relationships, empowering action, and fostering social capital to build a whole community approach.

The Urban Context: A Place to Eliminate Health Disparities and Build Organizational Capacity

PubMed Central

GILBERT, KEON L.; QUINN, SANDRA CROUSE; FORD, ANGELA F.; THOMAS, STEPHEN B.

2011-01-01

This study seeks to examine the process of building the capacity to address health disparities in several urban African American neighborhoods. An inter-organizational network consisting of a research university, community members, community organizations, media partners, and foundations was formed to develop a community-based intervention designed to provide health promotion and disease prevention strategies for type 2 diabetes and hypertension. In-depth qualitative interviews (n = 18) with foundation executives and project directors, civic organization leadership, community leaders, county epidemiologist, and university partners were conducted. Our study contextualizes a process to build a public health partnership using cultural, community, organizational, and societal factors necessary to address health disparities. Results showed 5 important factors to build organizational capacity: leadership, institutional commitment, trust, credibility, and inter-organizational networks. These factors reflected other important organizational and community capacity indicators such as: community context, organizational policies, practices and structures, and the establishment of new commitments and partnerships important to comprehensively address urban health disparities. Understanding these factors to address African American health disparities will provide lessons learned for health educators, researchers, practitioners, foundations, and communities interested in building and sustaining capacity efforts through the design, implementation, and maintenance of a community-based health promotion intervention. PMID:21271434

The impact of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students.

PubMed

Champaloux, Eve Privman; Keeley, Meg G

2016-01-01

Medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA) are mentored and learn within the framework of a four college learning community. Uniquely, these learning communities are used to organize the third-year clerkship rotations. Students were surveyed after their first pre-clinical year and after their clerkship year to determine what the effect of the learning community was on their social and educational interpersonal relationships. Students knew a higher percentage of their college mates after completing their third-year clerkships within the framework of the college system. Students chose peers from within the college system for social and educational interpersonal scenarios statistically more often than what would be expected at random. Small group learning environments that were not formed within the framework of the college system at UVA did not have the same effect on interpersonal relationships, indicating that learning communities are uniquely able to provide a context for relationship building. Students felt more positively about the social and educational effects of the college system after the clerkship year, with a corresponding increase in the strength of their interpersonal bonds with their college peers. This work is the first to investigate the effects of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students and finds that learning communities positively impact both social and educational medical student bonds.

Developing and Conducting a Dissertation Study through the Community-Based Participatory Research Approach.

PubMed

Nadimpalli, S B; Van Devanter, N; Kavathe, R; Islam, N

2016-06-01

The community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach has been shown to be innovative and effective in conducting research with communities experiencing health disparities. Doctoral nursing students, and other doctoral students in the health sciences, who are interested in this approach can benefit through structured CBPR training experiences in learning how to engage with communities, build community capacity, share resources, implement CBPR study plans, and disseminate results of CBPR-focused studies. The objectives of this case-study are to demonstrate ways in which one doctoral student aligned with academic mentors and a funded CBPR project to build a relationship with the Sikh Asian Indian (AI) community of New York City to develop and implement a CBPR-focused doctoral dissertation study. The purpose of the research was to examine the relationship between the experience of perceived discrimination and health outcomes in this community. CBPR methods utilized in developing the study entailed the author partaking in formal and informal CBPR learning experiences, building relationships with community and academic partners early on through volunteering, developing a research plan in collaboration with members of the community and academic partners, identifying an appropriate setting and methods for recruitment and data collection, increasing capacity and resources for all partners (the author, community, and academic), and presenting dissertation study findings to the community. In conclusion, CBPR-focused doctoral experiences are novel pedagogical and professional approaches for nursing and health science students which can lead to mutual benefits for all involved, and ultimately successful and effective community-based health research.

CoP Sensing Framework on Web-Based Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mustapha, S. M. F. D. Syed

The Web technologies and Web applications have shown similar high growth rate in terms of daily usages and user acceptance. The Web applications have not only penetrated in the traditional domains such as education and business but have also encroached into areas such as politics, social, lifestyle, and culture. The emergence of Web technologies has enabled Web access even to the person on the move through PDAs or mobile phones that are connected using Wi-Fi, HSDPA, or other communication protocols. These two phenomena are the inducement factors toward the need of building Web-based systems as the supporting tools in fulfilling many mundane activities. In doing this, one of the many focuses in research has been to look at the implementation challenges in building Web-based support systems in different types of environment. This chapter describes the implementation issues in building the community learning framework that can be supported on the Web-based platform. The Community of Practice (CoP) has been chosen as the community learning theory to be the case study and analysis as it challenges the creativity of the architectural design of the Web system in order to capture the presence of learning activities. The details of this chapter describe the characteristics of the CoP to understand the inherent intricacies in modeling in the Web-based environment, the evidences of CoP that need to be traced automatically in a slick manner such that the evidence-capturing process is unobtrusive, and the technologies needed to embrace a full adoption of Web-based support system for the community learning framework.

Pharmacogenetic research in partnership with American Indian and Alaska Native communities

PubMed Central

Woodahl, Erica L; Lesko, Lawrence J; Hopkins, Scarlett; Robinson, Renee F; Thummel, Kenneth E; Burke, Wylie

2014-01-01

Pharmacogenetics is a subset of personalized medicine that applies knowledge about genetic variation in gene–drug pairs to help guide optimal dosing. There is a lack of data, however, about pharmacogenetic variation in underserved populations. One strategy for increasing participation of underserved populations in pharmacogenetic research is to include communities in the research process. We have established academic–community partnerships with American Indian and Alaska Native people living in Alaska and Montana to study pharmacogenetics. Key features of the partnership include community oversight of the project, research objectives that address community health priorities, and bidirectional learning that builds capacity in both the community and the research team. Engaging the community as coresearchers can help build trust to advance pharmacogenetic research objectives. PMID:25141898

Web 2.0 systems supporting childhood chronic disease management: design guidelines based on information behaviour and social learning theories.

PubMed

Ekberg, Joakim; Ericson, Leni; Timpka, Toomas; Eriksson, Henrik; Nordfeldt, Sam; Hanberger, Lena; Ludvigsson, Johnny

2010-04-01

Self-directed learning denotes that the individual is in command of what should be learned and why it is important. In this study, guidelines for the design of Web 2.0 systems for supporting diabetic adolescents' every day learning needs are examined in light of theories about information behaviour and social learning. A Web 2.0 system was developed to support a community of practice and social learning structures were created to support building of relations between members on several levels in the community. The features of the system included access to participation in the culture of diabetes management practice, entry to information about the community and about what needs to be learned to be a full practitioner or respected member in the community, and free sharing of information, narratives and experience-based knowledge. After integration with the key elements derived from theories of information behaviour, a preliminary design guideline document was formulated.

Values Transmission: Some Issues and an Idea.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shannon, Gary J.; Selinger, Alphonse D.

1980-01-01

The teaching of moral values should involve the building of considerable structure that can easily be integrated into the existing curriculum. This program would contain seven components: personalizing the environment, building community feeling, cooperative learning, developing awareness, encouraging self-respect and respect for others, and…

Building Learning into the Teaching Job.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renyi, Judith

1998-01-01

A two-year study of professional development recommended that schools build professional development into school life via flexible scheduling and extended time blocks; help teachers assume responsibility for their own professional development; find common ground with the community via resource sharing; and find revenues to support professional…

Close Calls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erickson, Paul

2010-01-01

As student enrollment drops, school districts need less learning space and fewer facilities. With cuts in funding, budgets cannot sustain existing building operations and program costs, and buildings must be taken offline or repurposed for financial efficiency. How does a community address this issue? Whether a district is having to shutter…

Service Learning: High School Social Studies Students "Building Bridges" to the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cranford, Sara L.

2011-01-01

This case study examined the relationships between the programmatic features of service learning and student willingness to participate in and development during a service learning opportunity in the secondary, Social Studies classroom. The sample included two sections of Advanced Placement Psychology which consisted of 58 junior and senior…

From Periphery to Core: The Increasing Relevance of Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Business Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodge, Laurin; Proudford, Karen L.; Holt, Harry, Jr.

2014-01-01

Business educators have been challenged to provide a learning experience that prepares graduates to successfully compete in a dynamic business environment. The insistence on building demonstrable competencies prior to entering the workforce has led to a shift in the academic community. Experiential learning has gone from the uncommon, exceptional…

Using Social Media as a Tool for Learning: A Multi-Disciplinary Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delello, Julie A.; McWhorter, Rochell R.; Camp, Kerri M.

2015-01-01

In order to explore the rich dynamics of using social media as a tool for learning within higher education classrooms, researchers across three disciplines: education, human resource development (HRD), and marketing, joined forces seeking ways to focus on learning through a retrospective analysis. Three concepts--engagement, community building,…

New Trends in the Study of Social Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yaguchi, Etsuko

2009-01-01

Social education is seen as one important way of building a learning society, through supporting people in solving their daily problems. In a learning society, people could participate in a big project to develop their community as well as enjoying learning, without being excluded because of economic status, gender, age or ethnicity. Implementing…

The Conundrum of Training and Capacity Building for People with Learning Disabilities Doing Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nind, Melanie; Chapman, Rohhss; Seale, Jane; Tilley, Liz

2016-01-01

Background: This study explores the training involved when people with learning disabilities take their place in the community as researchers. This was a theme in a recent UK seminar series where a network of researchers explored pushing the boundaries of participatory research. Method: Academics, researchers with learning disabilities, supporters…

Student Interaction and Community Building: An Evaluation of Social Networking in Online Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardona-Divale, Maria Victoria

2012-01-01

Learners often report difficulty maintaining social connectivity in online courses. Technology is quickly changing how people communicate, collaborate and learn using online social networking sites (SNSs). These sites have transformed education in a way that provides new learning opportunities when integrated with web 2.0 tools. Little research is…

Supporting Latino communities' natural helpers: a case study of promotoras in a research capacity building course.

PubMed

Otiniano, Angie Denisse; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Toy, Peggy; Wallace, Steven P

2012-08-01

Promotores have unique access to underserved and hard-to-reach Latino communities facing health disparities. Although promotores are involved in community change, they rarely receive training that gives them the skills to be partners in research. We present a case study of promotoras who participated in a research capacity building course focused on assessing community health needs. Data comes from course application surveys, follow-up notes, and narratives from qualitative phone interviews of eight promotoras. Content analysis drawing from grounded theory was conducted to identify and describe emerging themes. Four themes emerged as promotoras discussed their experience learning basic research skills and teaching others: (1) challenges, (2) support, (3) building capacity, and (4) using research. Promotores play an important role in the health of Latino communities and are increasingly asked to participate in research processes; however they have few opportunities for training and professional development in this area. Capacity building opportunities for promotores need to be tailored to their needs and provide them with support. Fostering collaboration between promotores and partnering with local community-based organizations can help facilitate needed research skill-building among promotores.

The Important Elements of LMS Design That Affect User Engagement with E-Learning Tools within LMSs in the Higher Education Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zanjani, Nastaran; Edwards, Sylvia L.; Nykvist, Shaun; Geva, Shlomo

2017-01-01

In recent years, universities have been under increased pressure to adopt e-learning practices for teaching and learning. In particular, the emphasis has been on learning management systems (LMSs) and associated collaboration tools to provide opportunities for sharing knowledge, building a community of learners, and supporting higher order…

"Learning Shock" and Student Veterans: Bridging the Learning Environments of the Military and the Academy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blaauw-Hara, Mark

2017-01-01

In this article, I provide an overview of student veterans' experiences learning in the military, from the ways the armed forces operate as a community of practice to how they build the competence of their service-members through application of andragogical principles. I then contrast the learning environment of the military to that of college,…

New Model, New Strategies: Instructional Design for Building Online Wisdom Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunawardena, Charlotte N.; Ortegano-Layne, Ludmila; Carabajal, Kayleigh; Frechette, Casey; Lindemann, Ken; Jennings, Barbara

2006-01-01

We discuss the development of an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities), based on socio-constructivist and sociocultural learning philosophies and distance education principles for the development of online wisdom communities, and the application and evaluation of the model in an online graduate course in the USA. The WisCom model…

Creating a Community of Learners in a Middle School Methods Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Souza, Lisa Andries

2017-01-01

This examination of practice aims to share pedagogical practices, grounded in the research of teaching and learning, for building a community of learners in teacher education coursework. The pedagogical exploration supports explicit modeling of strategies to support teacher candidates in their mission to develop a community of learners in their…

Context, "Cuckoo's Nest," and the Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafer, Gregory

2016-01-01

The community college is an excellent place for the creation of a special, more empowering learning context. Unlike the university, where students are supposed to adjust to the world of scholarly erudition, the community college is the crazy academic brother that has the freedom to be different and to liberate students to build upon their own…

A University Department as a Community of Practice: A Quality Promotion Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bitzer, E. M.

2010-01-01

Wenger (2000, 229) describes communities of practice as the "basic building blocks of a social learning system" since they are the "social containers" that make up such a system. By practising in academic communities, academics define with one another what constitutes academic competence and, for that matter, what constitutes…

Two-Year Community: Construction with Scaffolds: Helping Community College Students Build Explanations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Steve; Gotwals, Amelia Wenk

2017-01-01

Science education reform documents call for students to learn science by engaging in inquiry and using science practices. One such science practice is constructing evidence-based explanations. Few students enter community college science classrooms having experience with, or being proficient in, using evidence to explain scientific phenomena.…

Servant-Leadership: The Online Way! E-Learning Where Community Building Is Key

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van de Bunt-Kokhuis, Sylvia; Sultan, Nabil

2012-01-01

The digitalisation of educational communities has increased rapidly in the last decade. Modern technologies transform the way educational leaders such as teachers, tutors, deans and supervisors view and manage their educational communities. More often, educational leaders offer a variety of gateways, guiding the e-learners in their search for…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education. Part I: Building an Understanding of Family and Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific, 2014

2014-01-01

This toolkit is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. This toolkit offers an integrated approach to family and community engagement, bringing together research, promising practices, and a wide range of useful tools and resources with explanations and directions…

Into the Community and Not on the Shelf: Learning to Develop a Meaningful HIV/AIDS Curriculum for Multiple Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Tasha

2014-01-01

This paper describes the process involved in creating a community-based training curriculum designed to build capacity and foster new knowledge in support of HIV/AIDS education. Highlighted are the challenges and triumphs incurred while working with community and academic partners to ensure the production of an adaptable curriculum designed to…

Critical Community Conversations: Cultivating the Elusive Dialogue about Racism with Parents, Community Members, and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Love, Bettina L.; Muhammad, Gholnecsar E.

2017-01-01

This article highlights how two researchers started Critical Community Conversations (CCC) with a school community in an effort to learn from one another and build solidarity. The intent was for CCC to focus on some of the most pressing issues facing our nation, state, and local neighborhoods, with a special lens on racism.

Environmental Learning Centers: A Template.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vozick, Eric

1999-01-01

Provides a working model, or template, for community-based environmental learning centers (ELCs). The template presents a philosophy as well as a plan for staff and administration operations, educational programming, and financial support. The template also addresses "green" construction and maintenance of buildings and grounds and…

The Army Family Team Building Program: Facilitating a Transformative Learning Process--An Intrinsic Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gall, Joseph A.

2009-01-01

This study sought to understand how the Army Family Team Building program influences self-reliance and self-sufficiency in Army spouses as they integrate into the Army community. The purpose of the Army Family Team Building program is to empower Army spouses with knowledge and skills, which foster well-being and improve quality of life. The…

Andragogy--A Mantra for US/Iraqi Cross-Cultural Dialogue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahdi, Ghada S.; Bright, Larry K.

2010-01-01

Andragogical precepts provide rich opportunities for building cultural bridges, particularly among people in times of strife. Encouraging adults to share their experiences and insights in a learning community of unconditional positive regard can build understanding, hope, and peace among people experiencing conflict and marginalization. An…

Report of the NIACE International Women's Day Conference, March 1992. Building on Achievements: Women's Education and Training into the Twenty-First Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCaffery, Juliet; And Others

1992-01-01

Includes "Introduction" (McCaffery, Edmond-Smith); "Celebrating Achievements" (Hancock); "Building for Future" (Coleman); "Women in Community" (Patel); "Education/Training for Older Women" (Cooper, Kennedy); "Women with Disabilities" (Goddard); "Open/Distance Learning"…

Leadership Magazine. Volume 34, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leadership, 2004

2004-01-01

Every month, "Leadership" features articles written in an informal, conversational style that provide practical information for school administrators. This issue of "Leadership" contains the following titles: (1) "Building Communities of Practice: Creating Small Learning Communities of School Leaders that Support Teacher Development Has a…

NAC/NINE Program Building Radio Jove's and Brining Radio Astronomy to the Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramona Gallego, Angelina; Paul Gueye, Al Amin Kabir,

2018-01-01

During the course of the 8-week program, (NINE, National and International Non-Traditional Exchange Program), the summer was spent in Socorro, New Mexico, working on building a Radio Jove, and making observations with the Radio Jove as well as working on learning project management practices in order to take the CAPM PMI Exam. The NINE built the Radio Jove’s at the same time and in doing so learned to replicate it to teach it to others. The final portion of the program that was worked on was to create a NINE hub and do outreach with the community teaching them about radio astronomy and teaching students how to build their own Radio Jove’s and make observations. An important aspect of the summer program was to bring back the knowledge received about radio astronomy and teach it to high school students with the help of the institution each NINE participants came from.

CAPACITY BUILDING PROCESS IN ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR A THAI COMMUNITY.

PubMed

Chaithui, Suthat; Sithisarankul, Pornchai; Hengpraprom, Sarunya

2017-03-01

This research aimed at exploring the development of the capacitybuilding process in environmental and health impact assessment, including the consideration of subsequent, capacity-building achievements. Data were gathered through questionnaires, participatory observations, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and capacity building checklist forms. These data were analyzed using content analysis, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics. Our study used the components of the final draft for capacity-building processes consisting of ten steps that were formulated by synthesis from each respective process. Additionally, the evaluation of capacity building levels was performed using 10-item evaluation criteria for nine communities. The results indicated that the communities performed well under these criteria. Finally, exploration of the factors influencing capacity building in environmental and health impact assessment indicated that the learning of community members by knowledge exchange via activities and study visits were the most influential factors of the capacity building processes in environmental and health impact assessment. The final revised version of capacitybuilding process in environmental and health impact assessment could serve as a basis for the consideration of interventions in similar areas, so that they increased capacity in environmental and health impact assessments.

Dissemination as Dialogue: Building Trust and Sharing Research Findings Through Community Engagement.

PubMed

McDavitt, Bryce; Bogart, Laura M; Mutchler, Matt G; Wagner, Glenn J; Green, Harold D; Lawrence, Sean Jamar; Mutepfa, Kieta D; Nogg, Kelsey A

2016-03-17

A fundamental feature of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is sharing findings with community members and engaging community partners in the dissemination process. To be truly collaborative, dissemination should involve community members in a two-way dialogue about new research findings. Yet little literature describes how to engage communities in dialogue about research findings, especially with historically marginalized communities where mistrust of researchers may exist because of past or present social injustices. Through a series of interactive community presentations on findings from a longitudinal study, we developed a process for community dissemination that involved several overlapping phases: planning, outreach, content development, interactive presentations, and follow-up. Through this process, we built on existing and new community relationships. Following each interactive presentation, the research team debriefed and reviewed notes to identify lessons learned from the process. Key themes included the importance of creating a flexible dissemination plan, tailoring presentations to each community group, establishing a point person to serve as a community liaison, and continuing dialogue with community members after the presentations. Core strategies for developing trust during dissemination included engaging community members at every step, reserving ample time for discussion during presentations, building rapport by sharing personal experiences, being receptive to and learning from criticism, and implementing input from community members. This process led to a deeper understanding of research findings and ensured that results reached community members who were invested in them.

Dissemination as Dialogue: Building Trust and Sharing Research Findings Through Community Engagement

PubMed Central

Bogart, Laura M.; Mutchler, Matt G.; Wagner, Glenn J.; Green, Harold D.; Lawrence, Sean Jamar; Mutepfa, Kieta D.; Nogg, Kelsey A.

2016-01-01

A fundamental feature of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is sharing findings with community members and engaging community partners in the dissemination process. To be truly collaborative, dissemination should involve community members in a two-way dialogue about new research findings. Yet little literature describes how to engage communities in dialogue about research findings, especially with historically marginalized communities where mistrust of researchers may exist because of past or present social injustices. Through a series of interactive community presentations on findings from a longitudinal study, we developed a process for community dissemination that involved several overlapping phases: planning, outreach, content development, interactive presentations, and follow-up. Through this process, we built on existing and new community relationships. Following each interactive presentation, the research team debriefed and reviewed notes to identify lessons learned from the process. Key themes included the importance of creating a flexible dissemination plan, tailoring presentations to each community group, establishing a point person to serve as a community liaison, and continuing dialogue with community members after the presentations. Core strategies for developing trust during dissemination included engaging community members at every step, reserving ample time for discussion during presentations, building rapport by sharing personal experiences, being receptive to and learning from criticism, and implementing input from community members. This process led to a deeper understanding of research findings and ensured that results reached community members who were invested in them. PMID:26986541

Stop waiting and start creating: service learning with an outpatient bone marrow transplant unit art cart program.

PubMed

Fletcher, Tina; Bayer, Christina; Beyer, Emily; Gonzales, Jessica; Ralston, Ashley; Yount, Phyllis

2013-01-01

This paper examines how master of occupational therapy students, their occupational therapy instructor, and a community-based licensed clinical social worker collaborated in a service learning art cart program on an outpatient bone marrow transplant unit. As they progressed through the phases of Kolb's model of service learning, occupational therapy students, their occupational therapy instructor, and the licensed clinical social worker were all able to meet mutual goals of serving a unique patient population, increasing knowledge of best practices, and building and fostering university/community relationships.

Community Building, Emergent Design and Expecting the Unexpected: Creating a Quality eLearning Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Terrie Lynn; MacDonald, Colla J.

2005-01-01

Given the extraordinary interest and growth in eLearning as a learning tool and as an industry, it is not surprising there is lively debate on quality. A research-based and tested eLearning model was used to design and evaluate an online M.Ed. course in order to study factors that influence the quality of an eLearning event. Several data…

Identifying and Supporting Productive Collaborative Teacher Talk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flarend, Alice M.

As improvements and changes in science education are promulgated, science teachers must be educated about these changes. Professional development programs are central to promoting teacher learning. Although the field seems to have agreed upon large-scalepedagogical features of high quality professional development with an emphasis on building a collaborative community of learners, effective implementation of these features is still problematic. The connections between these collaborative features and actual teacher work during the professional development remain unclear. This qualitative discourse study investigated how teachers engaged in small group discussions use discourse to collaborate during a weeklong professional development program that employed these useful pedagogical features. Small group discussions among the forty-two participants, diverse in their demographics and teaching experiences, were video and audio recorded. A collaborative discourse framework is developed and applied to the discussions, successfully categorizing episodes of discourse according to their productive potential for learning. The structure of the PD activities is then investigated to determine characteristics encouraging to these productive learning conversations. The analysis in this study indicated requiring groups to come to a consensus helps groups dig deeper into the content, promoting a more productive negotiation of concepts. Building consensus around an artifact such as a graph strengthened the need for consensus and thereby strengthened the opportunities for productive conversation. In addition, professional development activities that target building and using specific language were also opportunities for productive learning talk, providing opportunities to negotiate the deep meaning of words and concepts rather then leaving them unexamined. When viewed through the lens of Wenger's Community of Practice (1998) these findings are ways of strengthening the community. Consensus strengthens the mutual accountability and the purposeful building of vocabulary strengthens the shared repertoire, as did having the consensus artifact.

