Some issues for cooperative learning and intercultural education

This article connects the two fields of cooperative learning and intercultural education. We argue that cooperative learning strategies need to be equipped with intercultural understandings. Two key points that are raised here are: (1) that issues of competitiveness amongst learners and students must be dealt with head on rather than treating it from the sidelines or by brushing them aside; and (2) for learning to take place in a truly cooperative manner, there must be an emphasis on an intercultural focus within the curriculum; the content of knowledge within the curriculum needs to be non-centric. This article emphasizes that cooperative learning strategies are effective when the curricular knowledge taught in the school is drawn from all groups (dominant, subordinate or minority groups).     

Coregulation and the Quality of the Relationship in Full‐Term and Very Low‐Birthweight Preterm Infant‐Mother Dyads During Face‐To‐Face Interactions

Interactions with parents build the foundation for infants' social–emotional development. This study investigated coregulation of the interaction and quality of relationship between mothers and their 6‐month‐old full‐term (n = 43) and very low‐birthweight/preterm (VLBW/preterm; n = 44; ages corrected for prematurity) infants. The objectives were to examine (1) how coregulation changed following a perturbed interaction, (2) how coregulation differed between full‐term and VLBW/preterm infant–mother dyads, and (3) the association between coregulation and relationship quality. Coregulation was coded using the Revised Relational Coding System (Fogel et al., 2003). Quality of the relationship was measured using the Emotional Availability scales (Biringen et al., 2014; Carter et al., 1998). Dyads participated in the Still‐Face (SF) procedure (Tronick et al., 1978) consisting of two natural and one SF period where mothers assumed a neutral expression, refraining from interacting with their infants. Following the SF period, dyads engaged in more symmetrical and more disruptive patterns of coregulation. While full‐term dyads engaged in more sequential‐symmetrical, VLBW/preterm dyads engaged in more resonant‐symmetrical coregulation. These results suggest that VLBW/preterm dyads may show more emotional reactivity in their interactions than full‐term dyads; however, in both groups infant responsiveness and parenting stress influenced the types of coregulation exhibited.     

Grazing,exploring and networking for sustainability-oriented innovations in learning-action networks: an SME perspective

With sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can conquer niche markets, cut resource usage and improve the quality of life. SMEs follow different strategic orientations for SOIs. They are conditioned by their organizational structures, capabilities and interaction with the business, regulatory and knowledge network. Usually, SMEs find it easier to span their boundaries to the business network. This research explores, in a longitudinal multi-case study, how the interaction with the knowledge network can condition an SME's strategic orientation. In the analysis of a learning-action network established by a research institute, three network-patterns (grazer, explorer and networker) are observed which result from different SME boundary-spanning processes. A central role is played by the boundary spanners who influence to which degree the SME can build up exploratory and exploitative learning capabilities to further deploy, push forward or generically develop its strategic orientation for SOIs in interaction with the knowledge network.     

In regulation we trust

The role of trust has been argued to play an increasingly important role in modern, complex, and ambivalent risk societies. Trust within organizational research is anticipated to have a general strategic impact on aspects such as organizational performance, communication and knowledge exchange, and learning from accidents. Trust is also an important aspect related to regulation of risk. Diverse regulatory regimes, their contexts and risks influence regulators use of trust and distrust in regulatory practice. The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between risk regulation and trust across diverse risk regulation regimes. By drawing from studies of risk regulation, risk perception, and trust the purpose is to discuss how regulation and trust are linked and used in practice to control risk across system levels in socio-technical systems in high risk industries. This paper provides new knowledge on 1) how functional and dysfunctional trust and distrust are grounded in the empirical realities of high risk industries, 2) how different perspectives on trust and distrust act together and bring new knowledge on how society control risk.     

If I can do it my way … The influence of regulatory focus on job-related values and job attraction

Research on person-job fit has so far not taken into account individuals’ self-regulation strategies. The current research aimed to make up for this research deficit by studying the impact of regulatory focus on the endorsement of job-related values and job attraction. It was predicted that the stronger individuals’ promotion focus is, the more they endorse the job-related values power and self-direction, whereas the stronger the prevention focus, the more they endorse the value security at work. In addition, regulatory focus was expected to predict attraction by a job with characteristics meeting the values fitting an individual’s regulatory focus. One longitudinal and two cross-sectional studies supported these predictions. These findings indicate that self-regulation should be considered in research on person-job fit and related applied fields such as career counseling and personnel selection.     

