Search results

Researchers suggest that adaptation should be a planned process, with practitioners actively consulting with program developers or academic partners, but few studies have examined how adaptation unfolds during evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation. The purpose of this paper is to describe real-world adaptation discussions and the conditions under which they occurred during the implementation of a new practice across multiple county child welfare systems.

This study qualitatively examines 127 meeting notes to understand how implementers and researchers talk about adaptation during the implementation of SafeCare, an EBP aimed at reducing child maltreatment and neglect.

Several types of adaptation discussions emerged. First, because it appeared difficult to get staff to talk about adaptation in group settings, meeting participants discussed factors that hindered adaptation conversations. Next, they discussed types of adaptations that they made or would like to make. Finally, they discussed adaptation as a normal part of SafeCare implementation.

Limitations include data collection by a single research team member and focus on a particular EBP. However, this study provides new insight into how stakeholders naturally discuss adaptation needs, ideas and concerns.

Understanding adaptation discussions can help managers engage frontline staff who are using newly implemented EBPs, identify adaptation needs and solutions, and proactively support individuals who are balancing adaptation and fidelity during implementation.

This study’s unique data captured in vivo interactions that occurred at various time points during the implementation of an EBP rather than drawing upon data collected from more scripted and cross-sectional formats. Multiple child welfare and implementation stakeholders and types of interactions were examined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of Latino clients following a naturalistic cultural adaptation made to SafeCare, an evidence-based home visiting intervention designed to address specific linguistic and cultural issues affecting the Latino community during implementation in San Diego County, California.

Hierarchical linear models examined whether Latino clients experienced differences in perceptions of SafeCare delivery, working relationship with the home visitor and satisfaction with services when compared with non-Latino clients and whether language of service delivery and provider-client ethnic match were related to Latino clients’ experiences of the intervention.

Overall, across several different dimensions, there was no decrement in experience with SafeCare for Latino clients compared to non-Latino ones, implying that adaptations made locally adequately engaged Latino and Spanish-speaking clients in services without compromising perceived adherence to the programme model.

Because this was a non-experimental study, conclusions could not be drawn as to whether the locally adapted SafeCare would fare better in Latino client ratings than SafeCare unadapted. However, the findings are important because they contradict concerns that EBPs may not be relevant to diverse client groups, and support the idea that when adaptations are made, it is possible to maintain adherence at the same level of adherence as when the programme is delivered in its non-adapted form.

The study explicitly documents and generates knowledge around an organic adaptation made in a community to an evidence-based intervention for a client group about whom there has been documented concern regarding the relevance of and engagement in services.

Using techniques developed mainly in subjective well-being and “happiness” studies, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the applicability of these and related methods for understanding and evaluating the emotional responses experienced within the live music event environment.

The concept of “experience” is debated and set within the context of music events designed to create a specific type of emotional experience for the attendees. The main tools for researching experiences over a time period are considered focusing on the “experience sampling method” (ESM) (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) and the “day reconstruction method” (Kahneman et al., 2004). These methods are critiqued in terms of their usefulness and practicality as research tools in the study of audience emotions.

A revised method was then developed and a small-scale trial undertaken at a live music event, the results of which are presented and discussed. A conceptual model illustrating the interconnectedness of experience is introduced as an example of the application of the data gathered through this method to theory development. The paper concludes by reflecting on both the methodological appropriateness and practicality of ESMs as a way of gathering valuable data on the emotions engendered by events.

An obstacle yet to be overcome is using this data to predict attitudinal and behavioural change related to arts marketing goals. However, studies in other areas have clearly shown that emotional response is a significant indicator of future behaviour suggesting that the potential is there.

The trialled method provides a useful starting point for better understanding the complexity of emotional effects triggered at live music events.

The paper concludes that an adaptation of these methods has the potential to provide much needed rich and credible data on the feelings and emotional reactions triggered by different elements of a live event.

Wide area search munitions (WASMs) are a cross between an unmanned aerial vehicle and a munition. With an impressive array of onboard sensors and autonomous flight capabilities WASMs might play a variety of roles on the modern battle field including reconnaissance, search, battle damage assessment, or communications relay.

This paper (published in two consecutive issues of On the Horizon) aims to contextualize research on games for learning by describing the current drivers of innovation in learning technologies situated within broader trends in open educational publishing.

The paper begins with an overview of changes, driven largely by technology in educational technology and publishing. Using massively open online courseware as an example, it describes how these factors are aligning to challenge the status quo. Next, it provides a brief discussion of changes in higher education more generally, including changes in education as a marketplace, reductions to state funding for education and changes in the research enterprise, particularly the rapid growth of the scientific enterprise and leveling off of federal support.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges, and innovative ways of engaging the public.

The assumption driving GLS (and this paper) is that rather than wait for these changes to happen to us, educational technologists can help drive the future by creating it. A good way to get the kinds of learning systems we want is to go about creating them and seeing what works. During this time, GLS developed and released over a dozen game-based learning titles, raised US$10,000,000s in grants and contracts, graduated over 30 doctoral students and post docs, spun out multiple companies, created materials in use by 10,000s (or more) students across the world, and helped build a nascent field of games and learning.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the GLS Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges and innovative ways of engaging the public.

At one time, reference librarians considered a good illustrated reference book to be one in which the plates were bound near the text they illustrated, rather than all together at the back of the volume. Now there is an increasing number of reference books with high quality illustrations on almost every page, including works that have been designed around their graphic content. This article explores technological, intellectual, and economic developments that have contributed to this situation. Using recently published reference works as examples, the article argues that these developments have produced dramatic changes in the relationship between the text and illustrations in reference books, as well as important changes in the relationships between the informational content of reference works and the functions of book authorship and publishing. Criteria currently used for the evaluation of reference books, based as they are on characteristics of verbal or text material and on the assumption of traditional relationships among authors, publishers, and the content of reference volumes, are not sufficient for the selection and use of today's heavily illustrated works. Some suggestions toward the development of more appropriate criteria are made.

The aim of this paper is to discuss how theories and practitioner-led theorising allow frontline workers to iteratively co-construct solutions that work in the real world.

This paper addresses the authors’ aim by proposing a social care theorising model

This study adopts a socio-ecological and epistemological lens when describing theorising and unpacks what this means when frontline workers adapt their practice and programs to work effectively with individuals and families. As frontline workers move towards a grand theory that determines their overarching theoretical perspectives through which they interpret their “social work” world, leadership, organisational culture and governance become crucial in supporting their use of discretion. This support is mostly manifested as supervision and coaching, and the authors argue here that a “researcher in residence” narrows the barriers to embedding research and evidence into practice. Discretion implies the choice of a practitioner to deliver program components in a way that fits the family, which may not align with rigid program protocols, and this calls in to question how to measure fidelity and compensate for adaptation. Furthermore, it highlights the limitations of some research methods and suggests that rapid data collection and analysis may be useful during this theorising process.

This paper conceptualises how frontline social care workers theorise in their practice, the ways these theories are shaped and suggests an option to narrow the research–practice gap.