Science Alive!: Connecting with Elementary Students through Science Exploration†

PubMed Central

Raja, Aarti; Lavin, Emily Schmitt; Gali, Tamara; Donovan, Kaitlin

2016-01-01

A novel program called Science Alive! was developed by undergraduate faculty members, K–12 school teachers, and undergraduate students to enrich science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literacy at community schools located near the university. The ultimate goal of the program is to bolster the scientific knowledge and appreciation of local area students and community members and serve as a model for similar programs. Through the program, we observed that elementary school students made gains toward learning their grade-level science curricula after a hands-on learning experience and had fun doing these hands-on activities. Through the program, undergraduate students, working with graduate students and alumni, build scientific learning modules using explanatory handouts and creative activities as classroom exercises. This helps better integrate scientific education through a collaborative, hands-on learning program. Results showed that elementary school students made the highest learning gains in their performance on higher-level questions related to both forces and matter as a result of the hands-on learning modules. Additionally, college students enjoyed the hands-on activities, would consider volunteering their time at such future events, and saw the service learning program as a benefit to their professional development through community building and discipline-specific service. The science modules were developed according to grade-level curricular standards and can be used year after year to teach or explain a scientific topic to elementary school students via a hands-on learning approach. PMID:27158309

Children, Families, and Public Schools: Building Community Alliances for Learning. The National Education Association's Annual Conference on Human and Civil Rights in Education (23rd, February 22-24, 1985). NEA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association, Washington, DC.

This conference addressed the problems of children whose circumstances limit their ability to learn, their access to equal educational opportunity, and their basic civil rights, and the role of National Education Association (NEA) members and their communities in solving these problems. The keynote address by Blandina Cardenas Ramirez, excerpted…

The impact of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students

PubMed Central

Champaloux, Eve Privman; Keeley, Meg G.

2016-01-01

Background Medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA) are mentored and learn within the framework of a four college learning community. Uniquely, these learning communities are used to organize the third-year clerkship rotations. Methods Students were surveyed after their first pre-clinical year and after their clerkship year to determine what the effect of the learning community was on their social and educational interpersonal relationships. Results Students knew a higher percentage of their college mates after completing their third-year clerkships within the framework of the college system. Students chose peers from within the college system for social and educational interpersonal scenarios statistically more often than what would be expected at random. Small group learning environments that were not formed within the framework of the college system at UVA did not have the same effect on interpersonal relationships, indicating that learning communities are uniquely able to provide a context for relationship building. Students felt more positively about the social and educational effects of the college system after the clerkship year, with a corresponding increase in the strength of their interpersonal bonds with their college peers. Conclusion This work is the first to investigate the effects of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students and finds that learning communities positively impact both social and educational medical student bonds. PMID:27806828

Strategic Relationship Management in School Public Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hair, Mary John; O'Hair, H. Dan; Lee, Renee; Averso, Randy

2006-01-01

Research supports the need for schools to operate as professional learning communities fueled by a supportive accurate understanding of collaborative relationships among school stakeholders. These relationships are necessary to build trust and foster discourse focused on improved teaching and learning practices and increased student achievement.…

Principal Leadership of Data Team Protocols within a Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Charmelle

2014-01-01

The following document represents a Problem Based Learning Project (PBL) focusing on school leadership practices leading to increased student achievement. Current research findings indicate effective principals recognize the importance of building teacher capacity through promoting collaborative team work. School principals effectively leading…

Modeling the Delivery Physiology of Distributed Learning Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paquette, Gilbert; Rosca, Ioan

2003-01-01

Discusses instructional delivery models and their physiology in distributed learning systems. Highlights include building delivery models; types of delivery models, including distributed classroom, self-training on the Web, online training, communities of practice, and performance support systems; and actors (users) involved, including experts,…

Developing learning community model with soft skill integration for the building engineering apprenticeship programme in vocational high school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutrisno, Dardiri, Ahmad; Sugandi, R. Machmud

2017-09-01

This study aimed to address the procedure, effectiveness, and problems in the implementation of learning model for Building Engineering Apprenticeship Training Programme. This study was carried out through survey method and experiment. The data were collected using questionnaire, test, and assessment sheet. The collected data were examined through description, t-test, and covariance analysis. The results of the study showed that (1) the model's procedure covered preparation course, readiness assessment, assignment distribution, handing over students to apprenticeship instructors, task completion, assisting, field assessment, report writing, and follow-up examination, (2) the Learning Community model could significantly improve students' active learning, but not improve students' hard skills and soft skills, and (3) the problems emerging in the implementation of the model were (1) students' difficulties in finding apprenticeship places and qualified instructors, and asking for relevant tasks, (2) teachers' difficulties in determining relevant tasks and monitoring students, and (3) apprenticeship instructors' difficulties in assigning, monitoring, and assessing students.

Towards a lifelong learning society through reading promotion: Opportunities and challenges for libraries and community learning centres in Viet Nam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hossain, Zakir

2016-04-01

The government of Viet Nam has made a commitment to build a Lifelong Learning Society by 2020. A range of related initiatives have been launched, including the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Centre for Lifelong Learning (SEAMEO CELLL) and "Book Day" - a day aimed at encouraging reading and raising awareness of its importance for the development of knowledge and skills. Viet Nam also aims to implement lifelong learning (LLL) activities in libraries, museums, cultural centres and clubs. The government of Viet Nam currently operates more than 11,900 Community Learning Centres (CLCs) and is in the process of both renovating and innovating public libraries and museums throughout the country. In addition to the work undertaken by the Viet Nam government, a number of enterprises have been initiated by non-governmental organisations and non-profit organisations to promote literacy and lifelong learning. This paper investigates some government initiatives focused on libraries and CLCs and their impact on reading promotion. Proposing a way forward, the paper confirms that Viet Nam's libraries and CLCs play an essential role in promoting reading and building a LLL Society.

A Strategy to Learn How to Build Scientific-Education and Outreach Partnerships in the Ocean Sciences: COSEE Ocean Learning Communities.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keil, R. G.; Bell, P. L.; Bittner, M. S.; Robigou, V.; Sider, K.

2005-12-01

The College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences and the College of Education at the University of Washington, the Seattle Aquarium, and the California Maritime Academy formed a partnership to establish a Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) labeled "Ocean Learning Communities." The COSEE-OLC will join the national network of NSF-funded centers that provide a catalytic environment in which partnerships between ocean researchers and educators flourish. The COSEE network contributes to the national advancement of ocean science education by sharing high-quality K-12 or informal education programs, best practices and methodologies, and offering exemplary courses through the network and at national professional meetings. Building on the successes and lessons of the existing COSEE centers, the COSEE-OLC will foster collaborations among the oceanography research community, the science of learning community, informal and formal educators, the general public, and the maritime industry in the Northwest region and the West coast. The concept for this partnership is based on reaching out to traditionally underserved populations (from the businesses that use the sea or for which economic success depends on the oceans to the united native tribes), listening to their concerns and needs and how these can be addressed within the context of ocean-based research. The challenges of integrating education and outreach with scientific research programs are addressed by the center's main catalytic activity to create Ocean Learning Communities. These communities will be gatherings of traditionally disparate stakeholders including scientists, educators, representatives of businesses with a connection to the oceans, and citizens who derive economic or recreational sustenance from the oceans. The center's principal goal is to, through time and structured learning activities, support various communities 1) to develop a common language and 2) to make a commitment to creating collaborations that will improve ocean research and public awareness at the regional scale. Researchers in the science of learning will evaluate and study the successes and challenges of these regional approaches to better understand the development and sustainability of productive partnerships and to develop learning models to share and apply at the national level.

Team Building. Baldor Electric Company. [Facilitator Guide and Participant Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saint Louis Community Coll., MO. Workplace Literacy Services Center.

This document contains the facilitator and participant guides for a course in team building that was developed by a community college for a St. Louis (Missouri) electric company. The facilitator's guide contains the transparency masters, outlines, learning activities, questionnaires, and other handouts required for two course sessions. The first…

Teaching Building Science with Simulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatherly, Amanda

2017-01-01

Teaching building science to community college students can be challenging given both the macro (houses change subject to varying seasons) and the micro (heat transfer, moisture movement) level of the topics taught. Simulations and games can provide a way of learning material that can otherwise be difficult for students to understand. In this…

Healthy Relationships and Building Developmental Assets in Middle School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlisle, Mariko

2011-01-01

This action research project was designed to have the majority of middle school students engage in healthy relationships with their peers and teachers as the data suggested the need for improved interactions with others. Students contributed to team building lessons; implemented school community service learning projects; participated in an…

Building a Strong Foundation: Apprenticeships Provide Earning, Learning Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finkel, Ed

2016-01-01

Partnerships between community colleges and employers to create apprenticeships have been around for decades. These traditionally have covered fields like the building trades--electrical, construction and others--as well as heavy manufacturing like the automobile industry. Inspired partly by a new federal apprenticeship consortium--and $175…

Building Quality in Summer Learning Programs: Approaches and Recommendations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaughlin, Brenda; Pitcock, Sarah

2009-01-01

This report identifies the different settings in which summer programs for disadvantaged youth most commonly take place--schools, parks and recreation departments, community--and faith-based organizations, and child-care programs-- and examines the limitations and opportunities presented by each in building better programming. It reviews broadly…

Building Sustainable Research Engagements: Lessons Learned from Research with Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vukotich, Charles J., Jr.; Cousins, Jennifer; Stebbins, Samuel

2014-01-01

Engaged scholarship, translational science, integrated research, and interventionist research, all involve bringing research into a practical context. These usually require working with communities and institutions, and often involve community based participatory research. The article offers practical guidance for engaged research. The authors…

Will Learning Social Inclusion Assist Rural Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchant, Jillian

2013-01-01

Current research on social networks in some rural communities reports continuing demise despite efforts to build resilient communities. Several factors are identified as contributing to social decline including globalisation and rural social characteristics. Particular rural social characteristics, such as strong social bonds among members of…

Doing Math Together to Build Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rawding, Molly Rothermel; Call, Susan

2016-01-01

Last year, Annandale Terrace Elementary School (Annandale, Virginia) began exploring professional learning communities (PLC). In this article, two of Annandale's math coaches share the school's journey. On the basis of their own reflections, the coaches conclude with some recommendations for those considering embarking on a similar journey…

Towards a Lifelong Learning Society through Reading Promotion: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries and Community Learning Centres in Viet Nam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hossain, Zakir

2016-01-01

The government of Viet Nam has made a commitment to build a Lifelong Learning Society by 2020. A range of related initiatives have been launched, including the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Centre for Lifelong Learning (SEAMEO CELLL) and "Book Day"--a day aimed at encouraging reading and raising awareness of its…

A Model for an Open and Flexible E-Training Platform To Encourage Companies' Learning Culture and Meet Employees' Learning Needs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bagnasco, Andrea; Chirico, Marco; Parodi, Giancarlo; Scapolla, A. Marina

2003-01-01

Distance education is an answer to the demand for flexibility in training. The aim is to build a virtual learning community on the basis of a knowledge model that meets different learning needs. This article analyzes possible innovations in corporate training, and proposes a framework that integrates all information sources and offers practice…

Building an Inclusive Definition of E-Learning: An Approach to the Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangra, Albert; Vlachopoulos, Dimitrios; Cabrera, Nati

2012-01-01

E-learning is part of the new dynamic that characterises educational systems at the start of the 21st century. Like society, the concept of e-learning is subject to constant change. In addition, it is difficult to come up with a single definition of e-learning that would be accepted by the majority of the scientific community. The different…

The Wilson Bay Initiative, Riverworks, and the Sturgeon City Partnership: A Case Study for Building Effective Academic-Community Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Jay F.; Hargett, Glenn; McCann, J. P.; Potts, Pat Donovan; Pierce, Sheila

2011-01-01

This article describes North Carolina State University's Sturgeon City partnership, which has transformed an urban brownfield site into a community civic, recreational, and learning resource. The project was recognized in 2010 with the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award and the Outreach Scholarship W. K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement…

An Investigation of Knowledge-Building Activities in an Online Community of Practice at Subaru of America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Land, Susan M.; Draper, Darryl C.; Ma, Ziyan; Hsieh, Hsiu-Wei; Smith, Brian K.; Jordan, Robert

2009-01-01

Current approaches to workplace learning emphasize designing communities of practice that are intended to support both formal and informal knowledge acquisition. This article presents the design and research of a knowledge-based community of practice for Subaru, based on principles outlined by Scardamalia (2002) and Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon,…

Changing Lives: The Baltimore City Community College Life Sciences Partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Vanessa G.; Harris-Bondima, Michelle; Norris, Kathleen Kennedy; Williams, Carolane

2010-01-01

Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) leveraged heightened student interest and enrollment in the sciences and allied health with Maryland's world-leading biotechnology industry to build a community college life sciences learning and research center right on the University of Maryland, Baltimore's downtown BioPark campus. The BCCC Life Sciences…

Challenges, Strategies, and Lessons Learned from a Participatory Community Intervention Study to Promote Female Condoms among Rural Sex Workers in Southern China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weeks, Margaret R.; Liao, Susu; Li, Fei; Li, Jianghong; Dunn, Jennifer; He, Bin; He, Qiya; Feng, Weiping; Wang, Yanhong

2010-01-01

China faces a rapidly emerging HIV epidemic and nationwide resurgence of sexually transmitted infections associated with a growing sex industry. Community empowerment and capacity building through community-based participatory research partnerships show promise for developing, testing, and refining multilevel interventions suited to the local…

Prior Learning Assessment Practice Brief. Acceleration Strategies Series. TAACCCT Equipping Community Colleges for Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jobs For the Future, 2016

2016-01-01

This is the first brief in a series on strategies for Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) grantees and other educators. The Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) program is providing nearly $2 billion in funds to build the capacity of the nation's community…

College Ready: A 7M NSF MSP project to prepare pre- and in-service teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, Gay; Stewart, John

2009-05-01

The College Ready in Mathematics and Physics Partnership is comprised of 38 school districts, UA Fort Smith, and UA, Fayetteville, which will serve as the lead among these core partners, with supporting partners AAPT, APS, College Board, Mathematical Association of America, Maplesoft, and Northwest Arkansas Community College. College Ready will build vertical and horizontal learning communities among school and college faculty in order to improve major articulation issues that impact the successful transition of students from high school to college, targeting physics. College Ready will achieve these ends through a series of interconnected activities including vertical alignment of high school and college expectations, intensive content driven workshops, articulation conferences, university course revisions, the creation of professional learning communities, and the opportunity for teachers to earn advanced degrees and endorsements. It builds on and looks to establish synergy between established efforts of PhysTEC and PMET.

Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities.

PubMed

Shiel, Chris; Leal Filho, Walter; do Paço, Arminda; Brandli, Luciana

2016-02-01

Universities have the potential to play a leading role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working however, sustainable communities may only emerge with facilitation, community learning and continual efforts to build their capacities. Elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are needed. The latter entails approaches and processes that may contribute to community empowerment; universities may either lead such approaches, or be key partners in an endeavour to empower communities to address the challenges posed by the need for sustainable development. Although capacity building and the promotion of sustainable development locally, are on the agenda for universities who take seriously regional engagement, very little is published that illustrates or describes the various forms of activities that take place. Further, there is a paucity of studies that have evaluated the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development at the local level. This paper is an attempt to address this need, and entails an empirical study based on a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The paper examines the extent to which capacity building for sustainable development is being undertaken, suggests the forms that this might take and evaluates some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development; that role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education. Part 3: Building Trusting Relationships with Families & Community through Effective Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific, 2015

2015-01-01

This toolkit is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. This toolkit offers an integrated approach to family and community engagement, bringing together research, promising practices, and a wide range of useful tools and resources with explanations and directions…

An Early Look at Building a Social Learning for Sustainability Community of Practice: RCE Grand Rapids' Flagship Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glasser, Harold

2010-01-01

Grand Rapids is the first United Nations University (UNU) Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on education for sustainable development (ESD) in the United States. It builds on the region's long history and deep foundation in research, planning and problem solving to build a sustainable future. This article explores the concept of RCEs as social…

Transformative unlearning: safety, discernment and communities of learning.

PubMed

Macdonald, Geraldine

2002-09-01

This paper aims to stimulate awareness about the intellectual and emotional work of 'unlearning' in knowledge workers in the emerging learning age. The importance of providing a safe space for dialogue to promote transformative learning, through building 'communities of learning', is highlighted. Unlearning is conceptualized within a transformative education paradigm, one whose primary orientation is discernment, a personal growth process involving the activities of receptivity, recognition and grieving. The author utilizes the metaphor of an unfolding spiral path to explore her experience of needing to 'unlearn' a trusted nursing practice prior to 'learning' new best caring practices related to infant sleep positions. Macro and micro approaches to facilitating unlearning in organizations, in learners and in nurses are suggested.

Communities of practice in support of collaborative multi-disciplinary learning and action in response to climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heimlich, J. E.; Stylinski, C.; Palmquist, S.; Wasserman, D.

2017-12-01

Collaborative efforts reaching across interdisciplinary boundaries to address controversial issues such as climate change present significant complexities, including developing shared language, agreeing on common outcomes, and even establishing habits of regular dialogue. Such collaborative efforts should include museums, aquariums, zoos, parks, and youth groups as each of these informal education institutions provides a critical avenue for supporting learning about and responding to climate change. The community of practice framework offers a potential effective approach to support learning and action of diverse groups with a shared interest. Our study applied this framework to the NSF-funded Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Assessment and Education (MADE-CLEAR) project, facilitating informal educators across these two states to advance their climate change education practices, and could provide insight for a building a citywide multi-sector collaborative effort. We found strategies that center on the process of group evolution; support different perspectives, levels of participation, and community spaces; focus on value as defined by members; and balance familiarity and fun produced a dynamic and functional community with a shared practice where none had existed before. Also important was expanding the community-of-practice focus on relationship building to include structured professional development and spin-off opportunities for small-group team-based endeavors. Our findings suggest that this collaborative professional learning approach is well suited to diverse groups seeking creative solutions to complex and even divisive challenges.

Second Chance Learning in Neighbourhood Houses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ollis, Tracey; Starr, Karen; Ryan, Cheryl; Angwin, Jennifer; Harrison, Ursula

2017-01-01

Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria are significant sites of formal and informal education for adult learners. Intrinsically connected to local communities they play an important role in decreasing social isolation and building social inclusion. The focus of this research is on adult learners and adult learning that engages with "second…

Practice Architectures and Sustainable Curriculum Renewal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodyear, Victoria A.; Casey, Ashley; Kirk, David

2017-01-01

While there are numerous pedagogical innovations and varying forms of professional learning to support change, teachers rarely move beyond the initial implementation of new ideas and policies and few innovations reach the institutionalized stage. Building on both site ontologies and situated learning in communities of practice perspectives, this…

Learning Environments for Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanoff, Henry; And Others

This booklet (prepared by architects, educators, and community groups) presents some guidelines for creating learning environments in child care centers. The ideas and information could be used for creating new centers, for redesigning facilities, or for remodeling existing buildings. Emphasis is placed on the interrelatedness of the goals of a…

Your Face(book) and MySpace: Let's Hook Up

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, P. L.; Foster, T.

2008-06-01

In the public social network venues of MySpace and Facebook, individuals of all ages and nationalities look for like-minded online denizens with whom they can build relationships. Through social networking sites, it is possible for EPO programs to bring together diverse individuals to laugh, learn, and socialize around pet projects and favorite topics. Astronomy is popular among these people, with over 5000 members of the MySpace community listing ``astronomy'' as an interest. By building interesting MySpace and Facebook profiles for your programs, you can plug into the intellectual and social hunger of these individuals. In this workshop, we will discuss the tricks for creating an interesting profile, how to hide such weirdnesses as age and zodiacal sign, and the proper netiquette for nurturing large friends lists and building large communities. Specific emphasis will be given to using Facebook to build one-on-one relationships with program volunteers and students, and how to use MySpace as a way to distribute program announcements to large populations. We will also address the issues of contacting minors, and coping with stalkers and crazies. Come learn how to reach people who already want to learn and love the cosmos, and are just waiting to hear what you have to share.

Nurturing the Respectful Community through Practical Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bettmann, Joen

2015-01-01

Joen Bettmann's depiction of practical life exercises as character-building reveals how caring, careful, and independent work leads to higher self-esteem, more concern for others, better understanding for academic learning, and a self-nurturing, respectful classroom community. Particular aspects of movement and silence exercises bring out what…

Curriculum Considerations in Inclusive Classrooms: Facilitating Learning for All Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stainback, Susan, Ed.; Stainback, William, Ed.

This book discusses how the curriculum can be designed, adapted, and delivered in general education classrooms that are attempting to promote inclusive communities. Chapters include: "Toward Inclusive Classrooms" (Susan Stainback et al.); "Celebrating Diversity, Creating Community: Curriculum that Honors and Builds on Differences" (Mara…

Building a Science Communication Culture: One Agency's Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeWitt, S.; Tenenbaum, L. F.; Betz, L.

2014-12-01

Science communication does not have to be a solitary practice. And yet, many scientists go about it alone and with little support from their peers and organizations. To strengthen community and build support for science communicators, NASA designed a training course aimed at two goals: 1) to develop individual scientists' communication skills, and 2) to begin to build a science communication culture at the agency. NASA offered a pilot version of this training course in 2014: the agency's first multidisciplinary face-to-face learning experience for science communicators. Twenty-six Earth, space and life scientists from ten field centers came together for three days of learning. They took part in fundamental skill-building exercises, individual development planning, and high-impact team projects. This presentation will describe the course design and learning objectives, the experience of the participants, and the evaluation results that will inform future offerings of communication training for NASA scientists and others.

Bringing authentic service learning to the classroom: benefits and lessons learned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chamberlain, Leslie C.

2016-06-01

Project-based learning, which has gained significant attention within K-12 education, provides rich hands-on experiences for students. Bringing an element of service to the projects allow students to engage in a local or global community, providing an abundance of benefits to the students’ learning. For example, service projects build confidence, increase motivation, and exercise problem-solving and communication skills in addition to developing a deep understanding of content. I will present lessons I have learned through four years of providing service learning opportunities in my classroom. I share ideas for astronomy projects, tips for connecting and listening to a community, and helpful guidelines to hold students accountable in order to ensure a productive and educational project.

Action-learning collaboratives as a platform for community-based participatory research to advance obesity prevention.

PubMed

Bazos, Dorothy A; Schifferdecker, Karen E; Fedrizzi, Rudolph; Hoebeke, Jaime; Ruggles, Laural; Goldsberry, Yvonne

2013-01-01

Although process elements that define community-based participatory research (CBPR) are well articulated and provide guidance for bringing together researchers and communities, additional models to implement CBPR are needed. One potential model for implementing and monitoring CBPR is Action Learning Collaboratives (ALCs); short term, team-based learning processes that are grounded in quality improvement. Since 2010, the Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth (PRCD) has used ALCs with three communities as a platform to design, implement and evaluate CBPR. The first ALC provided an opportunity for academia and community leadership to strengthen their relationships and knowledge of respective assets through design and evaluation of community-based QI projects. Building on this work, we jointly designed and are implementing a second ALC, a cross-community research project focused on obesity prevention in vulnerable populations. An enhanced community capacity now exists to support CBPR activities with a high degree of sophistication and decreased reliance on external facilitation.

Development of a Total Energy, Environment and Asset Management (TE2AM tm) Curriculum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O'Leary, Phillip R.