Presence and Quality of Touch Influence Coregulation in Mother–Infant Dyads

The first major goal of this study was to determine whether touch would enhance mother—infant coregulation in ordinary, nonstressful face‐to‐face interactions. In an experimental manipulation of presence versus absence of touch in face‐to‐face interactions between 79 mothers and their 3.5‐month‐old infants, results indicated that when touch is prohibited, relaxed and mutually attuned coregulation (asymmetrical coregulation) decreases. Contrary to expectations, coactive and mutually attuned coregulation (symmetrical coregulation) increased during prohibited touch, but this finding was qualified by a significant interaction between touch and order. The second major goal of this study was to question the assumption that the presence of touch should exert uniform effects on mother—infant interactions despite likely individual differences in the way touch is practiced. We assessed affectionate touch and stimulating touch in the touch condition of the experiment. Results indicated that the decrease in symmetrical coregulation during touch was primarily explained by those dyads that practiced more affectionate and less stimulating touch, indicating that affectionate touch is inversely related and stimulating touch is directly related to infant activity level.     

Measuring societal effects of transdisciplinary research projects: design and application of an evaluation method

Most Transdisciplinary Research (TdR) projects combine scientific research with the building of decision making capacity for the involved stakeholders. These projects usually deal with complex, societally relevant, real-world problems. This paper focuses on TdR projects, which integrate the knowledge of researchers and stakeholders in a collaborative transdisciplinary process through structured methods of mutual learning. Previous research on the evaluation of TdR has insufficiently explored the intended effects of transdisciplinary processes on the real world (societal effects). We developed an evaluation framework for assessing the societal effects of transdisciplinary processes. Outputs (measured as procedural and product-related involvement of the stakeholders), impacts (intermediate effects connecting outputs and outcomes) and outcomes (enhanced decision making capacity) are distinguished as three types of societal effects. Our model links outputs and outcomes of transdisciplinary processes via the impacts using a mediating variables approach. We applied this model in an ex post evaluation of a transdisciplinary process. 84 out of 188 agents participated in a survey. The results show significant mediation effects of the two impacts "network building" and "transformation knowledge". These results indicate an influence of a transdisciplinary process on the decision making capacity of stakeholders, especially through social network building and the generation of knowledge relevant for action.     

Learning to Create Enquiry-based Blended Learning Designs: Resources to Develop Interdisciplinary Education

Interdisciplinary teaching and learning in social work education can improve service user outcomes by promoting collaborative working between professionals. Educators must ensure that students are given opportunities to gain the skills, knowledge and experiences required for collaborative working. Blended learning can overcome barriers of time and place to create spaces for interdisciplinary students to engage in interactive and collaborative learning experiences. Little has been written in social work education outlining how educators can gain the competences required to develop blended learning designs. This paper provides access to a set of resources aimed at guiding educators through the complex processes of creating interdisciplinary enquiry-based blended learning (EBBL) designs. The context, ethos and rationale for the development of these resources are outlined along with an evaluation that suggests they were successful in guiding an interdisciplinary group of educators through the complex processes of creating interdisciplinary EBBL designs.     

‘We feel the responsibility that you shirk’: movement institutionalization,the politics of responsibility and the case of the Swedish environmental movement

This article provides directions for advancing the conceptualization of the relationship between social movements and institutionalization, based on a case study of the Swedish environmental movement strategies. We argue that the concepts of (de)responsibilization and (de)politicization provide tools for an improved analysis of the dynamics of how social movements interact both with established political institutions and corporations in a new context. The introduction of new regulatory frameworks in environmental politics has shaped interaction between social movements and the state in new ways, involving neoliberal responsibilization, meaning active involvement by civil society and business in political responsibilities previously associated with state agencies – a development involving an increasing emphasis on market mechanisms. We argue that this has involved a de-politicization of environmental issues in the sense that it engages political actors in a moral discourse and a technocratic practice that suppresses the (potential) articulation of social conflict through consensus building. However, we also show how movement actors resist the discourse that encourages them to take on certain responsibilities, thus engaging in a politics of responsibility. Empirically, we demonstrate how the changing strategies of the Swedish environmental movement in the 2000s need to be understood in relation to the following processes, indicating that the Swedish case has a general relevance for an understanding of the contemporary environmental movement globally: (1) the transformation of the Swedish model of welfare capitalism under the influence of neoliberal discourse; (2) international environmental policy developments, most importantly the emergence of climate change as a dominant issue globally.     

Introducing the Historical Thinking Practice of Contextualizing to Middle School Students

This article describes the design of a social studies unit about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 with a particular emphasis on how specific unit resources engaged middle school students in learning about the geographical and historical context of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We also report on how the resources supported the teaching and learning of the historical thinking practice of contextualizing.     