2012-12-31

The University of Wisconsin Department of Engineering Professional Development (EPD) has completed the sponsored project entitled, Development of a Total Energy, Environment and Asset Management (TE2AM) Curriculum. The project involved the development of a structured professional development program to improve the knowledge, skills, capabilities, and competencies of engineers and operators of commercial buildings. TE2AM advances a radically different approach to commercial building design, operation, maintenance, and end of life disposition. By employing asset management principles to the lifecycle of a commercial building, owners and occupants will realize improved building performance, reduced energy consumption and positive environmental impacts. Through our commercializationmore » plan, we intend to offer TE2AM courses and certificates to the professional community and continuously improve TE2AM course materials. The TE2AM project supports the DOE Strategic Theme 1 Energy Security; and will further advance the DOE Strategic Goal 1.4 Energy Productivity. Through participation in the TE2AM curriculum, engineers and operators of commercial buildings will be eligible for a professional certificate; denoting the completion of a prescribed series of learning activities. The project involved a comprehensive, rigorous approach to curriculum development, and accomplished the following goals: 1. Identify, analyze and prioritize key learning needs of engineers, architects and technical professionals as operators of commercial buildings. 2. Design and develop TE2AM curricula and instructional strategies to meet learning needs of the target learning community. 3. Establish partnerships with the sponsor and key stakeholders to enhance the development and delivery of learning programs. 4. Successfully commercialize and sustain the training and certificate programs for a substantial time following the term of the award. The project team was successful in achieving the goals and deliverables set forth in the original proposal. Though attempts were made to adhere to the original project timeline, the team requested, and was granted a 6 month project extension, during which time the project was completed.« less

Improving policy and practice to promote equity and social justice - a qualitative comparative analysis building on key learnings from a twinning exchange between England and the US.

PubMed

Blanchard, Claire; Narle, Ginder; Gibbs, Martin; Ruddock, Charmaine; Grady, Michael; Brookes, Chris; Hopkins, Trevor; Norwood, Jayne

2013-12-01

Community health promotion interventions, targeted at marginalised populations and focusing on addressing the social determinants of health (SDH) to reduce health inequalities and addressing the processes of exclusion, are an important strategy to prevent and control non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and promote the health of underprivileged and under-resourced groups. This article builds on key lessons learnt from a learning exchange between Communities for Health in England and the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the US (REACH US) communities that are tackling health inequities. It presents a qualitative analysis further capturing information about specific community interventions involved in the exchange and identifying lessons learnt. This exchange was led by a partnership between the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the International Union for Health Promotion and Education, the Department of Health of England, Health Action Partnership International, and Learning for Public Health West Midlands. These efforts provide interesting insights for further research, priority areas of action for policy and practice to address the SDH and to promote and sustain equity and social justice globally. The article highlights some key lessons about the use of data, assets-based community interventions and the importance of good leadership in times of crisis and adversity. Whilst complex and time-consuming to arrange, such programmes have the potential to offer other countries including the global south new insights and perspectives that will in turn contribute to the SDH field and provide concrete strategies and actions that effectively reduce inequities and promote the health of our societies. The key learnings have the potential to contribute to the global community and growing documentation on evidence of effective efforts in the reduction of health inequities.

Supporting and structuring "contributing student pedagogy" in Computer Science curricula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falkner, Katrina; Falkner, Nickolas J. G.

2012-12-01

Contributing student pedagogy (CSP) builds upon social constructivist and community-based learning principles to create engaging and productive learning experiences. What makes CSP different from other, related, learning approaches is that it involves students both learning from and also explicitly valuing the contributions of other students. The creation of such a learning community builds upon established educational psychology that encourages deep learning, reflection and engagement. Our school has recently completed a review and update of its curriculum, incorporating student content-creation and collaboration into the design of key courses across the curriculum. Our experiences, based on several years of experimentation and development, support CSP-based curriculum design to reinforce the value of the student perspective, the clear description of their own transformative pathway to knowledge and the importance of establishing student-to-student networks in which students are active and willing participants. In this paper, we discuss the tools and approaches that we have employed to guide, support and structure student collaboration across a range of courses and year levels. By providing an account of our intentions, our approaches and tools, we hope to provide useful and transferrable knowledge that can be readily used by other academics who are considering this approach.

Building evaluative culture in community services: Caring for evidence.

PubMed

Mayne, John

2017-05-25

An organization with a strong evaluative culture engages in self-reflection, evidence-based learning and experimentation. It sees evidence as essential for managing well, but building such a culture is challenging. Community service organizations seek to provide effective services for their clients. To build an evaluative culture, they need to acquire basic monitoring and evaluation capabilities, be provided with opportunities for using these capabilities and be adequately motivated to care about evidence as a means to improve services to their clients. Leadership along with a phased in approach are key in bringing about these behaviour changes. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Learning Sciences and Liberal Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Budwig, Nancy

2013-01-01

This article makes the case for a new framing of liberal education based on several decades of research emerging from the learning and developmental sciences. This work suggests that general knowledge stems from acquiring both the habits of mind and repertoires of practice that develop from participation in knowledge-building communities. Such…

Learning in Equity-Oriented Scale-Making Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jurow, A. Susan; Shea, Molly

2015-01-01

This article examines how new forms of learning and expertise are made to become consequential in changing communities of practice. We build on notions of scale making to understand how particular relations between practices, technologies, and people become meaningful across spatial and temporal trajectories of social action. A key assumption of…

Exploring Hybrid Instruction in Science: Using LMS for Contextual, Interdisciplinary Active Learning Enrichment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quarless, Duncan; Nieto, Fernando

2013-01-01

Learning Management Systems are instructional platforms that offer opportunities to address the development of core competencies across disciplines. The emergence of instructional models which place greater emphasis on core skill development in science education help to build interdisciplinary communities through curricular connectivity and…

The Biomes of Homewood: Interactive Map Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shingles, Richard; Feist, Theron; Brosnan, Rae

2005-01-01

To build a learning community, the General Biology faculty at Johns Hopkins University conducted collaborative, problem-based learning assignments outside of class in which students are assigned to specific areas on campus, and gather and report data about their area. To overcome the logistics challenges presented by conducting such assignments in…

Learning Ecologies for Technological Fluency: Gender and Experience Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barron, Brigid

2004-01-01

The concern with a "digital divide" has been transformed from one defined by technological access to technological prowess--employing technologies for more empowered and generative uses such as learning and innovation. Participation in technological fluency-building activities among high school students in a community heavily involved in the…

Transformative Pedagogy for Social Capital

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willis, Peter

2007-01-01

This paper explores ways in which pedagogy for an elaborated form of transformative learning can be a useful catalyst for the development of social capital in community and workplace groups and networks. I begin with an example and then explore ideas of learning challenges embedded in building and maintaining social capital. I consider the…

A Practical Guide, with Theoretical Underpinnings, for Creating Effective Virtual Reality Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Eileen A.; Domingo, Jelia

2017-01-01

With the advent of open source virtual environments, the associated cost reductions, and the more flexible options, avatar-based virtual reality environments are within reach of educators. By using and repurposing readily available virtual environments, instructors can bring engaging, community-building, and immersive learning opportunities to…

RadTown USA Neighborhoods | US EPA

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

2016-09-08

Learn about radiation sources and uses in the interactive, virtual community of RadTown USA! Explore radiation sources and uses in homes and schools, medical buildings and laboratories and outdoors. You will also find information about coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants, power lines and learn about responding to radiation emergencies.

Giving Kids a Can Do Attitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Nadine

2011-01-01

The question going into this action research was, "How can a language teacher encourage more positive attitudes toward language learning while building a learning community?" After incorporating "I Can" statements into the curriculum, more than 100 third grade students were surveyed. The survey asked what they thought they could do in Spanish.…

Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conzemius, Anne; O'Neill, Jan

Shared responsibility for student learning is neither a program nor a curriculum. It incorporates a set of principles and techniques that gives members of a school community the authority and responsibility to create what is needed, based on the data and culture of their particular school and school district. Sharing responsibility for student…

Welcoming Design--Hosting a Hospitable Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ascough, Richard S.

2007-01-01

A discussion about how instructors can host a hospitable online learning environment can address one of the fundamental philosophical and theological concerns frequently expressed about online learning--the loss of face-to-face interaction and, with it, the loss of community building (cf. Delamarter 2005, 138). This perceived link between physical…

The Global Awareness Curriculum in International Business Programs: A Critical Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witte, Anne E.

2010-01-01

Designing educational sequences that enhance the cognitive, behavioral, and critical skills of a diverse learning community seeking global competencies, requires mindfulness of different international educational models, a tailored curriculum designed to build different types of awareness learning, and clarity in targeted outputs keeping in mind a…

Building and Managing Makerspaces in Extension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francis, Dave; Hill, Paul; Graham, Dallini; Swadley, Emy; Esplin, Kaleb

2017-01-01

As traditional face-to-face Extension office interactions are supplanted by online education options, the makerspace offers a venue for authentic engagement between Extension and the community. In makerspaces, learners make and learn from one another in a cooperative learning environment. Through involvement in the maker movement, Extension has an…

Making Better Use of School Buildings. PEB Papers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France). Programme on Educational Building.

School buildings are expensive to construct and to maintain, yet many are used for only a few hours each day. There is also a growing demand for facilities for lifelong learning, leisure, and other community activities, while financial pressures on national and local authorities continue to grow. In 1995, the OECD Programme on Educational Building…

Mathematics Professional Development: Critical Features for Developing Leadership Skills and Building Teachers' Capacity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koellner, Karen; Jacobs, Jennifer; Borko, Hilda

2011-01-01

This article focuses on three features of professional development (PD) programs that play an important role in developing leadership skills and building teachers' capacity: (1) fostering a professional learning community, (2) developing teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and (3) adapting PD to support local needs and interests. We…

Working Examples (WEx): A Vehicle for Building Radical Innovations to Change Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zywica, Jolene; Roberts, Anna; Davidson, Drew

2013-01-01

Working Examples (WEx) is described by the authors as a vehicle for ideating and building radical innovations to change education. It is a community of researchers, designers, and educators working at the intersection of education and technology. "Examples" (ideas, work, and projects) allow people to explore new ideas, learn from each…

Cornerstones: Building Rural America through Service Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pace, Jerry

Students in a poor, rural county in South Carolina worked with their community to build a new volunteer fire station, enabling many residents to get fire insurance. The project enabled students to see the relevance of education and to be seen as solutions to problems rather than as problems, generated enthusiasm among students toward the community…

Challenging Inquiry and Building Community: Analyzing ESL and Bilingual Teachers' Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musanti, Sandra I.

2017-01-01

The study explores English as a second language (ESL) and bilingual teachers' narratives within a learning community as they collectively engage in reflecting on practices to more effectively support English learners. This longitudinal qualitative study integrates narrative inquiry approach and critical incident methodology. Participants were…

Understanding Educational Leadership: People, Power and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Busher, Hugh

2006-01-01

This book shows how school leaders at all levels "from the most senior manager to the classroom teacher" can help to build learning communities through collaborating and negotiating with their colleagues, students and students' parents and carers, as well as with external agencies and local communities, to sustain and develop the…

Build the Big Society on What We Know Works

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miskin, Jol

2010-01-01

In 2007, the Workers' Educational Association's (WEA) Yorkshire and Humber region was funded by the Academy for Community Leadership to deliver a programme of active citizenship learning in South Yorkshire. The programme was expected to: equip potential and existing community leaders with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to address…

Visual Arts in Community Colleges: Enhancing the Learning Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurley, Jay

Art exhibits on college campuses not only foster aesthetic appreciation and knowledge, but they also stimulate and encourage community involvement. In New Mexico, public and institutional policies permit the purchase of art to enhance public buildings, including institutions of higher education. At Eastern New Mexico University's Clovis Campus…

Greener on the Other Side: Cultivating Community and Improvement through Sustainability Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterrett, William L.; Kensler, Lisa; McKey, Tania

2016-01-01

Sustainability practices that lead to greener schools are often overlooked in leadership preparation programs and in school improvement efforts. An urban middle school principal recognizes the potential to build community, foster a healthy learning environment, and redefine her school through focusing on sustainability practices in a collaborative…

Feminist Social Projects: Building Bridges between Communities and Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Patricia; Cole, Kirsti; Skeen, Thomas

2007-01-01

In this article, the authors call for tying service learning to feminist agendas, emphasizing civic activism involving true collaboration with communities. They report on a graduate seminar, "Feminism and Composition," at their own university that worked toward this goal by having students self-reflectively participate in local organizations that…

Identity Issues in Building an ESL Community: The Puerto Rican Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morales, Betsy; Biau, Eileen K.

2009-01-01

Whenever a second language is the object of learning, identity (or sense of self) is at stake, and the question of what community and what speech community one belongs to, strives to belong to, or is afraid to belong to raises complex issues. As stated by Zarate, Bhimji, and Reese (2005): "A bicultural identity is not necessarily a homogeneous or…

Strategies, Use, and Impact of Social Media for Supporting Teacher Community within Professional Development: The Case of One Urban STEM Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenberg, Joshua M.; Greenhalgh, Spencer P.; Wolf, Leigh Graves; Koehler, Matthew J.

2017-01-01

This paper examines the use of social media to foster community connections within the MSU Urban Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program. We describe the strategies employed by the program and the technologies employed by instructors to provide support, build community, and showcase learning. We highlight three particular…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education. Part 1: Building an Understanding of Family and Community Engagement. REL 2016-148

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education: Part 3: Building Trusting Relationships with Families and the Community through Effective Communication. REL 2016-152

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Negotiating Competing Goals in the Development of an Urban Ecology Practitioner Inquiry Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piazza, Peter; McNeill, Katherine L.

2013-11-01

Teacher learning communities are hailed by many as vehicles for reforming and elevating the professional status of teaching. While much research explores teacher community as a venue for measurable gains, our research examines the orientation of practitioner inquiry toward critical debate about effective instruction. Specifically, our study focuses on a group of middle and high school teachers who worked with a nonprofit organization to engage students in urban environmental field investigations. Teachers met regularly as a community with the common goal of teaching urban ecology in an outdoor setting. We collected interview data from members of the teacher community, and we observed teacher interaction during a meeting of the practitioner inquiry group. Interview results indicated that while the nonprofit aimed to support collaborative dialogue and self-critique, participants saw the community mainly as a venue for pursuing short-term goals, such as receiving new resources or socializing with colleagues. Observation data, however, suggested that the community was taking early steps toward building an environment oriented toward critical discussion. Juxtaposing results from our interviews and observations, we discuss the challenges communities face when they seek to develop shared beliefs and deal openly with conflict. Ultimately, we suggest that organizers of collaborative learning environments should work to actively develop structures for building the organizational trust necessary to support civil critique.

Considering Community Psychology Competencies: A Love Letter to Budding Scholar-Activists Who Wonder if They Have What It Takes.

PubMed

Langhout, Regina Day

2015-06-01

Recently, community psychologists have re-vamped a set of 18 competencies considered important for how we practice community psychology. Three competencies are: (1) ethical, reflexive practice, (2) community inclusion and partnership, and (3) community education, information dissemination, and building public awareness. This paper will outline lessons I-a white working class woman academic-learned about my competency development through my research collaborations, using the lens of affective politics. I describe three lessons, from school-based research sites (elementary schools serving working class students of color and one elite liberal arts school serving wealthy white students). The first lesson, from an elementary school, concerns ethical, reflective practice. I discuss understanding my affect as a barometer of my ability to conduct research from a place of solidarity. The second lesson, which centers community inclusion and partnership, illustrates how I learned about the importance of "before the beginning" conversations concerning social justice and conflict when working in elementary schools. The third lesson concerns community education, information dissemination, and building public awareness. This lesson, from a college, taught me that I could stand up and speak out against classism in the face of my career trajectory being threatened. With these lessons, I flesh out key aspects of community practice competencies.

Linking Research, Education and Public Engagement in Geoscience: Leadership and Strategic Partnerships.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moosavi, S. C.

2017-12-01

By their very nature, the geosciences address societal challenges requiring a complex interplay between the research community, geoscience educators and public engagement with the general population to build their knowledge base and convince them to act appropriately to implement policies guided by scientific understanding. The most effective responses to geoscience challenges arise when strong collaborative structures connecting research, education and the public are in place to afford rapid communication and trust at all stages of the investigative and policy implementation processes. Educational programs that involve students and scientists via service learning exploring high profile issues of community interest and outreach to teachers through professional development build the network of relationships with geoscientists to respond rapidly to solve societal problems. These pre-existing personal connections simultaneously hold wider credibility with the public than unfamiliar scientific experts less accustomed to speaking to general audiences. The Geological Society of America is leveraging the research and educational experience of its members to build a self-sustaining state/regional network of K-12 professional development workshops designed to link the academic, research, governmental and industrial communities. The goal is not only to improve the content knowledge and pedagogical skills which teachers bring to their students, but also to build a diverse community of trust capable of responding to geoscience challenges in a fashion relevant to local communities. Dr. Moosavi is building this program by drawing on his background as a biogeochemistry researcher with 20 years experience focused on use of place-based approaches in general education and pre- and in-service teacher preparation in Research 1 and comprehensive universities, liberal arts and community colleges and high school. Experience with K-12 professional development working with the Minnesota Mineral Education Workshop and an undergraduate service learning research program related to beach erosion and the BP Oil Spill on Grand Isle, Louisiana are of particular value to this effort.

How Do Students Perceive the Enhancement of their Own Learning? A Comparison of Two Education Faculties' Experiences in Building an Online Learning Community for Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Education Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowley, Jennifer; O'Dea, Jennifer

2009-01-01

Enhancing learning and teaching in blended learning environments is a strategic goal of The University of Sydney as eLearning continues to grow. Blackboard (WebCT) was integrated into the undergraduate Bachelor of Education program curricula through e-readings, discussion boards, lectures and online assessment tasks. The study was undertaken among…

“Everyone Should Be Able to Choose How They Get Around”: How Topeka, Kansas, Passed a Complete Streets Resolution

PubMed Central

Langston, Marvin; Cardick, Lauren C.; Johnson, Nancy; Clayton, Paula; Brownson, Ross C.

2014-01-01

Background Regular physical activity can help prevent chronic diseases, yet only half of US adults meet national physical activity guidelines. One barrier to physical activity is a lack of safe places to be active, such as bike paths and sidewalks. Complete Streets, streets designed to enable safe access for all users, can help provide safe places for activity. Community Context This community case study presents results from interviews with residents and policymakers of Topeka, Kansas, who played an integral role in the passage of a Complete Streets resolution in 2009. It describes community engagement processes used to include stakeholders, assess existing roads and sidewalks, and communicate with the public and decision-makers. Methods Key informant interviews were conducted with city council members and members of Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods in Topeka to learn how they introduced a Complete Streets resolution and the steps they took to ensure its successful passage in the City Council. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using focused-coding qualitative analysis. Outcome Results included lessons learned from the process of passing the Complete Streets resolution and advice from participants for other communities interested in creating Complete Streets in their communities. Interpretation Lessons learned can apply to other communities pursuing Complete Streets. Examples include clearly defining Complete Streets; educating the public, advocates, and decision-makers about Complete Streets and how this program enhances a community; building a strong and diverse network of supporters; and using stories and examples from other communities with Complete Streets to build a convincing case. PMID:24556251

Lessons Learned From a Community–Academic Partnership Addressing Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention in Filipino American Families

PubMed Central

Javier, Joyce R.; Chamberlain, Lisa J.; Rivera, Kahealani K.; Gonzalez, Sarah E.; Mendoza, Fernando S.; Huffman, Lynne C.

2014-01-01

Background Filipino Americans have more adolescent pregnancies than other Asian-Pacific Islanders (APIs). Few community–academic collaborations have addressed adolescent pregnancy prevention in this community. Objectives We sought to describe the lessons learned from and impact of a community-based teen pregnancy prevention program for Filipino Americans implemented by a Filipina pediatrics resident. Methods We formed a community–academic partnership between the Filipino Youth Coalition, a community-based organization (CBO) in San Jose, California, and the Stanford School of Medicine’s Pediatric Advocacy Program. We developed a culturally tailored parent–teen conference addressing adolescent pregnancy prevention in Filipino Americans. We qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated this intervention by collecting both pre- and post-conference data using a convenience sample design. Lessons Learned Engaging particular aspects of Filipino culture (i.e., religion and intergenerational differences) helped to make this community–academic partnership successful. For physicians-in-training who are conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR), project challenges may include difficulties in building and maintaining academic–community relationships, struggles to promote sustainability, and conflicting goals of “community insiders” and “academic outsiders.” Authors offer insights and implications for residents interested in practicing CBPR. Conclusion CBPR is a key tool for exploring health issues in understudied populations. CBPR experiences can provide meaningful educational opportunities for physicians-in-training and can build sustained capacity in CBOs. They can also help residents to develop analytic skills, directly affect the health of the communities they serve, and, for minority physicians, give back to the communities they call home. PMID:21169708

Creating a Community of Practice: Lessons Learned from the Center for Astronomy Education (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brissenden, G.

2009-12-01

The Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) is devoted to improving teaching and learning in Astro 101. To accomplish this, a vital part of CAE is our broader community of practice which includes over 1000 instructors, graduate and undergraduate students, and postdocs. It is this greater community of practice that supports each other, helps, and learns from each other beyond what would be possible without it. As our community of practice has grown, we at CAE have learned many lessons about how different facets of CAE can best be used to promote and support our community both as a whole and for individual members. We will discuss the various facets of CAE, such as our online discussion group Astrolrner@CAE (http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/discussion) and its Guest Moderator program, our CAE Regional Teaching Exchange Coordinator program, our CAE Workshop Presenter Apprenticeship Training program, our online This Month’s Teaching Strategy, monthly newsletters, and various types of socializing and networking sessions we hold at national meetings. But more importantly, we will discuss the lessons we’ve learned about what does and does not work in building community within each of these facets.

A method for building evaluation competency among community-based organizations.

PubMed

Kelly, Cheryl M; LaRose, Jessi; Scharff, Darcell P

2014-05-01

Community-based organizations often lack the capacity (e.g., time, staff, skills) to effectively evaluate programs, policies, and environmental changes. Providing evaluation technical assistance and training can be an effective and feasible way to build individual evaluation competency. The purpose of this article is to present a practical approach and related tools that can be used by evaluators and others (e.g., academic partners, funders) providing assistance to build evaluation skills in community organizations. The approach described was developed in collaboration with local universities and a regional health foundation to provide intensive technical support to 19 community-based organizations awarded funding to implement obesity prevention projects. Technical assistance processes and tools were designed to be tailored to organizations' capacity and needs and can be used as templates by others who provide technical assistance. Evaluators, funders, and academic partners can use lessons learned from this experience to help shape and implement evaluation technical assistance approaches with community-based organizations.

Social Networks and the Building of Learning Communities: An Experimental Study of a Social MOOC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Lima, Mariana; Zorrilla, Marta

2017-01-01

This study aimed to analyze the student's behaviour in relation to their degree of commitment, participation, and contribution in a MOOC based on a social learning approach. Interaction data was collected on the learning platform and in social networks, both of which were used in the third edition of a social MOOC course. This data was then…

Partnering Community Decision Makers with Early Career Scientists - The NASA DEVELOP Method for Dual Capacity Building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, K. W.; Childs-Gleason, L. M.; Cripps, G. S.; Clayton, A.; Remillard, C.; Watkins, L. E.; Allsbrook, K. N.; Rogers, L.; Ruiz, M. L.

2017-12-01

The NASA DEVELOP National Program carries out many projects every year with the goal of bringing the benefits of NASA Earth science to bear on decision-making challenges that are local in scale. Every DEVELOP project partners end users with early/transitioning science professionals. Many of these projects invited communities to consider NASA science data in new ways to help them make informed decisions. All of these projects shared three characteristics: they were rapid, nimble and risk-taking. These projects work well for some communities, but might best be suited as a feasibility studies that build community/institutional capacity towards eventual solutions. This presentation will discuss DEVELOP's lessons learned and best practices in conducting short-term feasibility projects with communities, as well as highlight several past successes.

How to Reach Decision Makers: Build a network of educators and practitioners with common goals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boudrias, M. A.; Estrada, M.; Anders, S.; Silva-Send, N. J.; Gershunov, A.

2013-12-01

In San Diego County, the Climate Education Partners (CEP) includes climate scientists, science educators, behavioral scientists, environmental practitioners and community organizations that are dedicated to providing local decision makers (elected officials, business leaders, community leaders) with sound climate science learning opportunities and resources that promote informed decision making. Their work over the past three years has found that effective climate education programs are designed for specific audiences with tailored information that is relevant to them, while simultaneously building community efficacy, identity and values. An integrated approach that blends rigorous scientific facts, local climate change impact, and social science education theory is contributing towards the development of a cadre of engaged leaders and communities. To track project progress and to inform the project strategy, local Key Influentials are being interviewed to gauge their current understanding of climate change and their interest in either becoming messengers to their community or becoming the portal to their constituency. Innovation comes from productive collaboration. For this reason, CEP has been working with leading scientists (climatologists, hydrologists, meteorologists, ecologists), environmental groups, museums and zoos, media experts and government agencies (Water Authority, CalFire) to develop and refine a program of learning activities and resources geared specifically for Key Influentials. For example, a water tour has been designed to bring 25 key influential leaders in San Diego County to a dam, a pumping station and a reservoir and provide climate change facts, impacts and potential solutions to the critical issue of water supply for the San Diego Region. While learning local facts about the causes and impacts of climate change, participants also learn about what they can do (increasing efficacy), that they can be a part of a solution centered community (building identity), and that everything - the education and the use of this knowledge to promote informed decisions - is connected to doing what is best for the next generation (tying learning to values). In addition, CEP developed locally focused videos, one on heat waves and one on water resources, which are being experimentally tested for their impact on informed decision-making and utilized with various KI audiences. Climate Education Partners is finding that linking excellent science with healthy community partnerships is resulting in San Diego leaders and their communities making more informed decisions on how to adapt to climate change and preserve the quality of life enjoyed in San Diego for all future generations.

Non-School Hours: Mobilizing School and Community Resources. Hearing on Examining Certain Initiatives To Mobilize School and Community Resources To Provide Quality Programs To Address the Needs of Students during Non-School Hours, Including the Administration's Proposed Expansion of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program Designed To Provide Funds to School-Community Partnerships To Start Up or Expand After-School, Extended Learning Programs for Schoolage Children of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

This hearing explored ways in which to meet children's and families' needs during nonschool hours. It examined the nature of those needs, the barriers that various segments of the community face, how the Federal Government can help build coordinated school and community networks, and how to make nonschool hours safe for children. Testimony was…

Canadian Perspectives on Beginning Principals: Their Role in Building Capacity for Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sackney, Larry; Walker, Keith

2006-01-01

Purpose: This paper sets out to posit that the new economy places a new set of demands on schools and those who lead. Mindfulness, intentional engagement of people and adaptive confidence are needed developmental features of beginning principal success. The paper examines how beginning principals in Canada respond to the capacity-building work of…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education: Part 2: Building a Cultural Bridge. REL 2016-151

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Radical Conversations: Part One Social-Constructivist Methods in the ABE Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muth, Bill

2008-01-01

For the past 40 years adult learning theory has stressed the need for adults to share in the planning of their own learning and socially construct new knowledge by building on their background knowledge and life experiences. Despite growing acceptance of social-constructivist pedagogies in community-based literacy programs and even corporate…

Towards a Theory-Based Design Framework for an Effective E-Learning Computer Programming Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGowan, Ian S.

2016-01-01

Built on Dabbagh (2005), this paper presents a four component theory-based design framework for an e-learning session in introductory computer programming. The framework, driven by a body of exemplars component, emphasizes the transformative interaction between the knowledge building community (KBC) pedagogical model, a mixed instructional…

Assessing Peer Support and Usability of Blogging in Hybrid Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Y. J.; Chang, Y. S.

2014-01-01

Blogs provide contextualization of the information which is vital to the process of peer support. Through dialogues initiated by blog authors and followed by readers, blog platforms build a viable base of shared experiences and mutual relationships. We employ blogs as interactive learning tools for communities of practice in higher education.…

Building an Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities School: Principals' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malone, Helen Janc

2011-01-01

Expanded learning time and opportunities (ELTO) requires a committed school leader who is willing to partner with community-based organizations in order to provide strong academic and enrichment daily experiences for his or her students. This article examines four such leaders and the diverse approaches they took to implement ELTO in their…

The Varieties of Adult Civic Engagement in Adult Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munoz, Linda; Wrigley, Heide Spruck

2012-01-01

Civic engagement, or the practice of democratic deliberation in adult education and learning, asks that adults use their experiences to cooperatively build solutions to the difficult social, economic, and political problems that affect their lives and communities now and into the future. The articles presented in this issue look at the…

Community Colleges for the Students They Actually Have

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyner, Josh

2012-01-01

In the United States, people think of elementary and secondary education as fundamentally different from higher education. The first two levels are where students are expected to learn the building blocks for lifelong learning, while college is meant to confer higher-order thinking and more-specialized skills. How students are treated flows…

Teaching as Counterinsurgency: Enhancing Pedagogical Effectiveness and Student Learning in a Culture of Distraction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Robert G.

2010-01-01

Once adapted to the context of the classroom, the tenets of successful counterinsurgency offer teachers a potent intellectual framework for conceptualizing teachers' efforts to build effective active learning communities together with their students. In this article, the author describes a counterinsurgency analogy that shares essential features…

The Effective Teacher's Guide: 50 Ways to Engage Students and Promote Interactive Learning. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Nancy

2010-01-01

This popular guide offers a wealth of innovative, research-based strategies for making K-12 classrooms the best learning environments they can be. Easy-to-implement best practices are presented for establishing a classroom management plan, organizing procedures and materials, building a respectful community, fostering peer collaboration, and…

Building a Learning Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Senesh, Lawrence

The current efforts to reform U.S. education are misguided because they place increased burdens on the schools and ignore the total learning environment. The majority of youth step out of school into an intellecutal vacuum of no feedback and no enrichment. The home, the school, and the community must be involved in a holistic way with education,…

Transforming the Undergraduate Research Experience through Sustained Mentoring: Creating a Strong Support Network and a Collaborative Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camacho, Erika T.; Holmes, Raquell M.; Wirkus, Stephen A.

2015-01-01

This chapter describes how sustained mentoring together with rigorous collaborative learning and community building contributed to successful mathematical research and individual growth in the Applied Mathematical Sciences Summer Institute (AMSSI), a program that focused on women, underrepresented minorities, and individuals from small teaching…

Consensus on Learning Time Builds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gewertz, Catherine

2008-01-01

Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future--and fearful that standard school hours do not offer enough time to do so--educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children's lives. Twenty-five years ago, the still-resonant report "A Nation at Risk" urged schools to add more time--an…

Engaging in Vocabulary Learning in Science: The Promise of Multimodal Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, Dianna; Brock, Cynthia; Morrison, Jennifer D.

2018-01-01

To a science 'outsider', science language often appears unnecessarily technical and dense. However, scientific language is typically used with the goal of being concise and precise, which allows those who regularly participate in scientific discourse communities to learn from each other and build upon existing scientific knowledge. One essential…

Open the Windows: Design New Spaces for Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Christopher

2011-01-01

As a technologist, the author is interested in how the digital world is changing the educational landscape. As he began to research effective learning spaces, he discovered that the architecture, design, and school facilities communities are making a great deal of progress in creating better classrooms and school buildings. Unfortunately, many in…

Building a Literacy Community: The Role of Literacy and Social Practice in Early Childhood Program Reform.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meier, Daniel R.; Britsch, Susan J.

Preschool can be an opportunity to emphasize literacy teaching and learning and to develop the role of "literacy as community," rather than being only kindergarten preparation. The results of two studies view children's literacy development as a dynamic, developmental process involving language, thought, and social interaction. In…

Building a Community in Our Classroom: The Story of Bat Town, U.S.A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keech, Andrea McGann

2001-01-01

Describes a simulation called, "Classroom City," used by elementary students to learn about communities. Focuses on the students' own simulated city named Bat Town, U.S.A. Discusses the project in detail. Describes the activities children participated in and the roles they assumed during the simulation. (CMK)

Co-Calculus: Integrating the Academic and the Social

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinholz, Daniel L.

2017-01-01

Being part of a cohesive learning community supports retention and success in early mathematics courses. Yet, large, unwelcoming lectures stand in opposition to this goal, isolating students and pushing them away from STEM. This paper offers a comparative analysis of three efforts to build community amongst students, all situated within a single…

Developing and Applying Green Building Technology in an Indigenous Community: An Engaged Approach to Sustainability Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, David R.; Thatcher, Corinne E.; Workman, Elizabeth A.

2006-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to disseminate an innovative approach to sustainability education in construction-related fields in which teaching, research, and service are integrated to provide a unique learning experience for undergraduate students, faculty members, and community partners. Design/methodology/approach: The paper identifies the need for…

A Sense of Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Erica K.

2007-01-01

Members of the teaching and learning community share a spirit of camaraderie when they meet during conferences or seminars even though they may not know each other. Also there are programs like the ACS's ChemClub pilot program, which will encourage binding between the fraternities and help them to achieve the same purpose of building connections…

Learning to Be Powerful

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Titus

2010-01-01

Adult and community educators have always seen themselves as agents of change, building people's confidence, sense of community and ability to take part in society as well as their knowledge and skills. All the main political parties in the UK have put issues of social justice, social mobility and citizens' empowerment near the top of the policy…

Future Leaders Institute: Rising Leaders and the AACC Competencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallin, Desna L.

2012-01-01

The overall mission of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is "Building a Nation of Learners by Advancing America's Community Colleges." A significant component of this mission statement involves the development of leadership. The AACC believes that leadership can be learned and is committed to supporting and growing leaders. In…

Share Your Voice: Online Community Building during Reaffirmation of Accreditation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruse, Brenda; Bonura, Kimberlee Bethany; James, Suzanne G.; Potler, Shelley

2013-01-01

Walden University recently underwent a successful reaffirmation of accreditation process with The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. As part of the 3-year process, a committee, named the Education and Communication working group, was formed to inform and engage with the entire Walden community. The…

Service Learning and Building Community with the World Wide Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longan, Michael W.

2007-01-01

The geography education literature touts the World Wide Web (Web) as a revolutionary educational tool, yet most accounts ignore its uses for public communication and creative expression. This article argues that students can be producers of content that is of service to local audiences. Drawing inspiration from the community networking movement,…

Creative Tension: Turn The Challenges of Learning Together Into Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobbs, Christina L.; Ippolito, Jacy; Charner-Laird, Megin

2016-01-01

Effective and authentic communities of practice in schools have the potential to support teachers in improving their instructional practices around perennial challenges, such as improving the literacy skills of all students. But before they can achieve such goals, communities of practice take time to build, effort to sustain, and ongoing support…

The Early Childhood Community Gives Back: Exchange Center Makeover Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exchange: The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978, 2010

2010-01-01

The early childhood community gives back. With the extreme generosity of the "Exchange" Makeover Project partners, Jewel's Learning Center, selected as the winner of the Center Makeover, will be awarded with new and innovative tools to help build an even stronger educational foundation for the children attending the center. Included will be new…

"Into the Realm of the Politically Incorrect": Intercultural Encounters in a Service-Learning Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palpacuer-Lee, Christelle; Curtis, Jessie Hutchison

2017-01-01

Now more than ever, teachers of world languages are encouraged to become intercultural mediators in their communities and classrooms. This study describes the impact of an innovative community-based teacher education program for developing participants' interculturality. Building on narrative methods of investigation, we explore the potential of…

It Takes Research to Build a Community: Ongoing Challenges for Scholars in Digitally-Supported Communicative Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dooly, Melinda

2015-01-01

This article provides an argument for closer multilateral alliances between the emergent and loosely-bound international community of educational researchers who are working in areas related to Digitally Supported Communicative Language Teaching and learning (herein DSCLT). By taking advantage of the communications revolution that is currently…

Distance Education: Having It Your Way

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, Wendy; Gale, Mark

2014-01-01

Is it possible to build a virtual community for teaching and learning where students have opportunities for instructor and peer interaction? In this article, Wendy Cowan and Mark Gale describe such a community at Athens State University, where the college of education faculty designed a set of courses so that students had multiple choices for…

Lessons Learned. Community Change: Lessons from Making Connections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2013

2013-01-01

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

Social Networking Technologies as Vehicles of Support for Women in Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgess, Kimberly R.

2009-01-01

Women have long since used social networking as a means of coping with their struggles, educating and empowering themselves, engaging in broader social movements, and building international advocacy. Internet communities that are designed and facilitated to be inclusive of women's experiences can be important social spaces where women feel…

Increasing Resilience Through Engagement In Sea Level Rise Community Science Initiatives.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chilton, L. A.; Rindge, H.

2017-12-01

Science literate and engaged members of the public, including students, are critical to building climate resilient communities. USC Sea Grant facilitates programs that work to build and strengthen these connections. The Urban Tides Community Science Initiative (Urban Tides) and the Youth Exploring Sea Level Rise Science Program (YESS) engage communities across the boundaries of public engagement, K-12 education, and informal education. YESS is an experiential sea level rise education program that combines classroom learning, field investigations and public presentations. Students explore sea level rise using a new curricula, collect their own data on sea level rise, develop communication products, and present their findings to city governments, researchers, and others. Urban Tides engages community members, informal education centers, K-12 students, and local government leaders in a citizen science program photo- documenting extreme high tides, erosion and coastal flooding in Southern California. Images provide critical information to help calibrate scientific models used to identify locations vulnerable to damage from future sea level rise. These tools and information enable community leaders and local governments to set priorities, guidelines, and update policies as they plan strategies that will help the region adapt. The program includes a mobile app for data collection, an open database to view photos, a lesson plan, and community beach walks. Urban Tides has led to an increase in data and data-gathering capacity for regional scientists, an increase in public participation in science, and an increase in ocean and climate literacy among initiative participants. Both of these programs bring informed and diverse voices into the discussion of how to adapt and build climate resilient communities. USC Sea Grant will share impacts and lessons learned from these two unique programs.

Capacity building for hydrological change - using a blended learning approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nacken, H.

2015-04-01

Extreme hydrological events have always been a challenge to societies. There is growing evidence that hydrological extremes have already become more severe in some regions. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is characterized as one of the world's most water-scarce and driest regions, with a high dependency on climate-sensitive agriculture. There is an urgent need for capacity building programmes that prepare water professionals and communities to deal with the expected hydrological changes and extremes. The most successful capacity building programmes are the country driven ones which involve a wide range of national stakeholders, have a high degree of in-country ownership and have an applicability character. The method of choice to set up such capacity building programmes will be through blended learning.

Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.

PubMed

Kue, Jennifer; Thorburn, Sheryl; Keon, Karen Levy

2015-05-01

Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women. This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research. We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community. Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner. The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

Student experiences of the adolescent diversion project: a community-based exemplar in the pedagogy of service-learning.

PubMed

Davidson, William S; Jimenez, Tiffeny R; Onifade, Eyitayo; Hankins, Sean S

2010-12-01

Service-learning partnerships between universities and surrounding communities striving to create systems-level change must consider an emphasis in critical community service; a community centered paradigm where students are taught to work with communities to better understand contexts surrounding a social problem, as opposed to merely volunteering to provide a service to a community. The Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP), which has been operating for over 30 years, demonstrates critical community service through the type of relationship built between students and the local community. This article describes: a qualitative study with ADP students, the historical context of ADP, what and how students learned through their involvement in ADP, and reframes the work of this project as a form of service-learning pedagogy. Inductive content analysis was employed to identify underlying themes across participants related to their personal experiences of ADP and its impact in their lives. Findings were compared with service-learning outcomes and other quantitative studies conducted with past ADP cohorts from the literature. Consistent with past studies, ADP students become more negative toward social systems involved with their youth. This finding may explain an increase in feelings of political commitment following involvement in ADP. Consistent with service-learning outcomes, results demonstrate that ADP should be further documented as not only an effective community-based program but also as an exemplar in the pedagogy of service-learning. This study highlights why service-learning opportunities for students are not just one way to teach students, they are opportunities to bridge relationships within communities, bring life to theoretical concepts, and build the foundations necessary for educated citizens that will one day take lead roles in our society.

Addressing the needs of Nicaraguan older adults living on the edge: A university-community partnership in international service-learning.

PubMed

Neal, Margaret B; Cannon, Melissa; DeLaTorre, Alan; Bolkan, Cory R; Wernher, Iris; Nolan, Elisabeth; López Norori, Milton; Largaespada-Fredersdorff, Carmen; Brown Wilson, Keren

2017-01-01

Nicaragua is a very low-income country entering a period of rapid aging with limited geriatric training for health care professionals. To help build capacity and to enhance student learning, a short-term international service-learning program was implemented in 2004 in partnership with the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation and Nicaraguan community stakeholders. Graduate and undergraduate students at Portland State University complete coursework for one term in the United States then travel to Nicaragua for about two weeks to participate in educational, research, and service activities, primarily in group homes for older Nicaraguans. Students learn about global aging, gerontology, community development, service learning, and Nicaraguan history and culture, then apply their gerontology-related knowledge by training direct care staff, older adults and their family members, and students. The authors describe the impetus for and evolution of the program, students' evaluation of the program, faculty observations on program benefits and challenges, lessons learned, and future plans.

Integrating Scientific Content with Context to Connect Educators with the Complexities and Consequences of Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Low, R.; Gosselin, D. C.; Oglesby, R. J.; Larson-Miller, C.; Thomas, J.; Mawalagedara, R.

2011-12-01

Over the past three years the Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network has designed professional development opportunities for K-12 and extension educators that integrates scientific content into the context of helping educators connect society with the complexities and consequences of climate change. Our professional development approach uses learner-, knowledge-, assessment-, and community-centered strategies to achieve our long-term goal: collaboration of scientists, educators and learners to foster civic literacy about climate change. Two NASA-funded projects, Global Climate Change Literacy for Educators (GCCE, 2009-2012), and the Educators Climatologists Learning Community (ECLC, 2011-2013), have provided the mechanism to provide teachers with scientifically sound and pedagogically relevant educational materials to improve climate and Earth systems literacy among educators. The primary product of the GCCE program is a 16-week, online, distance-delivered, asynchronous course entitled, Laboratory Earth: Human Dimensions of Climate Change. This course consists of four, four-week modules that integrate climate literacy, Earth Systems concepts, and pedagogy focused on active learning processes, building community, action research, and students' sense of place to promote action at the local level to address the challenges of climate change. Overall, the Community of Inquiry Survey (COI) indicated the course was effective in teaching content, developing a community of learners, and engaging students in experiences designed to develop content knowledge. A pre- and post- course Wilcoxan Signed Ranks Test indicated there was a statistically significant increase in participant's beliefs about their personal science teaching efficacy. Qualitative data from concept maps and content mastery assignments support a positive impact on teachers' content knowledge and classroom practice. Service Learning units seemed tohelp teachers connect course learning to their classroom teaching. In addition, qualitative data indicate that teachers' students found service learning to be highly motivational components to learning. The ECLC project, to be initiated in the fall 2011, will build on our GCCE experiences to create a sustainable virtual learning community of educators and scientists. Climate-change issues will serve as a context in which collaborative scientist-educator-teams will develop discrete, locally oriented research projects to facilitate development of confident, knowledgeable citizen-scientists within their classrooms.

"Everyone should be able to choose how they get around": how Topeka, Kansas, passed a complete streets resolution.

PubMed

Dodson, Elizabeth A; Langston, Marvin; Cardick, Lauren C; Johnson, Nancy; Clayton, Paula; Brownson, Ross C

2014-02-20

Regular physical activity can help prevent chronic diseases, yet only half of US adults meet national physical activity guidelines. One barrier to physical activity is a lack of safe places to be active, such as bike paths and sidewalks. Complete Streets, streets designed to enable safe access for all users, can help provide safe places for activity. This community case study presents results from interviews with residents and policymakers of Topeka, Kansas, who played an integral role in the passage of a Complete Streets resolution in 2009. It describes community engagement processes used to include stakeholders, assess existing roads and sidewalks, and communicate with the public and decision-makers. Key informant interviews were conducted with city council members and members of Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods in Topeka to learn how they introduced a Complete Streets resolution and the steps they took to ensure its successful passage in the City Council. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using focused-coding qualitative analysis. Results included lessons learned from the process of passing the Complete Streets resolution and advice from participants for other communities interested in creating Complete Streets in their communities. Lessons learned can apply to other communities pursuing Complete Streets. Examples include clearly defining Complete Streets; educating the public, advocates, and decision-makers about Complete Streets and how this program enhances a community; building a strong and diverse network of supporters; and using stories and examples from other communities with Complete Streets to build a convincing case.

Measuring capacity building in communities: a review of the literature

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Although communities have long been exhorted to make efforts to enhance their own health, such approaches have often floundered and resulted in little or no health benefits when the capacity of the community has not been adequately strengthened. Thus being able to assess the capacity building process is paramount in facilitating action in communities for social and health improvement. The current review aims to i) identify all domains used in systematically documented frameworks developed by other authors to assess community capacity building; and ii) to identify the dimensions and attributes of each of the domains as ascribed by these authors and reassemble them into a comprehensive compilation. Methods Relevant published articles were identified through systematic electronic searches of selected databases and the examination of the bibliographies of retrieved articles. Studies assessing capacity building or community development or community participation were selected and assessed for methodological quality, and quality in relation to the development and application of domains which were identified as constituents of community capacity building. Data extraction and analysis were undertaken using a realist synthesis approach. Results Eighteen articles met the criteria for this review. The various domains to assess community capacity building were identified and reassembled into nine comprehensive domains: "learning opportunities and skills development", "resource mobilization", "partnership/linkages/networking", "leadership", "participatory decision-making", "assets-based approach", "sense of community", "communication", and "development pathway". Six sub-domains were also identified: "shared vision and clear goals", "community needs assessment", "process and outcome monitoring", "sustainability", "commitment to action" and "dissemination". Conclusions The set of domains compiled in this review serve as a foundation for community-based work by those in the field seeking to support and nurture the development of competent communities. Further research is required to examine the robustness of capacity domains over time and to examine capacity development in association with health or other social outcomes. PMID:22067213

A Student Orientation Program to Build a Community of Learners

PubMed Central

Santanello, Cathy R.; Gupchup, Gireesh V.

2007-01-01

Objectives To describe and evaluate a new student orientation program designed to lay the foundations for a community of learners. Design A weeklong orientation program structured as the first week of an 18-week fall semester was held for the first-professional year class. Each of the activities supported program objectives and developed elements of a community of learners. Assessment Students' reflective portfolios, daily evaluations and final program evaluations provided evidence of development of a community of learners. Positive student observations included the use of technology, a discussion of the curriculum and experiential education, the use of reflective portfolios, and presentations from pharmacy practitioners. Students also appreciated becoming acquainted with the faculty, staff, and their peers in a non-threatening atmosphere. Some of the aspects rated as least helpful were the learning styles exercise, library tour, history of pharmacy session, and the overall length of the orientation. Summary A model for a new student orientation program that builds the foundations for the development of a community of learning, which is vital to preparing students to provide pharmaceutical care in interdisciplinary teams and become critical thinkers, was successfully established. This model could be implemented at other schools of pharmacy. PMID:17429513

Increasing community capacity to prevent childhood obesity: challenges, lessons learned and results from the Romp & Chomp intervention.