Service Learning in a Small Groups Course

This paper describes a service learning program used in a Sociology of Small Groups course. Service learning programs attempt to apply knowledge learned in the classroom in a setting of community service. This paper advocates the use of service learning as a tool for applying social knowledge even in courses that are not traditionally linked with service learning. The usefulness of a service learning program in a group processes course is identified. Details on the content of the program, the methods of evaluation and the relevance to the course material are provided. Numerous examples of how service learning can lead to classroom enhancement activities are described.     

Associations between observed and reported infant negative affectivity,fear and self-regulation,and early communicative development—Evidence from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Self-regulation and language are intertwined abilities, but the nature of their relations in early childhood when both skills are still emerging is insufficiently understood. Our knowledge of the relations between early negative affectivity and preverbal and verbal communicative development is still limited. Further, observed and reported temperament capture how aspects of temperament operate in different settings but are rarely used in parallel in studies examining early language. During the period of rapid development, longitudinal studies are needed to identify early risk factors for delayed communicative development. We studied relations between aspects of emerging self-regulation and negative affectivity using both observations at 8 months and mother-reports at 6 and 12 months, and communicative development measured by gesturing and vocabulary at 14 and vocabulary at 30 months in 183 children. Mother-reported self-regulation was related to a higher use of communicative gestures and observed self-regulation by gaze aversion to poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary at 14 months, but neither was significantly associated with vocabulary at 30 months. We found little evidence for associations between negative affectivity and fear in infancy and communicative development. Our findings highlight different aspects of self-regulation as both potential risk and protective factors for communicative development. Mixed results indicate a need for a more detailed examination of different strategies of self-regulation in different conditions and developmental stages to yield a deeper understanding of the relations between self-regulation in infancy and communicative development.     

Leaving Behind What We are Not: Applying a Systems Thinking Perspective to Present Unlearning as an Enabler for Finding the Best Version of the Self

In response to criticism on the concept of ‘unlearning’, we suggested that unlearning on an individual level should be defined as the reduction of the influence of old knowledge on cognitive and/or behavioural processes. In this article, we apply a systems thinking perspective on this definition to explore how far this kind of unlearning can possibly go and what happens if this process is inward-directed, i.e. affects the cognitive and behavioural patterns that define who we are. We take a knowledge perspective on the concept of the self and suggest that unlearning could trigger a disequilibrium, which in turn, enables a deep learning process and guides us to what is referred to as ideal or best version of the self. This does not only have implications for the individual level but it can initiate fundamental change processes in organizations.     

“Coming From the Place of Walking with the Youth—that Feeds Everything”: A Mixed Methods Case Study of a Runaway and Homeless Youth Organization

Organizations for runaway and homeless youth (RHY) provide essential services to highly vulnerable youth who have a wide variety of basic needs and complex psychosocial challenges. We present a mixed-methods case study of an RHY organization to identify the specific mechanisms and processes by the organization successfully promotes engagement and positive development of the youth they serve. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative data separately and then integrated these two strands of data. Our findings indicate a consistent convergence of responses across the data sources, in both the qualitative and quantitative strands, that consistently reflect the organization’s youth-centered approach. Primary among these policies and practices is the emphasis on building and maintaining empathetic relationships with youth, the promotion of youths’ autonomy, and an institutional culture of continuous evaluation of how the organization is meeting their mission to provide services that reflect best practices.     

Family Processes and Children's and Adolescents' Well-Being

The primary purpose of this review was to examine theory and research published during the past decade that focused on family processes and children's and adolescents' well-being. Scholarship focused on family processes and child and adolescent well-being made significant and exciting advances during this decade based on several key advancements. In addition to a brief introduction and a conclusion, this decade in review is organized into four sections. In the first section, advances made in the literature because of increased attention to complexity and specificity are illustrated. The second section describes advances that were made because of increased attention to family processes in diverse families. Diversity in the samples of families studied, extensions in family process models, and the revisioning of grand theories using a diversity lens that were used to conceptualize family processes are detailed. In the third section, the importance of time in the study of family processes and child and adolescent well-being is described. The emphasis on families' daily lives is noted. In addition, prospective considerations and studies of change over time are highlighted. Strengths in family functioning are detailed in the fourth section of this article: positivity, regulatory processes, and family organization. These three areas were selected to elaborate the idea that one of the major advancements in the family process literature during the past decade was an emphasis on family strengths. This review concludes with a commentary regarding how conceptual and methodological advancements during the past decade can guide future scholarship.     