PubMed

de Groot, Florentine P; Robertson, Narelle M; Swinburn, Boyd A; de Silva-Sanigorski, Andrea M

2010-08-31

Obesity is a major public health issue; however, only limited evidence is available about effective ways to prevent obesity, particularly in early childhood. Romp & Chomp was a community-wide obesity prevention intervention conducted in Geelong Australia with a target group of 12,000 children aged 0-5 years. The intervention had an environmental and capacity building focus and we have recently demonstrated that the prevalence of overweight/obesity was lower in intervention children, post-intervention. Capacity building is defined as the development of knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems and leadership to enable effective health promotion and the aim of this study was to determine if the capacity of the Geelong community, represented by key stakeholder organisations, to support healthy eating and physical activity for young children was increased after Romp & Chomp. A mixed methods evaluation with three data sources was utilised. 1) Document analysis comprised assessment of the documented formative and intervention activities against a capacity building framework (five domains: Partnerships, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Workforce Development, and Organisational Development); 2) Thematic analysis of key informant interviews (n = 16); and 3) the quantitative Community Capacity Index Survey. Document analysis showed that the majority of the capacity building activities addressed the Partnerships, Resource Allocation and Organisational Development domains of capacity building, with a lack of activity in the Leadership and Workforce Development domains. The thematic analysis revealed the establishment of sustainable partnerships, use of specialist advice, and integration of activities into ongoing formal training for early childhood workers. Complex issues also emerged from the key informant interviews regarding the challenges of limited funding, high staff turnover, changing governance structures, lack of high level leadership and unclear communication strategies. The Community Capacity Index provided further evidence that the project implementation network achieved a moderate level of capacity. Romp & Chomp increased the capacity of organisations, settings and services in the Geelong community to support healthy eating and physical activity for young children. Despite this success there are important learnings from this mixed methods evaluation that should inform current and future community-based public health and health promotion initiatives. ANZCTRN12607000374460.

Creation of Medicinal Chemistry Learning Communities Through Enhanced Technology and Interdisciplinary Collaboration

PubMed Central

Roche, Victoria

2012-01-01

Objectives. To build an integrated medicinal chemistry learning community of campus and distance pharmacy students though the use of innovative technology and interdisciplinary teaching. Design. Mechanisms were implemented to bring distance students into campus-based medicinal chemistry classrooms in real time, stimulate interaction between instructors and various student cohorts, and promote group work during class. Also, pharmacy clinician colleagues were recruited to contribute to the teaching of the 3 medicinal chemistry courses. Assessment. Student perceptions on the value of technology to build community and advance learning were gleaned from course evaluations, in class feedback, and conversations with class officers and student groups. Responses on a survey of second-year students confirmed the benefits of interdisciplinary content integration on engagement and awareness of the connection between drug chemistry and pharmacy practice. A survey of clinician colleagues who contributed to teaching the 3 medicinal chemistry courses found their views were similar to those of students. Conclusions. The purposeful use of technology united learners, fostered communication, and advanced content comprehension in 3 medicinal chemistry courses taught to campus and distance students. Teaching collaboration with pharmacy clinicians enhanced learner interest in course content and provided insight into the integrated nature of the profession of pharmacy. PMID:23129857

Creation of medicinal chemistry learning communities through enhanced technology and interdisciplinary collaboration.

PubMed

Henriksen, Brian; Roche, Victoria

2012-10-12

Objectives. To build an integrated medicinal chemistry learning community of campus and distance pharmacy students though the use of innovative technology and interdisciplinary teaching.Design. Mechanisms were implemented to bring distance students into campus-based medicinal chemistry classrooms in real time, stimulate interaction between instructors and various student cohorts, and promote group work during class. Also, pharmacy clinician colleagues were recruited to contribute to the teaching of the 3 medicinal chemistry courses.Assessment. Student perceptions on the value of technology to build community and advance learning were gleaned from course evaluations, in class feedback, and conversations with class officers and student groups. Responses on a survey of second-year students confirmed the benefits of interdisciplinary content integration on engagement and awareness of the connection between drug chemistry and pharmacy practice. A survey of clinician colleagues who contributed to teaching the 3 medicinal chemistry courses found their views were similar to those of students.Conclusions. The purposeful use of technology united learners, fostered communication, and advanced content comprehension in 3 medicinal chemistry courses taught to campus and distance students. Teaching collaboration with pharmacy clinicians enhanced learner interest in course content and provided insight into the integrated nature of the profession of pharmacy.

Role development of nurses for technology-dependent children attending mainstream schools in Japan.

PubMed

Shimizu, Fumie; Suzuki, Machiko

2015-04-01

To describe the role development of nurses caring for medical technology-dependent children attending Japanese mainstream schools. Semi-structured interviews with 21 nurses caring for technology-dependent children were conducted and analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach. Nurses developed roles centered on maintaining technology-dependent children's physical health to support children's learning with each other, through building relationships, learning how to interact with children, understanding the children and the school community, and realizing the meaning of supporting technology-dependent children. These findings support nurses to build relationships of mutual trust with teachers and children, and learn on the job in mainstream schools. © 2015, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Building Sustainable Health and Education Partnerships: Stories From Local Communities

PubMed Central

Blank, Martin J

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND Growing health disparities have a negative impact on young people's educational achievement. Community schools that involve deep relationships with partners across multiple domains address these disparities by providing opportunities and services that promote healthy development of young people, and enable them to graduate from high school ready for college, technical school, on-the-job training, career, and citizenship. METHODS Results from Milwaukie High School, North Clackamas, OR; Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, CA; and Cincinnati Community Learning Centers, Cincinnati, OH were based on a review of local site documents, web-based information, interviews, and e-mail communication with key local actors. RESULTS The schools and districts with strong health partnerships reflecting community schools strategy have shown improvements in attendance, academic performance, and increased access to mental, dental, vision, and health supports for their students. CONCLUSIONS To build deep health-education partnerships and grow community schools, a working leadership and management infrastructure must be in place that uses quality data, focuses on results, and facilitates professional development across sectors. The leadership infrastructure of community school initiatives offers a prototype on which others can build. Moreover, as leaders build cross-sector relationships, a clear definition of what scaling up means is essential for subsequent long-term systemic change. PMID:26440823

Writing-to-learn in undergraduate science education: a community-based, conceptually driven approach.

PubMed

Reynolds, Julie A; Thaiss, Christopher; Katkin, Wendy; Thompson, Robert J

2012-01-01

Despite substantial evidence that writing can be an effective tool to promote student learning and engagement, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices are still not widely implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, particularly at research universities. Two major deterrents to progress are the lack of a community of science faculty committed to undertaking and applying the necessary pedagogical research, and the absence of a conceptual framework to systematically guide study designs and integrate findings. To address these issues, we undertook an initiative, supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Reinvention Center, to build a community of WTL/STEM educators who would undertake a heuristic review of the literature and formulate a conceptual framework. In addition to generating a searchable database of empirically validated and promising WTL practices, our work lays the foundation for multi-university empirical studies of the effectiveness of WTL practices in advancing student learning and engagement.

Research Capacity-Building with New Technologies within New Communities of Practice: Reflections on the First Year of the Teacher Education Research Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowler, Zoe; Stanley, Grant; Murray, Jean; Jones, Marion; McNamara, Olwen

2013-01-01

This article focuses on a virtual research environment (VRE) and how it facilitated the networking of teacher educators participating in an Economic and Social Research Council-funded research capacity-building project. Using the theoretical lenses of situated learning and socio-cultural approaches to literacy, participants' ways of engaging with…

Putting More "Modern" in Modern Physics Education: A Knowledge Building Approach Using Student Questions and Ideas about the Universe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Glenn

2017-01-01

Student-generated questions and ideas about our universe are the start of a rich and highly motivating learning environment. Using their curiosity-driven questions and ideas, students form Knowledge Building groups or "communities" where they plan, set goals, design questions for research, and assess the progress of their work, tasks…

Building the Community School: How School Principals Can Lead in Addressing Educational and Social Challenges in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witten, Allistair Mark

2010-01-01

A strong body of research in South Africa focuses on the in-school aspects of school improvement and the role that school principals play in establishing organizational structures to support teaching and learning, develop teacher capacity, and build a school culture conducive to academic performance. However, researchers have paid little attention…

Teaching Language in Context. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derewianka, Beverly; Jones, Pauline

2016-01-01

Language is at the heart of the learning process. We learn through language. Our knowledge about the world is constructed in language-the worlds of home and the community, the worlds of school subjects, the worlds of literature, the worlds of the workplace, and so on. It is through language that we interact with others and build our identities.…

Red Tape, Silver Hammers, & Shattered Ashtrays: What States and Communities Can Learn from Eight Years of Federal Reinvention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sylvester, Kathleen; Umpierre, Michael

This report presents lessons learned from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) and offers advice for state and local reinvention efforts, describing how NPR's leaders built political and public support and focusing on five aspects of reinvention: getting started (e.g.; creating a reinvention team, building relationships with…

Innovative Research-Based Approaches to Learning and Teaching. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 79

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van den Broek, Gesa Sonja Elsa

2012-01-01

Building on an earlier 2008 summary prepared for OECD by Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter, this paper by Gesa S. E. van den Broek provides a more extensive discussion of approaches described as "research based innovation." "Fostering Communities of Learning" is a constructivist approach in which teachers help students discover important…

Students without Borders: Global Collaborative Learning Connects School to the Real World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bickley, Mali; Carleton, Jim

2009-01-01

Kids can't help but get engaged when they're collaborating with peers across the globe to solve real-life problems. Global collaborative learning is about connecting students in communities of learners around the world so they can work together on projects that make a difference locally and globally. It is about building relationships and…

Learning Cities as Healthy Green Cities: Building Sustainable Opportunity Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kearns, Peter

2012-01-01

This paper discusses a new generation of learning cities we have called EcCoWell cities (Economy, Community, Well-being). The paper was prepared for the PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) and is based on international experiences with PIE and developments in some cities. The paper argues for more holistic and integrated development so that…

Kids, Cameras, and the Curriculum: Focusing on Learning in the Primary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dragan, Pat Barrett

2008-01-01

The author demonstrates how simple snapshots can open new entryways into literacy for all children and help educators view teaching and learning in new ways, building classroom-wide and school-wide community. The book offers projects that help children see real-world possibilities in literate behaviors by using photos as a stimulus for literacy…

Quality Teaching: Building a Flexible and Dynamic Approach. GEC Working Paper Series. Number 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leu, Elizabeth; Hays, Frances; LeCzel, Donna Kay; O'Grady, Barbara

2005-01-01

Good basic education depends on several factors working in harmony. The first is that students be healthy, safe, and ready to learn. Other essentials include an enabling policy environment and transparent management; a curriculum that reflects the society's values and aspirations for learning; and community support for education and parents'…

Guiding Principles for a Research Schools Network: Successes and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Marc S.; Gerlach, Jeanne

2011-01-01

Building on J. Dewey's (1907) original work with the laboratory school, the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Texas-Arlington is expanding the original concept to include partners throughout a school system and the community in order to support and advance learning in multiple learning environments. The goal is to…

Intentional Language and the Power of Metaphor: Helping Students Build a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pate, Joseph A.; Johnson, Corey W.

2013-01-01

Metaphors are an effective pedagogical tool used within the classroom to enhance and facilitate learning and growth. This article draws attention to the intentional, and sometimes even unintentional, use of metaphors with regard to what metaphors open up and afford, and how metaphors are created or formed. Specific examples of metaphors are…

Can You See Me Now? Defining Teaching Presence in the Online Classroom through Building a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Ida M.

2011-01-01

In the online environment, students and instructors are virtually, but not physically, present in the same environment. In the online environment, technology mediates learning: it mediates communications and information transfer between the student and the instructor, between the student and the content, and among the students. Critics fear that…

Building Connective Capital and Personal Learning Networks through Online Professional Development Communities for New Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sciuto, David J.

2017-01-01

Increasingly, researchers concerned with the effects of digital technology have hypothesized that the millennial generation does not think or process information like its predecessors. In an age of disruptive technology changing culture and learning, new teachers continue to leave the classroom within the first five years of service. Among the…

Parent Power Nights: A Model for Engaging Adults/Families in Learning Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosheleva, Olga; Lesser, Larry; Munter, Judith; Trillo, Sylvia

2008-01-01

Located on the U.S./México border, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) offers academic programs in K-12 school teacher preparation. Many of the courses integrate parents and families into teacher preparation courses. One example of effective adult/community learning is the "Parent Power Night" (PPN) component. This model builds a…

Using escaped prescribed fire reviews to improve organizational learning

Treesearch

Anne E. Black; James Saveland; Dave Thomas; Jennifer Ziegler

2012-01-01

The US wildland fire community has been interested in cultivating organizational learning to improve safety and overall performance for a number of years. A key focus has been on understanding the difference between culpability (to be guilty) and accountability (to explain) and on re-orienting review processes towards building a collective account of (as opposed to...

STEM Learning Research through a Funds of Knowledge Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Civil, Marta

2016-01-01

This article examines STEM learning as a cultural process with a focus on non-dominant communities. Building on my work in funds of knowledge and mathematics education, I present three vignettes to raise some questions around connections between in-school and out-of-school mathematics. How do we define competence? How do task and environment…

Beyond the Class Blog: Creative and Practical Uses of Blogger for the ESL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerich, David

2013-01-01

Using Blogger, a free Google-powered weblog-generating website, English as a second language (ESL) instructors can create motivating and empowering learning opportunities for students. Instructors can generate their own blogs, including not only a class blog that builds a community-learning setting online, but also a teacher's homepage to…

The "River of Learning": Building Relationships in a University, School and Community Indigenous Widening Participation Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whiteford, Gail; Hunter, John; Jamie, Joanne; Pitson, Rhonda; Breckenridge, Deborah; Elders, Yaegl; Vemulpad, Subramanyam; Harrington, David; Jamie, Ian

2017-01-01

In this article, findings of a qualitative study of an Indigenous widening participation program are presented. The program, "River of Learning", has been in existence since 2010 and represents a powerful collaboration between a rural high school in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, a metropolitan university, Indigenous Elders and…

From Homemaking to Solidarity: Global Engagement as Common Good in an Age of Global Populism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toms, Cynthia

2018-01-01

The challenging and rapidly evolving times in which we live require that students understand, analyze, and address the complex realities facing their nation and world. However, efforts in global learning have primarily focused on expansion of programs rather than student learning and meaningful community engagement. Building on Bouma-Prediger and…

Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN): 21st-Century School Librarians Seek Self-Regulated Professional Development Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreillon, Judi

2016-01-01

For school librarians, being part of a "connected" community provides support for getting specific needs met, solving personally relevant and meaningful problems, and developing professional expertise. AASL provides many avenues for members of the profession to learn with and from one another. These include AASL and subgroup electronic…

United We Learn: Team Effort Builds a Path to Equity and Alignment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kind, Jill

2014-01-01

This article presents a plan to create a united approach to improve high quality instruction in Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Professional learning communities were in their infancy, conversations around data were about autopsies of annual standardized tests, and there was no description of what…

Hospitality: transformative service to children, families, and communities.

PubMed

Melton, Gary B

2014-11-01

Hospitality is an ancient moral practice that was deeply embedded in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Hospitality requires acceptance of, service to, and respect for people who lack a place in the community. The contemporary importance of this practice reflects the social disconnection and economic disadvantage of many young parents and the high frequency of separation of young people, including many young parents, from their communities. Such social deterioration substantially increases the risk of child maltreatment. Building on the proposals of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, Strong Communities for Children demonstrated the effectiveness of community building in reducing such risk. It further suggested the importance of both relying on and learning from hospitable people in strengthening support for children and their parents. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Building Active Citizens: The Role of Social Institutions in Teen Volunteering. Youth Helping America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grimm, Robert, Jr.; Dietz, Nathan; Spring, Kimberly; Arey, Kelly; Foster-Bey, John

2005-01-01

In an effort to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of young people in America around volunteering, service-learning and other forms of community involvement, the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and Independent Sector, conducted the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement…

Promoting Mental Health. Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowman (James) Associates, San Francisco, CA.

This training guide is intended to help Head Start staff promote mental health for all members of the Head Start Community, by means of activities that build skills in creating responsive, respectful relationships with co-workers, parents, and children. The guide has five working sections, the first three of which are training modules. Each of the…

Building Capacity through Sustainable Engagement: Lessons for the Learning Community from the "GraniteNet" Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arden, Catherine; McLachlan, Kathryn; Cooper, Trevor

2009-01-01

This paper reports an exploration into critical success factors for the sustainability of the partnership between the University of Southern Queensland and the Stanthorpe community during the GraniteNet Phoenix Project--the first phase of a three-phase participatory action research project conducted during 2007-2008. The concepts of learning…

Cultivating Community: Faculty Support for Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzmaurice, Celine

2015-01-01

Emerging approaches to faculty support are moving away from a "fixing" model to a "relational" model. In this article, the author describes a program of faculty support that places trust and community-building at the center of its efforts. The result is a program in which faculty members engage in a peer-to-peer approach to…

Open Source Meets Virtual Reality--An Instructor's Journey Unearths New Opportunities for Learning, Community, and Academia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Eileen A.

2015-01-01

Opening with the history, recent advances, and emerging ways to use avatar-based virtual reality, an instructor who has used virtual environments since 2007 shares how these environments bring more options to community building, teaching, and education. With the open-source movement, where the source code for virtual environments was made…

High School in the Community: Providing Alternatives in Education. Profiles of Promise 39.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawke, Sharryl

Secondary students in the New Haven, Connecticut schools are offered a community high school program as an alternative to traditional education. The program is committed to three basic goals: (1) building student skills; (2) increasing student motivation to learn; and (3) encouraging students to become responsible, independent members of society.…

Circles of Support and Personalization: Exploring the Economic Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wistow, Gerald; Perkins, Margaret; Knapp, Martin; Bauer, Annette; Bonin, Eva-Maria

2016-01-01

Circles of Support aim to enable people with learning disabilities (and others) to live full lives as part of their communities. As part of a wider study of the economic case for community capacity building conducted from 2012 to 2014, we conducted a mixed methods study of five Circles in North West England. Members of these Circles were…

Community How To Guide On Underage Drinking Prevention: Coalition Building.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association of Governors' Highway Safety Representatives.

Coalitions have been used successfully in the United States to tackle a number of seemingly intractable problems. For communities that want to reduce their underage drinking problem, putting together a broad-based coalition can bring substantial dividends. In this guide, readers will learn the steps that bring together a diverse group of people in…

Understanding and building wilderness management partnerships with indigenous peoples and communities

Treesearch

Gregory F. Hansen

2011-01-01

Learning about, understanding, and working with native cultures can be rewarding as well as enlightening. Such endeavors can also be time consuming, difficult, and even frustrating in certain instances. However, if coordinated carefully and managed properly, at the end of the day such efforts can ultimately result in innumerable benefits to native communities, land...

A Year of Progress in School-to-Career System Building. The Benchmark Communities Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez, Martha I.; And Others

This document examines the first year of Jobs for the Future's Benchmark Communities Initiative (BCI), a 5-year effort to achieve the following: large-scale systemic restructuring of K-16 educational systems; involvement of significant numbers of employers in work and learning partnerships; and development of the infrastructure necessary to…

Creating Online Community: A Response to the Needs of 21st Century Faculty Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohn, Jenae; Stewart, Mary K.; Theisen, Cara Harwood; Comins, Dan

2016-01-01

Centers for teaching and learning (CTL) have traditionally relied upon on-campus programming to support faculty professional development, but as increasing numbers of faculty access resources and collaborate online, CTLs could do more to build online community. To meet this challenge, our team developed a website, EdTech Commons, which features…

Adaptive and interactive climate futures: systematic review of ‘serious games’ for engagement and decision-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flood, Stephen; Cradock-Henry, Nicholas A.; Blackett, Paula; Edwards, Peter

2018-06-01

Climate change is already having adverse impacts on ecosystems, communities and economic activities through higher temperatures, prolonged droughts, and more frequent extremes. However, a gap remains between public understanding, scientific knowledge about climate change, and changes in behaviour to effect adaptation. ‘Serious games’—games used for purposes other than entertainment—are one way to reduce this adaptation deficit by enhancing opportunities for social learning and enabling positive action. Games can provide communities with the opportunity to interactively explore different climate futures, build capability and capacity for dealing with complex challenges, and socialise adaptation priorities with diverse publics. Using systematic review methods, this paper identifies, reviews, synthesises and assesses the literature on serious games for climate change adaptation. To determine where and how impact is achieved, we draw on an evaluation framework grounded in social learning, to assess which combinations of cognitive (knowledge and thinking), normative (norms and approaches) and relational (how people connect and network building) learning are achieved. Results show that factors influencing the overall success in influencing behaviour and catalysing learning for adaptation include generating high levels of inter- and intra- level trust between researchers, practitioners and community participants; strong debriefing and evaluation practices; and the use of experienced and knowledgeable facilitators. These results can help inform future game design, and research methodologies to develop robust ways for engaging with stakeholders and end users, and enhance learning effects for resilient climate futures.

Design of environmental education module towards the needs of aboriginal community learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dasman, Siti Mariam; Yasin, Ruhizan Mohammad

2017-05-01

Non-formal education (NFE) refers to a program that is designed for personal and social education for learners to improve the level of skills and competencies outside formal educational curriculum. Issues related to geography and environment of different Aboriginal communities with other communities play an important role in determining the types and methods that should be made available to the minority community groups. Thus, this concept paper is intended to cater for educational environment through the design and development of learning modules based on non-formal education to the learning of Aboriginal community. Methods and techniques in the design and construction of the modules is based on the Design and Development Research (DDR) that was based on instructional design model of Morrison, Kemp and Ross which is more flexible and prioritizes the needs and characteristics of learners who were involved in the learning modules of the future. The discussion is related to the module development which is suitable to the learning needs of the community and there are several recommendations which may be applied in the implementation of this approach. In conclusion, the community of Orang Asli should be offered the same education as other communities but it is important to distinguish acceptance of learning techniques or approaches used in the education system to meet their standards. The implications of this concept paper is to meet the educational needs of the environment which includes a few aspects of science and some learning activities using effective approaches such as playing and building their own knowledge of meaning.

Service Learning: A Vehicle for Building Health Equity and Eliminating Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Sabo, Samantha; de Zapien, Jill; Teufel-Shone, Nicolette; Rosales, Cecilia; Bergsma, Lynda

2015-01-01

Service learning (SL) is a form of community-centered experiential education that places emerging health professionals in community-generated service projects and provides structured opportunities for reflection on the broader social, economic, and political contexts of health. We describe the elements and impact of five distinct week-long intensive SL courses focused on the context of urban, rural, border, and indigenous health contexts. Students involved in these SL courses demonstrated a commitment to community-engaged scholarship and practice in both their student and professional lives. SL is directly in line with the core public health value of social justice and serves as a venue to strengthen community–campus partnerships in addressing health disparities through sustained collaboration and action in vulnerable communities. PMID:25706014

CosmoQuest: Building community around Citizen Science Collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, P.

2015-12-01

CosmoQuest was envisioned in 2011 with a singular goal: to create a place where people of all backgrounds can learn and do science in a virtual research community. Like a brick-and-mortar center, CosmoQuest includes facilities for doing science and for educating its members through classes, seminars, and other forms of professional development. CosmoQuest is unique with its combination of public engagement in doing science—known as "citizen science"— and its diversity of learning opportunities that enable STEM education. Our suite of activities is able maximize people's ability to learn and do science, while improving scientific literacy. Since its launch on January 1, 2012, CosmoQuest has grown to become the most trafficked astronomy citizen science site on the English-language internet. It has hosted five citizen science portals supporting NASA SMD science and is the only citizen science site to have produced peer-reviewed surface science results [Robbins, et al. 2014]. CosmoQuest, however, is more than just citizen science. It is a virtual research center for the public, and for the educators who teach in classrooms and science centers. Like with with any research center, CosmoQuest's success hinges on its ability to build a committed research community, and the challenge has been creating this community without the benefit of real-world interactions. In this talk, we overview how CosmoQuest has built a virtual community through screen-to-screen interactions using a suite of technologies that must constantly evolve as the internet evolves.

Community-based participatory research in Little Haiti: challenges and lessons learned.

PubMed

Kobetz, Erin; Menard, Janelle; Diem, Joshua; Barton, Betsy; Blanco, Jenny; Pierre, Larry; Auguste, Pascale D; Etienne, Marie; Brewster, Cheryl

2009-01-01

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective methodology for developing relevant interventions with socially marginalized communities. However, implementing CBPR methods is challenging for several reasons. This paper presents challenges encountered in the context of an ongoing CBPR initiative in Little Haiti in Miami, Florida, and describes the solutions used to address them. We sought to describe the challenges faced and lessons learned while conducting CBPR in Little Haiti. Community-academic partnerships were created to guide the creation of culturally relevant cancer interventions and research. Historical distrust of research, cultural constructions of health and illness, and literacy issues are key considerations when developing partnerships with Haitian and other marginalized, immigrant communities. Partnerships are fostered over time through demonstrated mutual commitment to improving health and building community capacity. Communities must play an active role throughout the research process to ensure that studies are culturally relevant, and ensuing intervention, sustainable.

Teaching population health and community-based care across diverse clinical experiences: integration of conceptual pillars and constructivist learning.

PubMed

Valentine-Maher, Sarah K; Van Dyk, Elizabeth J; Aktan, Nadine M; Bliss, Julie Beshore

2014-03-01

Nursing programs are challenged to prepare future nurses to provide care and affect determinants of health for individuals and populations. This article advances a pedagogical model for clinical education that builds concepts related to both population-level care and direct care in the community through a contextual learning approach. Because the conceptual pillars and hybrid constructivist approach allow for conceptual learning consistency across experiences, the model expands programmatic capacity to use diverse community clinical sites that accept only small numbers of students. The concept-based and hybrid constructivist learning approach is expected to contribute to the development of broad intellectual skills and lifelong learning. The pillar concepts include determinants of health and nursing care of population aggregates; direct care, based on evidence and best practices; appreciation of lived experience of health and illness; public health nursing roles and relationship to ethical and professional formation; and multidisciplinary collaboration. Copyright 2014, SLACK Incorporated.

Principals: Learn P.R. Survival Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reep, Beverly B.

1988-01-01

School building level public relations depends on the principal or vice principal. Strategies designed to enhance school public relations programs include linking school and community, working with the press, and keeping morale high inside the school. (MLF)

Development and Implementation of a School-based Obesity Prevention Intervention: Lessons Learned from Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Uyeda, Kimberly; Bogart, Laura M.; Hawes-Dawson, Jennifer; Schuster, Mark A.

2010-01-01

Background National, state, and local policies aim to change school environments to prevent child obesity. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be effective in translating public health policy into practice. Objectives We describe lessons learned from developing and pilot testing a middle school-based obesity prevention intervention using CBPR in Los Angeles, California. Methods We formed a community–academic partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion to identify community needs and priorities for addressing adolescent obesity and to develop and pilot test a school-based intervention. Lessons Learned Academic partners need to be well-versed in organizational structures and policies. Partnerships should be built on relationships of trust, shared vision, and mutual capacity building, with genuine community engagement at multiple levels. Conclusion These lessons are critical, not only for partnering with schools on obesity prevention, but also for working in other community settings and on other health issues. PMID:20208226

Community-campus partnership in action: lessons learned from the DuPage County Patient Navigation Collaborative.

PubMed

Samaras, Athena T; Murphy, Kara; Nonzee, Narissa J; Endress, Richard; Taylor, Shaneah; Hajjar, Nadia; Bularzik, Rosario; Frankovich, Carmi; Dong, XinQi; Simon, Melissa A

2014-01-01

Using community-based participatory research (CBPR), the DuPage County Patient Navigation Collaborative (DPNC) developed an academic campus-community research partnership aimed at increasing access to care for underserved breast and cervical cancer patients within DuPage County, a collar county of Chicago. Given rapidly shifting demographics, targeting CBPR initiatives among underserved suburban communities is essential. To discuss the facilitating factors and lessons learned in forging the DPNC. A patient navigation collaborative was formed to guide medically underserved women through diagnostic resolution and if necessary, treatment, after an abnormal breast or cervical cancer screening. Facilitating factors included (1) fostering and maintaining collaborations within a suburban context, (2) a systems-based participatory research approach, (3) a truly equitable community-academic partnership, (4) funding adaptability, (5) culturally relevant navigation, and (6) emphasis on co-learning and capacity building. By highlighting the strategies that contributed to DPNC success, we envision the DPNC to serve as a feasible model for future health interventions.

Community-based advocacy training: applying asset-based community development in resident education.

PubMed

Hufford, Laura; West, Daniel C; Paterniti, Debora A; Pan, Richard J

2009-06-01

Communities and Physicians Together (CPT) at University of California, Davis Health System provides a novel approach to teaching residents to be effective community advocates. Founded in 1999, CPT is a partnership between a pediatric residency program, five community collaboratives located in diverse neighborhoods, and a grassroots child advocacy organization. Using the principles of Asset-Based Community Development, the program emphasizes establishing partnerships with community members and organizations to improve child health and identifies community assets and building capacity. Community members function as the primary faculty for CPT.The authors describe the CPT curriculum, which teaches residents to build partnerships with their assigned community. Residents have three, two-week blocks each year for CPT activities and maintain a longitudinal relationship with their community. In the first year, collaborative coordinators from each community orient residents to their community. Residents identify community assets and perform activities designed to provide them with a community member's perspective. In the second and third years, residents partner with community members and organizations to implement a project to improve the health of children in that community. CPT also provides faculty development to community partners including a workshop on medical culture and resident life. A qualitative evaluation demonstrated residents' attitudes of their role as pediatricians in the community changed with CPT.CPT is unique because it provides a model of service learning that emphasizes identifying and utilizing strengths and building capacity. This approach differs from the traditional medical model, which emphasizes deficits and needs.

Curriculum & Instruction: Curriculum Outcomes, Learning Plan Negotiation, Career Explorations, Projects, Learning & Skill Building Levels, Competencies, Student Journals, Employer Seminars, Learning Resources. Handbook for Experience-Based Career Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Nancy; And Others

This is one of a set of five handbooks compiled by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory which describes the processes for planning and operating a total Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) program. Processes and material are those developed by the original EBCE model--Community Experiences in Career Education or (CE)2. The area of…

Strengthening research capacity in the Pacific: an example from the Atoifi Health Research Group, Solomon Islands.

PubMed

MacLaren, David; Asugeni, James; Redman-MacLaren, Michelle

2015-12-01

To provide an example of one model of research capacity building for mental health from a remote setting in Solomon Islands. The Atoifi Health Research Group is building health research capacity with a health service on the remote east coast of Malaita, Solomon Islands. The group uses a 'learn-by-doing' approach embedded in health service and community-level health projects. The group is eclectic in nature and deliberately engages a variety of partners to discover culturally informed methods of collecting, analysing and disseminating research findings. Key successes of the Atoifi Health Research Group are: that it was initiated by Solomon Islanders with self-expressed desire to learn about research; the learn-by-doing model; inclusion of community people to inform questions and socio-cultural appropriateness; and commitment to ongoing support by international researchers. Given different social, cultural, economic, geographic, spiritual and service contexts across the Pacific, locally appropriate approaches need to be considered. Such approaches challenge the orthodox approach of centralized investment to replicate specialist driven approaches of funder nations. Increasing expertise at all levels through participatory capacity building models that define and address local problems may be more sustainable and responsive to local mental health contexts. © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2015.

Integrating STEM Place-Based, Culturally Responsive and Citizen Science Learning in Exploring the Impacts and Feedbacks of a Changing Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sparrow, E. B.; Spellman, K. V.; Fabbri, C.; Comiso, J. C.; Chase, M.; Fochesatto, G. J.; Butcher, C. E.; Jones, D.; Bacsujlaky, M.; Yoshikawa, K.; Gho, C. L.; Wegner, K.

2016-12-01

To build capacity in navigating challenges associated with a changing climate, learning in Arctic communities must not only increase STEM and climate change literacy, but also generate new knowledge as the rapid changes occur. Among the new NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Education projects, Arctic and Earth SIGNs (STEM Integrating GLOBE and NASA assets) is providing opportunities for K-12 pre-service and in-service teachers, their students, and lifelong learners to engage in citizen science using the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) methods and culturally responsive learning to help address climate change challenges within their unique community, and contribute to hypothesis driven research. This project will weave traditional knowledge and western science, and use ground observations and satellite data and best teaching practices in STEM learning, supported through a NASA cooperative agreement and collaborative partnerships. Implementation will begin in rural Alaska and grow within Alaska and throughout the United States to reach underserved and STEM underrepresented populations, through face-to-face and on-line teaching and learning as well as building partnerships among educators, scientists, local and indigenous experts, institutions, agencies, and learning communities. Partners include research and teaching institutions at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Association of Interior Native Educators, the North Slope Borough School District and other school districts, the Kenaitze Tribe Environmental Education program, NASA science education and research programs as well as those of NOAA and NSF, the GLOBE Implementation Office, the 4-H program and others. The program resources and model will be shared and disseminated within the United States and globally through partners for local, national and worldwide use in STEM climate change education and citizen empowerment.

Aligning the goals of community-engaged research: why and how academic health centers can successfully engage with communities to improve health.

PubMed

Michener, Lloyd; Cook, Jennifer; Ahmed, Syed M; Yonas, Michael A; Coyne-Beasley, Tamera; Aguilar-Gaxiola, Sergio

2012-03-01

Community engagement (CE) and community-engaged research (CEnR) are increasingly viewed as the keystone to translational medicine and improving the health of the nation. In this article, the authors seek to assist academic health centers (AHCs) in learning how to better engage with their communities and build a CEnR agenda by suggesting five steps: defining community and identifying partners, learning the etiquette of CE, building a sustainable network of CEnR researchers, recognizing that CEnR will require the development of new methodologies, and improving translation and dissemination plans. Health disparities that lead to uneven access to and quality of care as well as high costs will persist without a CEnR agenda that finds answers to both medical and public health questions. One of the biggest barriers toward a national CEnR agenda, however, are the historical structures and processes of an AHC-including the complexities of how institutional review boards operate, accounting practices and indirect funding policies, and tenure and promotion paths. Changing institutional culture starts with the leadership and commitment of top decision makers in an institution. By aligning the motivations and goals of their researchers, clinicians, and community members into a vision of a healthier population, AHC leadership will not just improve their own institutions but also improve the health of the nation-starting with improving the health of their local communities, one community at a time.

Rural Experiment. How Three South Dakota Schools Are Opening Doors to Their Communities...Exploring Business Partnerships, Professional Alliances, Functional Building Designs, and Expanded Learning Environments for the Information Age.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higbee, Paul S.

The Rural School and Community Development Project encourages South Dakota rural schools to take roles in local economic planning. This booklet profiles 3 of the project's 12 pilot schools: Takini School on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, Estelline, and Belle Fourche. The three communities differ greatly in their histories, lifestyles,…

Building Local Capacity to Bring Arts Education to All Children: Lessons Learned from the First Half of the Ford Foundation's National Demonstration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spilka, Gertrude; Long, Meg

2009-01-01

Interested in bringing the benefits of the arts as integral to quality education for all children, in 2004 the Ford Foundation launched the National Arts Education Initiative, a seven-year demonstration in nine communities across the United States. Building from arts education programs that serve "pockets" of children, Ford investments…

Talking Circles for Adolescent Girls in an Urban High School: A Restorative Practices Program for Building Friendships and Developing Emotional Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumacher, Martha Ann

2012-01-01

Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice programs in schools are a new and emerging field. Meeting in Circles to build community, resolve conflict, and learn interactively are core components of these programs. This ethnographic study, which took place February 2010 to December 2011, evaluates 12 small, out-of-classroom Talking Circles for 60…

Energizing Staff Development Using Film Clips: Memorable Movie Moments that Promote Reflection, Conversation, and Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olsen, Walter R.; Sommers, William A.

2005-01-01

Video and DVD clips give participants an opportunity to explore values and ideas, learn about one another, and, in the process, build a stronger learning community. "Energizing Staff Development Using Film Clips" is a collection of film and television clips that staff developers can use to encourage discussion and reflection on pertinent, common…

Building Capacity to Enact Change for Classroom Quality Improvement in New Jersey. CEELO Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley-Ayers, Shannon; Ryan, Sharon; Figueras-Daniel, Alexandra; Costanza, Vincent; Northey, Kaitlin

2018-01-01

The Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes partnered with the New Jersey Department of Education from 2013 to 2017 to implement a peer learning community in selected districts. The goal of the PLC was to support effective implementation of key early childhood policies and improve the quality of instruction preschool through grade 3. This…

Student Service Learning (SSL): Give a Little Time...Make a Big Difference. 2014-2015 Guide for Students and Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery County Public Schools, 2014

2014-01-01

Student Service Learning (SSL) provides students the opportunity to actively participate in the community and build the skills they need to be successful students and citizens. This booklet provides information about the Maryland State Department of Education SSL graduation mandate. Completing 75 SSL hours is a requirement for high school…

Building Hope, Giving Affirmation: Learning Communities That Address Social Justice Issues Bring Equity to the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirsh, Stephanie; Hord, Shirley M.

2010-01-01

A school that ensures that all students--regardless of race, creed, color, socioeconomic status, gender, or disabilities--have access to and receive the highest-quality education has achieved a key measure of social justice. Since the most significant factor in whether students learn well is quality teaching, and teaching is enhanced through…

Translating Data into Action: A Data Team Model as the Seed of Comprehensive District Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruffner, Karen Blake

2010-01-01

Educational reform is not easy. As school leaders search for a format that leads to improvement on many fronts concurrently, data teams is one such promising practice. The data team design not only involves sensemaking of data as evidence of effective teaching and learning, but also builds a professional learning community, distributes leadership,…

The Design and Evaluation of Class Exercises as Active Learning Tools in Software Verification and Validation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Peter Y.; Manohar, Priyadarshan A.; Acharya, Sushil

2016-01-01

It is well known that interesting questions can stimulate thinking and invite participation. Class exercises are designed to make use of questions to engage students in active learning. In a project toward building a community skilled in software verification and validation (SV&V), we critically review and further develop course materials in…

Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Lesson Study--Building Communities of Learning among Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Deborah; Donham, Richard; Tanner, Kimberly

2004-01-01

For more than 20 years, the American public has grown accustomed to the drumbeat of bad news about their schools. Poor performance on standardized tests, gaps in achievement between minority and white students, and high student drop-out rates have become part of the modern lexicon. Although college- and university-level science educators are not…

eMINTS Program Evaluation Report: An Investigation of Program Fidelity and Its Impact on Teacher Mastery and Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Wendy; Strother, Scott; Weatherholt, Tara; Dechaume, Merav

2008-01-01

The eMINTS professional development programs are designed to help teachers learn how to integrate technology into their teaching, using instructional strategies that promote inquiry-based learning and encourage collaboration and community building among students and teachers. The eMINTS programs considered in this evaluation include: (1) eMINTS…

Impact of Using Facebook as a Social Learning Platform to Connect High School Students with Working Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamauchi, Yuhei; Fujimoto, Toru; Takahashi, Kaoru; Araki, Junko; Otsuji, Yusuke; Suzuki, Hisashi

2012-01-01

This study examines "the Socla study program" to build a social learning community for high school students using Facebook and other Internet services. In the two-week program, the students worked on individual study projects that focused on their future plans. With the help of volunteer supporters and facilitators, the students found…

Open Source Software and Design-Based Research Symbiosis in Developing 3D Virtual Learning Environments: Examples from the iSocial Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Matthew; Galyen, Krista; Laffey, James; Babiuch, Ryan; Schmidt, Carla

2014-01-01

Design-based research (DBR) and open source software are both acknowledged as potentially productive ways for advancing learning technologies. These approaches have practical benefits for the design and development process and for building and leveraging community to augment and sustain design and development. This report presents a case study of…

Using a Social Networking Site for Experiential Learning: Appropriating, Lurking, Modeling and Community Building

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Nike; Paulus, Trena

2010-01-01

With social networking sites playing an increasingly important role in today's society, educators are exploring how they can be used as a teaching and learning tool. This article reports the findings of a qualitative case study about the integration of "Ning" into a blended course. The study draws on the perspectives of the students, the…

Building Fire Behavior Analyst (FBAN) capability and capacity: Lessons learned From Victoria, Australia's Bushfire Behavior Predictive Services Strategy

Treesearch

K. E. Gibos; A. Slijepcevic; T. Wells; L. Fogarty

2015-01-01

Wildland fire managers must frequently make meaning from chaos in order to protect communities and infrastructure from the negative impacts of fire. Fire management personnel are increasingly turning to science to support their experience-based decision-making processes and to provide clear, confident leadership for communities frequently exposed to risk from wildfire...

The Power of University-Community Partnerships for Lifelong Learning: A Framework for Dialogic Leaderships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurubacak, Gulsun

2006-01-01

The main purpose of this study is to focus on the university-community partnerships (UCPs) via distance in Turkey. Also, this study focuses on how to negotiate the meaning and usability of flexible e-contents to build online societies is very important for lifelong learners in assessing their understanding founded on culturally shared online…

Power Sharing: Building Community School Relationships from Friendship to Marriage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Carol R.

2011-01-01

When the author accepted a job with the Bayview Hunters Point YMCA as the director of the Beacon Center on the campus of Burton High School in San Francisco, she found out that New Day for Learning (NDL), an initiative that helps schools implement the community schools model, had chosen Burton as a pilot site. The author had heard that community…

Communities of Practice in a Voluntary Youth Organisation: Reaching for the Sky and Building Social Capital

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Bill; Short, Tom

2011-01-01

The study is situated within a national youth organisation called the Australian Air League Inc (Air League). We examine the recent progress of the Air League in South Australia, starting as a loose network of volunteers engaged in a sporadic array of activities, to become a learning community that worked collaboratively and then developed further…

Southern Seven Women's Initiative for Cardiovascular Health: Lessons Learned in Community Health Outreach with Rural Women

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmermann, Kristine; Khare, Manorama M.; Huber, Rachel; Moehring, Patricia A.; Koch, Abby; Geller, Stacie E.

2012-01-01

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States. Rural women have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease due to both behavioral and environmental factors. Models of prevention that are tailored to community needs and build on existing resources are essential for effective outreach to rural women.…

Secondary Science Teachers' and Students' Involvement in a Primary School Community of Science Practice: How It Changed Their Practices and Interest in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Anne; Skamp, Keith

2016-01-01

"MyScience" is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice is integral to the learning process. In this initiative, stakeholder groups--primary teachers, primary students and mentors--interact around the "domain" of "investigating scientifically". This paper builds on three earlier…

Writing Class: How Class-Based Culture Influences Community College Student Experience in College Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Myla

2016-01-01

This study was designed to build on the existing research on teaching and learning in community college contexts and the literature of college writing in two-year schools. The work of Pierre Bourdieu formed the primary theoretical framework and composition theory was used to position this study in the literature of the college writing discipline.…

Preparing Science Teachers for Culturally Diverse Students: Developing Cultural Literacy Through Cultural Immersion, Cultural Translators and Communities of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinn, Pauline W. U.

2006-09-01

This three year study of P-12 professional development is grounded in sociocultural theories that hold that building knowledge and relationships among individuals from different cultural backgrounds entails joint activity toward common goals and cultural dialogues mediated by cultural translators. Sixty P-12 pre and in-service teachers in a year long interdisciplinary science curriculum course shared the goal of developing culturally relevant, standards-based science curricula for Native Hawai'ian students. Teachers and Native Hawai'ian instructors lived and worked together during a five day culture-science immersion in rural school and community sites and met several times at school, university, and community sites to build knowledge and share programs. Teachers were deeply moved by immersion experiences, learned to connect cultural understandings, e.g., a Hawai'ian sense of place and curriculum development, and highly valued collaborating with peers on curriculum development and implementation. The study finds that long term professional development providing situated learning through cultural immersion, cultural translators, and interdisciplinary instruction supports the establishment of communities of practice in which participants develop the cross-cultural knowledge and literacy needed for the development of locally relevant, place and standards-based curricula and pedagogy.

Building capacity in disadvantaged communities: development of the community advocacy and leadership program.

PubMed

Sharpe, Patricia A; Flint, Sylvia; Burroughs-Girardi, Ericka L; Pekuri, Linda; Wilcox, Sara; Forthofer, Melinda

2015-01-01

Successful community groups have the capacity to mobilize community assets to address needs. Capacity-building education is integral to building competent communities. A community-university team developed and pilot tested an education program for community advocates from disadvantaged neighborhoods with high chronic disease burden. The Community Advocacy and Leadership Program (CALP) included eight monthly workshops, a mini-grant opportunity, and technical assistance. A nominal group with community health practitioners, focus group with community advocates, and a literature search comprised a triangulated educational needs assessment. A participating pretest with 35 community health practitioners guided curriculum refinement. Seven representatives from three community groups in a medically underserved South Carolina county participated in pilot implementation and evaluation. Qualitative and quantitative data informed the process and impact evaluation. The mean knowledge score at 1 month after the program was 77% (range, 52%-96%). The mean score on post-program self-assessment of skills improvement was 3.8 out of a possible 4.0 (range, 3.6-4.0). Two groups submitted successful community mini-grant applications for playground improvements, and the third group successfully advocated for public funding of neighborhood park improvements. Participants reported favorable impressions and both personal and community benefits from participation. A community-university partnership successfully conducted a local educational needs assessment and developed and pilot tested a capacity development program within a CBPR partnership. Successes, challenges, and lessons learned will guide program refinement, replication, and dissemination.

Building capacity for community disaster preparedness: a call for collaboration between public environmental health and emergency preparedness and response programs.

PubMed

Gamboa-Maldonado, Thelma; Marshak, Helen Hopp; Sinclair, Ryan; Montgomery, Susanne; Dyjack, David T

2012-09-01

Partnerships among local public environmental health (EH), emergency preparedness and response (EPR) programs, and the communities they serve have great potential to build community environmental health emergency preparedness (EHEP) capacity. In the study described in this article, the beliefs and organizational practices pertaining to community EHEP outreach and capacity were explored through key informant (KI) interviews (N = 14) with a sample of governmental EH and EPR administrators and top-level managers from Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California. The results indicate that KIs were highly confident in their workforces' efficacy, ability, willingness, and motivation to directly engage local communities in EHEP. Best practices to combat organizational and systematic barriers to community EHEP outreach were identified. Based on the authors' results, training in participatory methods is needed to bridge technical knowledge in emergency management to daily practice. The lessons learned will form the basis of future interventions aimed to prepare EH and EPR professions to implement community-focused emergency preparedness strategies.

Adaptive capacity and community-based natural resource management.

PubMed

Armitage, Derek

2005-06-01

Why do some community-based natural resource management strategies perform better than others? Commons theorists have approached this question by developing institutional design principles to address collective choice situations, while other analysts have critiqued the underlying assumptions of community-based resource management. However, efforts to enhance community-based natural resource management performance also require an analysis of exogenous and endogenous variables that influence how social actors not only act collectively but do so in ways that respond to changing circumstances, foster learning, and build capacity for management adaptation. Drawing on examples from northern Canada and Southeast Asia, this article examines the relationship among adaptive capacity, community-based resource management performance, and the socio-institutional determinants of collective action, such as technical, financial, and legal constraints, and complex issues of politics, scale, knowledge, community and culture. An emphasis on adaptive capacity responds to a conceptual weakness in community-based natural resource management and highlights an emerging research and policy discourse that builds upon static design principles and the contested concepts in current management practice.

Partnering with American Indian communities in health using methods of strategic collaboration.