What students’ Facebook posts teach us about the identity challenge in field placements abroad

ABSTRACT

Facebook is a common tool that enables students to publicly express their emotions, thoughts, experiences, and knowledge. On the assumption that the personal narratives of students can provide deep insights into their learning processes during practical training programs, the article presents content analyses of Facebook posts written by Israeli students who participated in an international social work field placement program in India. Content analysis of the students’ posts reveals that they grappled with their personal and professional identities as part of the learning process that occurred while they were formulating their professional identity as social workers. The analysis elicited three main themes: (1) awareness of the national identity; (2) exploration of other identities (personal, professional, and global); and (3) an attempt to contain multidimensional identity. The students discussed the main challenges they faced in the process of formulating an identity that will enable them to engage in international social work, and they described the fluctuations that occurred in those identities. The results show how public Facebook posts can be used as a tool to shed light on the contribution of social work education in international field placements, and provide insights into the learning processes that students experience in field placements abroad.     

Learning to gamble: early gambling experiences among young people in Denmark

This article presents results from the first phase of a longitudinal qualitative study of gambling among young people in Denmark. The longitudinal study is designed to capture the trajectories of young gamblers and to explore how social and cultural factors and processes impact on young people's gambling careers. The first stage of analysis places a special emphasis on young people's introduction to gambling and the social contexts of these early gambling experiences. Theoretically, this first study is guided by a symbolic interactionist approach. We conclude that early experiences with gambling are socially mediated and that significant social contexts such as the family and peer groups form important contexts of these early experiences. Our evidence suggest that becoming engaged in gambling is a social process involving a transfer of skills and knowledge in which novices learn how to play and to attribute specific meanings to gambling. Overall, our findings indicate that young people start gambling not because of purely individual characteristics or deviant motivations but through social processes within significant social networks. Implications for prevention and further research are briefly discussed.     

Adult learning styles: Implications for practice teaching in social work

This paper focuses on the current aspiration to further the process of continuing professional development in social work. It contends that knowledge from the field of adult learning theory may be helpful in sign-posting some tangible ways forward here. The particular emphasis is on critically assessing the usefulness of identifying learning styles as indicators of preferred ways of learning. Knowledge of learning styles is explored as one way of promoting students' learning on practice placements. A small-scale qualitative research study with a group of practice teachers and their students is presented as a vehicle for exploring this new terrain in social work. The findings of this research build on key themes identified by the current literature in this area. The author's findings suggest that information about learning styles has direct practical application in the social work practice teaching arena. The data points to the potential value of using such information to guide students' learning on practice placements and has relevance to considerations of their continuing professional development. Suggestions are put forward to highlight how practice teaching and Diploma in Social Work programmes could facilitate this process. The paper stresses the over-riding need to view students as actors in a broader social context, however, and highlights how information regarding learning styles needs to be utilised in this context.     

Developmental Trajectories for Mother–Infant Coregulation in the Second Year of Life

Ten dyads were observed biweekly from 10 to 24 months of infant age while playing together at home with a set of toys. The aim was to examine whether mother–infant coregulation changes over the second year of the infant’s life and whether there are individual differences in that process. Normative trends as well as variability between and within dyads were tested using a multilevel modeling technique. We found that unilateral coregulation, in which only the mother was actively involved in play, largely prevailed at the beginning of the year and then decreased linearly, while symmetrical patterns, implying that the infant was also involved, were for the most part absent at the beginning but then increased rapidly, overtaking unilateral from the middle of the year on and becoming predominant by the end. In particular, symmetrical episodes of shared affect and shared action increased first and then decreased, being replaced by shared language. Variability in data was significant between the dyads, with some dyads advancing toward symmetrical coregulation at an earlier age and more rapidly than the others. It was also significant within the dyads, as the increase in symmetrical coregulation unfolded in a quite irregular manner across the sessions, unlike the decrease in unilateral. Results are discussed with reference to a view of joint attention development as a gradual and complex process.     

Family concepts—a social pedagogic approach to understanding family development and working with families

Drawing upon insights from family research, this article argues that in modern Western societies the reflection of individual notions of family as well as the development of concepts of a fulfilling everyday family life has turned into a recurrent challenge throughout the life course, a challenge particularly relevant during family transitions. Professionals in the field of social work with families are increasingly faced with the task of supporting such processes of reflection and development. At the same time, there is little knowledge about how these processes look like. Building upon results of a pilot study and merging recent theoretical developments in family research with the (German) tradition of social pedagogy, a conceptual framework to study family concepts theoretically and empirically is developed. The potential as well as the limitations of this research approach are discussed drawing upon a case example taken from an ongoing longitudinal study. This study aims at revealing family concept-related processes of informal learning and thus provides an understanding of family development from a social pedagogic point of view. Finally, an outline will be given of how this research could contribute to develop an intervention method standing in the tradition of social pedagogy.