PubMed

Rajaram, Shireen S; Grimm, Brandon; Giroux, Jennifer; Peck, Magda; Ramos, Athena

2014-01-01

The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) sponsored six regional workshops in 2010 on community engagement and community-engaged research. One of the six workshops was a collaborative effort between the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Health Board (GPTCHB)-Northern Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center and the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC-COPH). To create a meaningful and dynamic forum for the exchange of ideas and co-learning between researchers from urban, tribal and nontribal communities and to build the groundwork for development of sustainable partnerships between researchers and American Indian (AI) communities to eliminate health disparities. To enhance meaningful community engagement, we utilized methods of Strategic Collaboration using the Appreciative Inquiry, 4D Change Process Model and designed several interactive group activities including Collaborative Learning and Understanding Exercises (CLUE) and the Research Café. The key themes that emerged from the interactive sessions stressed the importance of building relationships and trust; mutual use and sharing of data; and acquiring knowledge, skills, and abilities to enable sustainable research partnerships with AI communitiesConclusions: Innovative, dynamic, and strategic collaborative methods of Appreciative Inquiry and the World Café can served to engage people in a constructive dialogue to create a shared vision and plan for more meaningful research partnerships based on principles of equity and social justice, essential for the elimination of health disparities. These collaborative methods can be replicated and adapted in diverse communities, locally, nationally, and globally.

Building sustainable health and education partnerships: stories from local communities.

PubMed

Blank, Martin J

2015-11-01

Growing health disparities have a negative impact on young people's educational achievement. Community schools that involve deep relationships with partners across multiple domains address these disparities by providing opportunities and services that promote healthy development of young people, and enable them to graduate from high school ready for college, technical school, on-the-job training, career, and citizenship. Results from Milwaukie High School, North Clackamas, OR; Oakland Unified School District, Oakland, CA; and Cincinnati Community Learning Centers, Cincinnati, OH were based on a review of local site documents, web-based information, interviews, and e-mail communication with key local actors. The schools and districts with strong health partnerships reflecting community schools strategy have shown improvements in attendance, academic performance, and increased access to mental, dental, vision, and health supports for their students. To build deep health-education partnerships and grow community schools, a working leadership and management infrastructure must be in place that uses quality data, focuses on results, and facilitates professional development across sectors. The leadership infrastructure of community school initiatives offers a prototype on which others can build. Moreover, as leaders build cross-sector relationships, a clear definition of what scaling up means is essential for subsequent long-term systemic change. © 2015 Institute for Educational Leadership. Journal of School Health published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American School Health Association.

Linking Primary Care Information Systems and Public Health Vertical Programs in the Philippines: An Open-source Experience

PubMed Central

Tolentino, Herman; Marcelo, Alvin; Marcelo, Portia; Maramba, Inocencio

2005-01-01

Community-based primary care information systems are one of the building blocks for national health information systems. In the Philippines, after the devolution of health care to local governments, we observed “health information system islands” connected to national vertical programs being implemented in devolved health units. These structures lead to a huge amount of “information work” in the transformation of health information at the community level. This paper describes work done to develop and implement the open-source Community Based Health Information Tracking System (CHITS) Project, which was implemented to address this information management problem and its outcomes. Several lessons learned from the field as well as software development strategies are highlighted in building community level information systems that link to national level health information systems. PMID:16779052

Lessons learned from recent geomagnetic disturbance model validation activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulkkinen, A. A.; Welling, D. T.

2017-12-01

Due to concerns pertaining to geomagnetically induced current impact on ground-based infrastructure, there has been significantly elevated interest in applying models for local geomagnetic disturbance or "delta-B" predictions. Correspondingly there has been elevated need for testing the quality of the delta-B predictions generated by the modern empirical and physics-based models. To address this need, community-wide activities were launched under the GEM Challenge framework and one culmination of the activities was the validation and selection of models that were transitioned into operations at NOAA SWPC. The community-wide delta-B action is continued under the CCMC-facilitated International Forum for Space Weather Capabilities Assessment and its "Ground Magnetic Perturbations: dBdt, delta-B, GICs, FACs" working group. The new delta-B working group builds on the past experiences and expands the collaborations to cover the entire international space weather community. In this paper, we discuss the key lessons learned from the past delta-B validation exercises and lay out the path forward for building on those experience under the new delta-B working group.

Signs of the Land: Reaching Arctic Communities Facing Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sparrow, E. B.; Chase, M. J.; Demientieff, S.; Pfirman, S. L.; Brunacini, J.

2014-12-01

In July 2014, a diverse and intergenerational group of Alaskan Natives came together on Howard Luke's Galee'ya Camp by the Tanana River in Fairbanks, Alaska to talk about climate change and it's impacts on local communities. Over a period of four days, the Signs of the Land Climate Change Camp wove together traditional knowledge, local observations, Native language, and climate science through a mix of storytelling, presentations, dialogue, and hands-on, community-building activities. This camp adapted the model developed several years ago under the Association for Interior Native Educators (AINE)'s Elder Academy. Part of the Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership, the Signs of the Land Climate Change Camp was developed and conducted collaboratively with multiple partners to test a model for engaging indigenous communities in the co-production of climate change knowledge, communication tools, and solutions-building. Native Alaskans have strong subsistence and cultural connections to the land and its resources, and, in addition to being keen observers of their environment, have a long history of adapting to changing conditions. Participants in the camp included Elders, classroom teachers, local resource managers and planners, community members, and climate scientists. Based on their experiences during the camp, participants designed individualized outreach plans for bringing culturally-responsive climate learning to their communities and classrooms throughout the upcoming year. Plans included small group discussions, student projects, teacher training, and conference presentations.

The University as a Community of Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Wallace

2014-01-01

Building on classical and recent studies of the learning paradigm of higher education, the author distinguishes between receiving ideas and using them and how universities might educate students to be more open to the world, open to discovery and creativity.

Overcoming barriers to high performance seismic design using lessons learned from the green building industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glezil, Dorothy

NEHRP's Provisions today currently governing conventional seismic resistant design. These provisions, though they ensure the life-safety of building occupants, extensive damage and economic losses may still occur in the structures. This minimum performance can be enhanced using the Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering methodology and passive control systems like base isolation and energy dissipation systems. Even though these technologies and the PBEE methodology are effective reducing economic losses and fatalities during earthquakes, getting them implemented into seismic resistant design has been challenging. One of the many barriers to their implementation has been their upfront costs. The green building community has faced some of the same challenges that the high performance seismic design community currently faces. The goal of this thesis is to draw on the success of the green building industry to provide recommendations that may be used overcome the barriers that high performance seismic design (HPSD) is currently facing.

What Will the Neighbors Think? Building Large-Scale Science Projects Around the World

ScienceCinema

Jones, Craig; Mrotzek, Christian; Toge, Nobu; Sarno, Doug

2017-12-22

Public participation is an essential ingredient for turning the International Linear Collider into a reality. Wherever the proposed particle accelerator is sited in the world, its neighbors -- in any country -- will have something to say about hosting a 35-kilometer-long collider in their backyards. When it comes to building large-scale physics projects, almost every laboratory has a story to tell. Three case studies from Japan, Germany and the US will be presented to examine how community relations are handled in different parts of the world. How do particle physics laboratories interact with their local communities? How do neighbors react to building large-scale projects in each region? How can the lessons learned from past experiences help in building the next big project? These and other questions will be discussed to engage the audience in an active dialogue about how a large-scale project like the ILC can be a good neighbor.

Lessons learned from a community-academic initiative: the development of a core competency-based training for community-academic initiative community health workers.

PubMed

Ruiz, Yumary; Matos, Sergio; Kapadia, Smiti; Islam, Nadia; Cusack, Arthur; Kwong, Sylvia; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau

2012-12-01

Despite the importance of community health workers (CHWs) in strategies to reduce health disparities and the call to enhance their roles in research, little information exists on how to prepare CHWs involved in community-academic initiatives (CAIs). Therefore, the New York University Prevention Research Center piloted a CAI-CHW training program. We applied a core competency framework to an existing CHW curriculum and bolstered the curriculum to include research-specific sessions. We employed diverse training methods, guided by adult learning principles and popular education philosophy. Evaluation instruments assessed changes related to confidence, intention to use learned skills, usefulness of sessions, and satisfaction with the training. Results demonstrated that a core competency-based training can successfully affect CHWs' perceived confidence and intentions to apply learned content, and can provide a larger social justice context of their role and work. This program demonstrates that a core competency-based framework coupled with CAI-research-specific skill sessions (1) provides skills that CAI-CHWs intend to use, (2) builds confidence, and (3) provides participants with a more contextualized view of client needs and CHW roles.

From a Moment of Totality to a Lasting Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay, Pamela; Murph, Susan; Astronomy Cast

2018-01-01

The 2017 Great American Eclipse provided a reason for people from around the world to come together in one place and share their passion for astronomy. The Astronomy Cast podcast provided an opportunity and organizational structure for 100 people from more than 10 nations to come together for 3 days. These people are all listeners of the Astronomy Cast podcast, or family members of listeners. The majority of attendees did not know one another prior to this event. In this poster, we look at what organizational structure was provided to attendees before, during, and after this event, and how important different factors have been in building a lasting community from this group of attendees.The primary goals in hosting the Astronomy Cast event was to build a lasting community of people willing to attend real-world learning opportunities, and to facilitate the formation of social relationships between attendees that would encourage continued engagement. In order to meet these goals, we needed to construct an event that both met attendee expectations for science lectures and events, and also facilitated communications between attendees. We recognized that attendees would largely be introverts, and that this would present challenges to community building. Our strategy for success included: building a Facebook group well in advance of the event and using regular communications to build excitement; providing a space for community building as well as food and board games to communicate around; and following up the event with opportunities for participants to share the photos, experiences, and ways to connect.This work includes analysis of attendee surveys and commentaries that are used to study which aspects of this program were most (and least successful), and to see what self-maintaining community has been created.

Mock ECHO: A Simulation-Based Medical Education Method.

PubMed

Fowler, Rebecca C; Katzman, Joanna G; Comerci, George D; Shelley, Brian M; Duhigg, Daniel; Olivas, Cynthia; Arnold, Thomas; Kalishman, Summers; Monnette, Rebecca; Arora, Sanjeev

2018-04-16

This study was designed to develop a deeper understanding of the learning and social processes that take place during the simulation-based medical education for practicing providers as part of the Project ECHO® model, known as Mock ECHO training. The ECHO model is utilized to expand access to care of common and complex diseases by supporting the education of primary care providers with an interprofessional team of specialists via videoconferencing networks. Mock ECHO trainings are conducted through a train the trainer model targeted at leaders replicating the ECHO model at their organizations. Trainers conduct simulated teleECHO clinics while participants gain skills to improve communication and self-efficacy. Three focus groups, conducted between May 2015 and January 2016 with a total of 26 participants, were deductively analyzed to identify common themes related to simulation-based medical education and interdisciplinary education. Principal themes generated from the analysis included (a) the role of empathy in community development, (b) the value of training tools as guides for learning, (c) Mock ECHO design components to optimize learning, (d) the role of interdisciplinary education to build community and improve care delivery, (e) improving care integration through collaboration, and (f) development of soft skills to facilitate learning. Mock ECHO trainings offer clinicians the freedom to learn in a noncritical environment while emphasizing real-time multidirectional feedback and encouraging knowledge and skill transfer. The success of the ECHO model depends on training interprofessional healthcare providers in behaviors needed to lead a teleECHO clinic and to collaborate in the educational process. While building a community of practice, Mock ECHO provides a safe opportunity for a diverse group of clinician experts to practice learned skills and receive feedback from coparticipants and facilitators.

Participating in a Community of Learners enhances resident perceptions of learning in an e-mentoring program: proof of concept

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Community learning and e-mentoring, learning methods used in higher education, are not used to any extent in residency education. Yet both have the potential to enhance resident learning and, in the case of community learning, introduce residents to basic lifelong learning skills. We set out to determine whether residents participating in an Internet based e-mentoring program would, with appropriate facilitation, form a community of learners (CoL) and hold regular community meetings. We also determined resident and faculty perceptions of CoL and Internet sessions as effective learning experiences. Methods A six-month e-mentoring pilot was offered to 10 Radiology residents in the Aga Khan University Postgraduate Medical Education Program in Nairobi, Kenya (AKUHN) with a Professor of Radiology, located at University of Virginia, USA, acting as the e-mentor. Monthly Internet case-based teaching sessions were facilitated by the e-mentor. In addition, residents were coached by a community facilitator to form CoL and collectively work through clinical cases at weekly face-to-face CoL sessions. Event logs described observed resident activity at CoL sessions; exit survey and interviews were used to elicit perceptions of CoL and Internet sessions as effective learning experiences. Results Resident adoption of CoL behaviors was observed, including self-regulation, peer mentoring and collaborative problem solving. Analysis revealed high resident enthusiasm and value for CoL. Surveys and interviews indicated high levels of acceptance of Internet learning experiences, although there was room for improvement in audio-visual transmission technologies. Faculty indicated there was a need for a larger multi-specialty study. Conclusions The pilot demonstrated resident acceptance of community building and collaborative learning as valued learning experiences, addressing one barrier to its formal adoption in residency education curricula. It also highlighted the potential of e-mentoring as a means of expanding faculty and teaching materials in residency programs in developing countries. PMID:21266070

Telemental Health Training, Team Building, and Workforce Development in Cultural Context: The Hawaii Experience.

PubMed

Alicata, Daniel; Schroepfer, Amanda; Unten, Tim; Agoha, Ruby; Helm, Susana; Fukuda, Michael; Ulrich, Daniel; Michels, Stanton

2016-04-01

The goal of the University of Hawaii (UH) child and adolescent psychiatry telemental health (TMH) program is to train child and adolescent psychiatry fellows to provide behavioral health services for the children of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands in the cultural context of their rural communities using interactive videoteleconferencing (IVTC). The training experience balances learning objectives with community service. Learning objectives include: Understanding mental health disparities in rural communities, leveraging community resources in ongoing treatment, providing culturally effective care, and improving health care access and delivery through TMH service research and evaluation. We describe the UH experience. Several UH faculty are experienced with IVTC technology. They are triple-board trained, are recognized for their research in program evaluation and mental health disparities, and are committed to serving Hawaii's rural communities. We demonstrate the role of TMH in linking children and their families living in rural communities with multiple mental health treatment providers. The service-learning curriculum and a unique collaboration with Mayo Clinic provide the opportunity to examine the role of TMH in global service, and training, education, and research. TMH provides direct services to patients and consultation on Hawaii Island and Maui County. The collaboration with the Mayo Clinic brings further consultation in complex diagnostics, pharmacogenomics, and cross-cultural psychiatry. A curriculum provides trainees experience with IVTC with the goal of potential recruitment to underserved rural communities. The TMH program at UH is unique in its team building and workforce development by joining multiple entities through IVTC and translating expertise from the Mayo Clinic to rural communities, and strengthening collaboration with local child and adolescent psychiatrists, and primary care and other mental health providers. The UH psychiatry program is a model program to develop an expert mental health workforce in cultural context for children living in rural communities.

[Ethical intervention in pragmatic regime].

PubMed

Maesschalck, Marc

2012-01-01

This article analyzes the impact of the neo-pragmatist turn in social sciences from the point of view of the method of ethical intervention. It focuses specifically on the idea of building a "learning community" as the horizon for strengthening participative 'capacitation'. It finally points at the limits of such a perspective, from the point of view of institutional building of new subjectivities through and beyond the practices proposed by ethical interventions.

RedeAmericas: building research capacity in young leaders for sustainable growth in community mental health services in Latin America.

PubMed

Yang, L; Pratt, C; Valencia, E; Conover, S; Fernández, R; Burrone, M S; Cavalcanti, M T; Lovisi, G; Rojas, G; Alvarado, R; Galea, S; Price, L N; Susser, E

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and initial accomplishments of a training program of young leaders in community mental health research as part of a Latin American initiative known as RedeAmericas. RedeAmericas was one of five regional 'Hubs' funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to improve community mental health care and build mental health research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. It included investigators in six Latin American cities - Santiago, Chile; Medellín, Colombia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Córdoba, Neuquén, and Buenos Aires in Argentina - working together with a team affiliated with the Global Mental Health program at Columbia University in New York City. One component of RedeAmericas was a capacity-building effort that included an Awardee program for early career researchers in the mental health field. We review the aims of this component, how it developed, and what was learned that would be useful for future capacity-building efforts, and also comment on future prospects for maintaining this type of effort.

Applying Critical Race Theory to Group Model Building Methods to Address Community Violence.

PubMed

Frerichs, Leah; Lich, Kristen Hassmiller; Funchess, Melanie; Burrell, Marcus; Cerulli, Catherine; Bedell, Precious; White, Ann Marie

2016-01-01

Group model building (GMB) is an approach to building qualitative and quantitative models with stakeholders to learn about the interrelationships among multilevel factors causing complex public health problems over time. Scant literature exists on adapting this method to address public health issues that involve racial dynamics. This study's objectives are to (1) introduce GMB methods, (2) present a framework for adapting GMB to enhance cultural responsiveness, and (3) describe outcomes of adapting GMB to incorporate differences in racial socialization during a community project seeking to understand key determinants of community violence transmission. An academic-community partnership planned a 1-day session with diverse stakeholders to explore the issue of violence using GMB. We documented key questions inspired by critical race theory (CRT) and adaptations to established GMB "scripts" (i.e., published facilitation instructions). The theory's emphasis on experiential knowledge led to a narrative-based facilitation guide from which participants created causal loop diagrams. These early diagrams depict how violence is transmitted and how communities respond, based on participants' lived experiences and mental models of causation that grew to include factors associated with race. Participants found these methods useful for advancing difficult discussion. The resulting diagrams can be tested and expanded in future research, and will form the foundation for collaborative identification of solutions to build community resilience. GMB is a promising strategy that community partnerships should consider when addressing complex health issues; our experience adapting methods based on CRT is promising in its acceptability and early system insights.

Bridging Individual Experiences to Organizational Knowledge: The Remodeling of a National Learning Resources Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jih, Huecyhing Janice; Lin, Yenjen; Wu, Szuchien Sofia

The K-12 Gas Station is a national World Wide Web site in Taiwan that serves as the educational portal that provides teachers, parents, pupils, and public communities with rich content for all subject matters in grades K-12. The K-12 Gas Station plays a critical role in the efforts to build up a technology-based learning environment to help…

Stories of Learning, Identity, Navigations and Boundary Crossings in STEM in Non-Dominant Communities: New Imaginaries for Research and Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahm, Jrène

2016-01-01

Marta Civil's paper "STEM Learning Research through a Funds of Knowledge Lens" (see EJ1091567) can be read as a story about her trajectory as a researcher of everyday and school mathematics over time, grounded in sociocultural historical theory. Building on her work, I explore three issues. First, I address the grounding of STEM research…

Writing-to-Learn in Undergraduate Science Education: A Community-Based, Conceptually Driven Approach

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Julie A.; Thaiss, Christopher; Katkin, Wendy; Thompson, Robert J.

2012-01-01

Despite substantial evidence that writing can be an effective tool to promote student learning and engagement, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices are still not widely implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, particularly at research universities. Two major deterrents to progress are the lack of a community of science faculty committed to undertaking and applying the necessary pedagogical research, and the absence of a conceptual framework to systematically guide study designs and integrate findings. To address these issues, we undertook an initiative, supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Reinvention Center, to build a community of WTL/STEM educators who would undertake a heuristic review of the literature and formulate a conceptual framework. In addition to generating a searchable database of empirically validated and promising WTL practices, our work lays the foundation for multi-university empirical studies of the effectiveness of WTL practices in advancing student learning and engagement. PMID:22383613

Anatomy of BioJS, an open source community for the life sciences.

PubMed

Yachdav, Guy; Goldberg, Tatyana; Wilzbach, Sebastian; Dao, David; Shih, Iris; Choudhary, Saket; Crouch, Steve; Franz, Max; García, Alexander; García, Leyla J; Grüning, Björn A; Inupakutika, Devasena; Sillitoe, Ian; Thanki, Anil S; Vieira, Bruno; Villaveces, José M; Schneider, Maria V; Lewis, Suzanna; Pettifer, Steve; Rost, Burkhard; Corpas, Manuel

2015-07-08

BioJS is an open source software project that develops visualization tools for different types of biological data. Here we report on the factors that influenced the growth of the BioJS user and developer community, and outline our strategy for building on this growth. The lessons we have learned on BioJS may also be relevant to other open source software projects.

Mangroves Build Land. "Mangroves are a Valuable Resource." Grades 7 and 8. A Two Lesson Unit. Student Learning Activity Module.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frank, James

This module is an activity and film-oriented unit focusing on the importance of mangroves in the South Florida ecosystem. The module is part of a series designed to be used by teachers, students, and community members to help them utilize community resources in developing and teaching environmental concepts and responsibility, and in seeking ways…

Schools as Community Hubs: Integrating Support Services to Drive Educational Outcomes. A Series of Discussion Papers on Building Healthy Neighborhoods. No. 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horn, Michael B.; Freeland, Julia; Butler, Stuart M.

2015-01-01

Effective approaches to the problems of struggling neighborhoods--from health to school success and poverty--require the focused use of integrated strategies. Consistent with this, community schools and many charter schools now function as hubs, helping to deliver a range of services beyond education in order to prepare their students to learn and…

Misconceptions Are “So Yesterday!”

PubMed Central

Maskiewicz, April Cordero; Lineback, Jennifer Evarts

2013-01-01

At the close of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research conference in July 2012, one of the organizers made the comment: “Misconceptions are so yesterday.” Within the community of learning sciences, misconceptions are yesterday's news, because the term has been aligned with eradication and/or replacement of conceptions, and our knowledge about how people learn has progressed past this idea. This essay provides an overview of the discussion within the learning sciences community surrounding the term “misconceptions” and how the education community's thinking has evolved with respect to students’ conceptions. Using examples of students’ incorrect ideas about evolution and ecology, we show that students’ naïve ideas can provide the resources from which to build scientific understanding. We conclude by advocating that biology education researchers use one or more appropriate alternatives in place of the term misconception whenever possible. PMID:24006383

Understanding student complaints in the service learning pedagogy.

PubMed

Rosing, Howard; Reed, Susan; Ferrari, Joseph R; Bothne, Nancy J

2010-12-01

This study draws upon student evaluations across 3 years of service learning (SL) courses at a large, urban, faith-based university identifying issues of greatest concern to students. Analysis of qualitative responses revealed perspectives on the limits, pitfalls, and barriers to successful SL student work in the community replicated over the 3 year timeframe. Over 2,200 written responses were coded and tested for reliability for each of 3 years. The top three comments SL students were most likely to express included: (1) concern about their placement in the community, for example, that sites were not prepared or that further goal-setting, communication and training by the university was necessary; (2) that the university's choice of sites may have been ill considered; and, (3) that there were problems with time and scheduling. Ongoing assessment of students' perspectives on their placement experience identifies practices that can enhance their learning and contributions toward building stronger communities.

Using International Videoconferencing to Extend the Global Reach of Community Health Nursing Education.

PubMed

Ziemba, Rosemary; Sarkar, Norma J; Pickus, Becca; Dallwig, Amber; Wan, Jiayi Angela; Alcindor, Hilda

2016-07-01

Travel abroad provides college students with a unique learning experience. When plans to take undergraduate community health nursing students from the United States to Haiti were cancelled due to health and safety concerns, faculty piloted international videoconferencing with a nursing program in Haiti as an alternative. During this semester-long course, students in both countries assessed a local community using the Community as Partner framework and compared findings during videoconferences with their international peers. Despite communication challenges such as language barriers and limited internet access in Haiti, evaluative data suggests that all students valued learning with their nursing student peers in another country. For future international videoconferencing endeavors, especially with under-resourced communities, we provide recommendations in the following categories: 1) Building relationships with a partner school, 2) Technology, 3) Pedagogy, and 4) Facilitating interactions between students. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Coordinating an interdisciplinary disease management conference on a military installation: collaboration between military and civilian communities, lessons learned.

PubMed

Lewis-Fleming, Glenda; Knapp, Casey A

2009-08-01

The needs of individuals with chronic diseases or disabilities are similar whether within military or civilian communities. With finite resources and the continuing global war on terrorism, military treatment facilities (MTFs) may find collaborative, multidisciplinary, continuing education efforts with community agencies invaluable. Collaborative efforts that bring military and civilian communities together can result in innovative programs that offer cost-effective high-quality information to enhance the knowledge and skill level of military families, providers, and other professionals who provide services and care for military eligible beneficiaries. This article addresses the development and implementation of two major multidisciplinary disease management conferences at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP), Virginia. It provides an overview of lessons learned in the areas of preplanning, team building, program development, implementation, and evaluation. Despite challenges, tremendous benefits may be reaped from efforts to include diverse target populations from military and civilian communities.

Building Climate Literacy Through Strategic Partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turrin, M.; Creyts, T. T.; Bell, R. E.; Meadows, C. A.

2012-12-01

One of the challenges of developing climate science literacy is establishing the relevance of both climate science and climate change at a local community level. By developing partnerships with community-based informal science education providers, we are able to build our climate science and climate change content into existing programs. Employing a systems science approach facilitates these partnerships as our systems science program links with a range of topics, demonstrating the multiple connections between climate, our communities and our daily lives. Merging hands on activities, collaborative projects, and new technology, we encourage learning through doing by engaging participants in active exploration of climate science concepts. Many informal education venues operating locally, from large science museums to small grass-roots community groups, provide ongoing opportunities to connect with students. Through our collaborations we have worked with various types and sizes of non-classroom science providers including: the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum "Greater Opportunities Advancing Leadership and Science" camps for high school girls, Hudson River Park Trust 'Science on the River' events, the annual New York City World Science Festival, and the AAUW's annual STEM Super Scholars Workshops among others. This range of venues has enabled us to reach various ages, backgrounds and interests advancing climate literacy in a number of forums. Major outcomes of these efforts are: (1) Building capacity with community groups: Many local organizations running community programs do not have in-house science expertise. Both science educators and local organization benefit from these collaborations. Science educators and scientists provide up to date climate science information to the community groups while these programs establish strong working relationships between our research and the local community. (2) Developing climate science literacy and lifelong learning: We have delivered climate science in a variety of ways, each designed to connect the participants with a fundamental science concept while building excitement for the topic and facilitating learning in a non-traditional setting. Our approaches range from launching teams of young people into experiments exploring glacial physics through free-choice inquiry opportunities, to enlisting undergraduate science students in working with the participants demonstrating glacial motion and measurement through engaging technology such as Kinect Xbox 360 sensors, to short single concept hands-on activities designed to deliver a specific climate 'take home' message. (3) Generating a local connection to climate science and impacts: Working with local informal education groups we connect climate topics to community-based issues and 'hot topics' such as sustainable planning, waterfront erosion, storm surge impacts, and local sea level rise projections. Partnering with community based informal education providers allows us to expand our offerings to reach a wider audience of young people, and to connect more directly with our local community. We are excited by the potential in these partnerships to connect students with climate science and develop not only a climate literate group of young people, but also lifelong science learners.

Collaboration Strategies in Nontraditional Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: Lessons From an Academic–Community Partnership With Autistic Self-Advocates

PubMed Central

Nicolaidis, Christina; Raymaker, Dora; McDonald, Katherine; Dern, Sebastian; Ashkenazy, Elesia; Boisclair, Cody; Robertson, Scott; Baggs, Amanda

2012-01-01

Background Most community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects involve local communities defined by race, ethnicity, geography, or occupation. Autistic self-advocates, a geographically dispersed community defined by disability, experience issues in research similar to those expressed by more traditional minorities. Objectives We sought to build an academic–community partnership that uses CBPR to improve the lives of people on the autistic spectrum. Methods The Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) includes representatives from academic, self-advocate, family, and professional communities. We are currently conducting several studies about the health care experiences and well-being of autistic adults. Lessons Learned We have learned a number of strategies that integrate technology and process to successfully equalize power and accommodate diverse communication and collaboration needs. Conclusions CBPR can be conducted successfully with autistic self-advocates. Our strategies may be useful to other CBPR partnerships, especially ones that cannot meet in person or that include people with diverse communication needs. PMID:21623016

Recharge the Rain: Community Resilience Through STEM Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkening, B.; Shipek, C.

2017-12-01

Starting in January 2017, Recharge the Rain moves sixth through twelfth grade teachers, students and the public through a continuum from awareness, to knowledge gain, to conceptual understanding, to action; building community resiliency to hazards associated with increased temperatures, drought and flooding in Arizona. Watershed Management Group with Arizona Project WET are utilizing NOAA assets, experts from the National Weather Service and Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), and Pima County hazard mitigation plan and planning tools to inform citizens and galvanize their commitment to building a community, resilient to the effects of a warming climate. In the first of four years, the project is 1) developing climate-literacy curriculum with 16 Tucson-area teachers that incorporates systems-thinking and increases understanding of earth systems, weather and climate, 2) training teachers and community docents in water harvesting practices and citizen-science data collection, 3) laying the framework for the development of rainwater harvesting engineering design curriculum, 4) involving Tucson community members in water harvesting principles through project implementation workshops, special events, and tours. In years two through four, the project will build resiliency to the effects of climate threats by 1) installing student-designed rainwater harvesting systems, 2) providing community tours of schoolyard systems to educate the public, 3) expanding the program to incorporate curriculum use in Phoenix-area teachers' classrooms and 4) finalizing a replicable model for other communities facing similar threats. What are the lessons learned after one year of Recharge the Rain? How can these lessons be used to inform this project and other projects in building resilient communities?

NASA Center for Astronomy Education: Building a Community of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brissenden, Gina; Prather, E.; Slater, T. F.; Greene, W. M.; Thaller, M.

2006-12-01

The NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) is devoted to the professional development of introductory college astronomy instructors teaching at community colleges. The primary goal is building a "community of practice." Evaluation results suggest this community of practice model is effective at improving instructional practices, particularly in settings where instructors feel isolated from their peers. For community college faculty this isolation can be quite real. Many are the only astronomer, if not the only scientist, at their institution. In addition, they may be adjunct instructors who have no office, no institutional email address, nor appear in the campus directory. CAE works to prevent this sense of isolation by building both actual and virtual communities for these instructors, as well as provide actual and virtual professional development opportunities. CAE’s major effort is providing multi-tiered "Teaching Excellence Workshops" offered at national and regional venues. Ongoing support is offered through the CAE website. Instructors can learn about, and register for, upcoming workshops. They can engage in discussions about educational issues and share best practices with peers using the moderated discussion group AstroLrner@CAE. CAE also provides an updated article "This Month’s Teaching Strategy” which is a reflection on teaching strategies discussed in the workshops. Instructors can also find their peers through the online map of US community colleges offering introductory astronomy courses. Lastly, CAE Regional Teaching Exchanges facilitate local, and sustained, community building. CAE is supported by the NASA/JPL Navigator Public Engagement Program and the Spitzer Space Telescope Education and Public Outreach Program.

Community, Collective or Movement? Evaluating Theoretical Perspectives on Network Building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spitzer, W.

2015-12-01

Since 2007, the New England Aquarium has led a national effort to increase the capacity of informal science venues to effectively communicate about climate change. We are now leading the NSF-funded National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI), partnering with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, FrameWorks Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and National Aquarium, with evaluation conducted by the New Knowledge Organization, Pennsylvania State University, and Ohio State University. NNOCCI enables teams of informal science interpreters across the country to serve as "communication strategists" - beyond merely conveying information they can influence public perceptions, given their high level of commitment, knowledge, public trust, social networks, and visitor contact. We provide in-depth training as well as an alumni network for ongoing learning, implementation support, leadership development, and coalition building. Our goals are to achieve a systemic national impact, embed our work within multiple ongoing regional and national climate change education networks, and leave an enduring legacy. What is the most useful theoretical model for conceptualizing the work of the NNOCCI community? This presentation will examine the pros and cons of three perspectives -- community of practice, collective impact, and social movements. The community of practice approach emphasizes use of common tools, support for practice, social learning, and organic development of leadership. A collective impact model focuses on defining common outcomes, aligning activities toward a common goal, structured collaboration. A social movement emphasizes building group identity and creating a sense of group efficacy. This presentation will address how these models compare in terms of their utility in program planning and evaluation, their fit with the unique characteristics of the NNOCCI community, and their relevance to our program goals.

AppVis: Enabling data-rich apps in app inventor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harunani, Farzeen

MIT App Inventor has enabled middle school students to learn computing while creating their own apps--including apps that serve community needs. However, few resources exist for building apps that gather and share data. There is a need for new tools and an instructional materials for students to build data-enabled, community-focused apps. We developed an extension for App Inventor, called AppVis, which allows app-makers to publish and retrieve data from iSENSE, our existing web-based collaborative data visualization platform. We used AppVis and supporting instructional materials in two one-week summer camps attended by a total of 33 middle school students. Based on student interview data and analysis of their final apps, our approach was broadly accessible to a diverse population of students. Students were motivated to build apps that could be used by their own communities. This thesis presents the design of AppVis and results from students' work in summer camps.

The Crabapple Experience: Insights from Program Evaluations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elmore, Randy; Wisenbaker, Joe

2000-01-01

An evaluation of a Georgia middle school's multi-age grouping program revealed significant progress regarding student self-esteem, achievement, community building, and teacher collaboration. The Crabapple experience illustrates how one model of student-centered, developmentally appropriate, and integrated learning can benefit middle-level…

Partnering for Health with Nebraska's Latina Immigrant Community Using Design Thinking Process.

PubMed

Ramos, Athena K; Trinidad, Natalia; Correa, Antonia; Rivera, Roy

2016-01-01

The Center for Reducing Health Disparities at the University of Nebraska Medical Center partnered with El Centro de Las Americas, a community-based organization, and various community members to develop a 1-day Spanish-language health conference entitled El Encuentro de La Mujer Sana (Healthy Woman Summit) for immigrant Latinas in Nebraska during May 2013 as part of National Women's Health Week. Design thinking was used to create a meaningful learning experience specifically designed for monolingual Spanish-speaking immigrant Latinas in Nebraska and build a foundation for collaboration between an academic institution, community-based organizational partners, and community members. We used the design thinking methodology to generate ideas for topics and prototyped agendas with community stakeholders that would be relevant and provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health education. By developing community-based health education programs for Latinas with Latinas through a community-engaged co-creation process, organizations and communities build trust, enhance community capacity, and meet identified needs for education and service. Design thinking is a valuable tool that can be used to develop community health education initiatives and enhance civic participation. This method holds promise for health education and public health in becoming more relevant for traditionally marginalized or disenfranchised populations.

Think 500, not 50! A scalable approach to student success in STEM.

PubMed

LaCourse, William R; Sutphin, Kathy Lee; Ott, Laura E; Maton, Kenneth I; McDermott, Patrice; Bieberich, Charles; Farabaugh, Philip; Rous, Philip

2017-01-01

UMBC, a diverse public research university, "builds" upon its reputation in producing highly capable undergraduate scholars to create a comprehensive new model, STEM BUILD at UMBC. This program is designed to help more students develop the skills, experience and motivation to excel in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This article provides an in-depth description of STEM BUILD at UMBC and provides the context of this initiative within UMBC's vision and mission. The STEM BUILD model targets promising STEM students who enter as freshmen or transfer students and do not qualify for significant university or other scholarship support. Of primary importance to this initiative are capacity, scalability, and institutional sustainability, as we distill the advantages and opportunities of UMBC's successful scholars programs and expand their application to more students. The general approach is to infuse the mentoring and training process into the fabric of the undergraduate experience while fostering community, scientific identity, and resilience. At the heart of STEM BUILD at UMBC is the development of BUILD Group Research (BGR), a sequence of experiences designed to overcome the challenges that undergraduates without programmatic support often encounter (e.g., limited internship opportunities, mentorships, and research positions for which top STEM students are favored). BUILD Training Program (BTP) Trainees serve as pioneers in this initiative, which is potentially a national model for universities as they address the call to retain and graduate more students in STEM disciplines - especially those from underrepresented groups. As such, BTP is a research study using random assignment trial methodology that focuses on the scalability and eventual incorporation of successful measures into the traditional format of the academy. Critical measures to transform institutional culture include establishing an extensive STEM Living and Learning Community to increase undergraduate retention, expanding the adoption of "active learning" pedagogies to increase the efficiency of learning, and developing programs to train researchers to effectively mentor a greater portion of the student population. The overarching goal of STEM BUILD at UMBC is to retain students in STEM majors and better prepare them for post baccalaureate, graduate, or professional programs as well as careers in biomedical and behavioral research.

Back-to-School Guide: Jump-Start Learning with New Media. Updated with New Tools and Resources for 2010-11

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2010

2010-01-01

To help teachers get off to a good start, this paper presents the updated "Back-to-School Guide" that is brimming with new-media ideas and resources. It outlines ten tips, along with easy-to-use tools, that will help teachers build their classroom community, survey students to bring out their ideas, and make learning more collaborative. Links to…

Getting into the GROOVE: How Building Effective Education Partnerships and Promoting Authentic Student Research through the Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration (GROOVE) Workshop.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelz, M.; Heesemann, M.; Hoeberechts, M.

2017-12-01

This presentation outlines the pilot year of Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration or GROOVE, a hands-on learning program created collaboratively with education partners Ocean Networks Canada and St. Margaret's School (Victoria, BC, Canada). The program features student-led activities, authentic student experiences, clearly outlined learning outcomes, teacher and student self-assessment tools, and curriculum-aligned content. Presented through the lens of STEM, students build a modified Seaperch ROV and explore and research thematic scientific concepts such as buoyancy, electronic circuitry, and deep-sea exploration. Further, students learn engineering skills such as isotropic scaling, soldering, and assembly as they build their ROV. Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), an initiative of the University of Victoria, develops, operates, and maintains cabled ocean observatory systems. These include technologies developed on the world-leading NEPTUNE and VENUS observatories and the ever-expanding network of community observatories in the Arctic and coastal British Columbia. These observatories, large and small, enable communities, users, scientists, teachers, and students to monitor real-time and historical data from the local marine environment from anywhere on the globe. GROOVE, Girls' Remotely Operated Ocean Vehicle Exploration, is ONC's newest educational program and is related to their foundational program K-12 Ocean Sense educational program. This presentation will share our experiences developing, refining, and assessing our efforts to implement GROOVE using a train-the-trainer model aimed at formal and informal K-12 educators. We will highlight lessons learned from multiple perspectives (students, participants, developers, and mentors) with the intent of informing future education and outreach initiatives.

The Conundrum of Training and Capacity Building for People with Learning Disabilities Doing Research.

PubMed

Nind, Melanie; Chapman, Rohhss; Seale, Jane; Tilley, Liz

2016-11-01

This study explores the training involved when people with learning disabilities take their place in the community as researchers. This was a theme in a recent UK seminar series where a network of researchers explored pushing the boundaries of participatory research. Academics, researchers with learning disabilities, supporters and other inclusive researchers considered important themes arising from presentations about developments in participatory research. The paper emerges from critical reflection on these rich discussions. A seminar series is a form of research training and capacity building, albeit a dynamic, interactive and collegial one. More formal training in research skills for people with learning disabilities is being developed but raises questions regarding the best contribution people with learning disabilities can make to the research process. There are various models of training for inclusive research, but these need to be reciprocal if they are not to undermine the inclusive goal. © 2015 The Authors Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The first SPIE software Hack Day

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendrew, S.; Deen, C.; Radziwill, N.; Crawford, S.; Gilbert, J.; Gully-Santiago, M.; Kubánek, P.

2014-07-01

We report here on the software Hack Day organised at the 2014 SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation in Montréal. The first ever Hack Day to take place at an SPIE event, the aim of the day was to bring together developers to collaborate on innovative solutions to problems of their choice. Such events have proliferated in the technology community, providing opportunities to showcase, share and learn skills. In academic environments, these events are often also instrumental in building community beyond the limits of national borders, institutions and projects. We show examples of projects the participants worked on, and provide some lessons learned for future events.

Being "chill" with teachers and "frozen" by peers in science: overcoming social and educational barriers in a learning community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hannah; Scantlebury, Kathryn

2013-09-01

This forum discusses the issue of `othering' and how intersectionality is a useful analytical framework for understanding the students' immigrant experiences in, and out of, the science classroom. We use a feminist perspective to discuss Minjung's study because gender is a key aspect of one's identity other aspects such as race, religion, socio-economic status, and age have assumed a significant status in gender studies. Lastly we examine the supports and barriers that cliques can produce and propose the importance of building a learning community in the science classroom to engage all students.

Transforming schools into communities of thinking and learning about serious matters.

PubMed

Brown, A L

1997-04-01

In this article, a program of research known as Fostering Communities of Learners is described. This program is in place in several schools and classrooms serving inner-city students from 6 to 12 years of age. Based on theoretical advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, the program is successful at improving both literacy skills and domain-area subject matter knowledge (e.g., environmental science and biology). Building on young children's emergent strategic and metacognitive knowledge, together with their skeletal biological theories, the program leads children to discover the deep principles of the domain and to develop flexible learning and inquiry strategies of wide applicability.

Community Engagement in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery: A Tale of Two Cities - Los Angeles and New Orleans

PubMed Central

Wells, Kenneth B.; Springgate, Benjamin F.; Lizaola, Elizabeth; Jones, Felica; Plough, Alonzo

2013-01-01

Awareness of the impact of disasters globally on mental health is increasing. Known difficulties in preparing communities for disasters and a lack of focus on relationship building and organizational capacity in preparedness and response have led to a greater policy focus on community resiliency as a key public health approach to disaster response. This perspective emphasizes relationships, trust and engagement as core competencies for disaster preparedness and response/recovery. In this paper, we describe how an approach to community engagement for improving mental health services, disaster recovery, and preparedness from a community resiliency perspective emerged from our work in applying a partnered, participatory research framework, iteratively, in Los Angeles County and the City of New Orleans. Our approach has a specific focus on behavioral health and relationship building across diverse sectors and stakeholders concerned with under-resourced communities. We use as examples both research studies and services demonstrations discuss the lessons learned and implications for providers, communities, and policymakers pertaining to both improving mental health outcomes and addressing disaster preparedness and response. PMID:23954058

Sharing Histories-a transformative learning/teaching method to empower community health workers to support health behavior change of mothers.

PubMed

Altobelli, Laura C

2017-08-23

One of the keys to improving health globally is promoting mothers' adoption of healthy home practices for improved nutrition and illness prevention in the first 1000 days of life from conception. Customarily, mothers are taught health messages which, even if simplified, are hard to remember. The challenge is how to promote learning and behavior change of mothers more effectively in low-resource settings where access to health information is poor, educational levels are low, and traditional beliefs are strong. In addressing that challenge, a new learning/teaching method called "Sharing Histories" is in development to improve the performance of female community health workers (CHWs) in promoting mothers' behaviors for maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH). This method builds self-confidence and empowerment of CHWs in learning sessions that are built on guided sharing of their own memories of childbearing and child care. CHWs can later share histories with the mother, building her trust and empowerment to change. For professional primary health care staff who are not educators, Sharing Histories is simple to learn and use so that the method can be easily incorporated into government health systems and ongoing CHW programs. I present here the Sharing Histories method, describe how it differs from other social and behavior change methods, and discuss selected literature from psychology, communications, and neuroscience that helps to explain how and why this method works as a transformative tool to engage, teach, transform, and empower CHWs to be more effective change agents with other mothers in their communities, thereby contributing to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Team sponsors in community-based health leadership programs.

PubMed

Patterson, Tracy Enright; Dinkin, Donna R; Champion, Heather

2017-05-02

Purpose The purpose of this article is to share the lessons learned about the role of team sponsors in action-learning teams as part of community-based health leadership development programs. Design/methodology/approach This case study uses program survey results from fellow participants, action learning coaches and team sponsors to understand the value of sponsors to the teams, the roles they most often filled and the challenges they faced as team sponsors. Findings The extent to which the sponsors were perceived as having contributed to the work of the action learning teams varied greatly from team to team. Most sponsors agreed that they were well informed about their role. The roles sponsors most frequently played were to provide the teams with input and support, serve as a liaison to the community and serve as a sounding board, motivator and cheerleader. The most common challenges or barriers team sponsors faced in this role were keeping engaged in the process, adjusting to the role and feeling disconnected from the program. Practical implications This work provides insights for program developers and community foundations who are interested in building the capacity for health leadership by linking community sponsors with emerging leaders engaged in an action learning experience. Originality/value This work begins to fill a gap in the literature. The role of team sponsors has been studied for single organization work teams but there is a void of understanding about the role of sponsors with multi-organizational teams working to improve health while also learning about leadership.

"In my house": laying the foundation for youth HIV prevention in the Black church.

PubMed

Lightfoot, Alexandra F; Woods, Briana A; Jackson, Melvin; Riggins, Linda; Krieger, Kathleen; Brodie, Kimberly; Gray, Phyllis; Howard, Daniel L

2012-01-01

This article describes the process our community-academic partnership used to lay the groundwork for successful implementation of an adolescent-focused, evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum in two Black churches. We highlight the challenges encountered and lessons learned in building a relationship with two churches, garnering the pastor's support, and implementing the curriculum within church youth groups. We engaged a Community Advisory Board (CAB) made up of youth, parents, and diverse faith leaders to ensure community relevance and guide project development, implementation, and evaluation. Using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach helped us to (1) engage diverse, intergenerational community members, (2) initiate a "culturally humble" process to build relationships with faith leaders, (3) remain responsive to stakeholder concerns, and (4) open the door to HIV prevention in the Black church. Finding effective and responsive ways to implement HIV/AIDS prevention in faith settings is facilitated by engaging diverse partners throughout the research process.

Sustaining Change: The Answers Are Blowing in the Wind.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moffett, Cerylle A.

2000-01-01

Sustaining reform requires district leaders to develop a supportive infrastructure, nurture professional communities, reduce turnover, and use facilitators to build capacity. Bringing educators up to speed means providing abundant staff development, balancing pressure with support, providing adult learning time, and reducing fragmentation and…

Health Education Teaching Ideas: Elementary. Volume II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hakala, Jane, Ed.; Buckner, W. P., Jr., Ed.; King, Karen, Ed.

This guide contains innovative learning activities and teaching ideas to enhance classroom instruction. The 40 papers are divided into 12 areas: "Health Attitudes and Values" (e.g., understanding elementary students' perceptions of health through art, narrative and discussion); "Mental Health" (e.g., building community through…

Pushing the Boundaries of Technology, Education, and Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Jay W.

2000-01-01

Examines Sinclair Community College's (Dayton, OH) development of their 75,000 sq.ft. Center for Interactive Learning where the limits of technology in education can be experimented with, explored, and tested. Design planning, building function, design features, and furniture and finishes are discussed. (GR)

Virtual Events: A Cyberspace Resource for Educators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLellan, Hilary

1998-01-01

Discusses how virtual events can be used to enhance education. Topics include balancing virtual and real encounters; finding the best mix of communication options; and finding patterns of interaction that support reflective cognition, knowledge amplification, community-building, learning, and global understanding. GLOBENET 1997, an international…

Learning on the Big Bay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Philp, Michael J.

1978-01-01

Anne Arundel Community College uses the Chesapeake Bay for a flexible ocean engineering technology program which includes mechanical, electrical, and environmental options for transfer and/or vocational students, and adult education programs covering such subjects as sailing, Bay history, boat building, scuba-diving, and marine biology. (RT)

Education Facilities for Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meade, Anne; Ross, Fiona

2006-01-01

Educational buildings and grounds can provide a supportive and stimulating environment for the learning process as well as contribute to greater community needs. These issues were addressed at an international conference entitled "Making Space: Architecture and Design for Young Children". Described here are the importance of outdoor…