The spectrum of school–university partnerships: A typology of organizational learning systems

School–university partnerships are not uni-dimensional projects. Success in these partnerships can be found in loosely-coupled systems such as client–server partnerships and in more tightly-coupled systems such as collaborative development centers. Using a comparative case study approach, we explore two school–university partnership case studies and propose a framework for identifying and evaluating partnerships as learning systems. The structure of the partnership has implications for the focus of organizational learning initiatives that can form the foundation of sustained, systemic internal evaluation.     

Priority-setting in the roll out of South Africa’s National Integrated ECD Policy

The South African National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy was approved by the South African Cabinet in 2015. Given capacity and financial constraints, all services outlined cannot be implemented in a single step. Priorities must be set. We examine the budget implications (total cost and cost per child) and benefits of the four largest components of the Policy: interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes; home visits for at-risk mothers of children under 2 years of age; community-based playgroups for mothers and children, and center-based early childhood development services. Further, we identify which services are based on the strongest evidence, the value-based trade-offs that characterise the prioritising decisions, and which logistical factors favour alternative orderings of services. The interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes are low cost, based on sound evidence and would make use of the established healthcare infrastructure. Home visits for at-risk mothers are associated with improved development for targeted children and consequential benefits for caregivers and broader society. Playgroups are a promising low-cost intervention, but further evidence is required to determine their effectiveness. Centre-based services are expensive and generate smaller developmental returns, but provide childcare. The results highlight the value judgements required to determine the appropriate sequencing of interventions.     

Helping,Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to Individual Differences in Attachment

Although attachment theory has long posited a link between early experiences of care and children's prosocial behavior, investigations of this association have not embraced the multifaceted nature of prosociality. This study is the first to assess associations between child attachment and independent observations of helping, sharing, and comforting. Attachment quality in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 137) was linked to all three prosocial behaviors. Additionally, bifactor analyses revealed distinct associations between attachment and children's general prosocial dispositions and their specific abilities to meet the unique challenges of helping and, marginally, comforting. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple explanations for links between attachment and prosocial behavior and provide novel insights into sources of variation in children's prosociality.     

The Legacy of Early Abuse and Neglect for Social and Academic Competence From Childhood to Adulthood

This study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 267) to investigate whether abuse and neglect experiences during the first 5 years of life have fading or enduring consequences for social and academic competence over the next 3 decades of life. Experiencing early abuse and neglect was consistently associated with more interpersonal problems and lower academic achievement from childhood through adulthood (32–34 years). The predictive significance of early abuse and neglect was not attributable to the stability of developmental competence over time, nor to abuse and neglect occurring later in childhood. Early abuse and neglect had enduring associations with social (but not academic) competence after controlling for potential demographic confounds and early sensitive caregiving.     

Collaborations in Mind,Brain, and Education: An Analysis of Researcher–Practitioner Partnerships in Three Elementary School Intervention Studies

A reciprocal relationship informing both research and practice is one of the primary goals in the emerging field of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE), yet the field has little documentation and analysis of such collaborations. In this article, we present case studies of three research–practice partnerships taking place between scientists and educators. By comparing and contrasting these three partnerships we expect to illuminate common characteristics, challenges, and benefits that come with doing MBE work.     

Error Orientation and Reflection at Work

Reflection on events at work, including errors is often as a means to learn effectively through work. In a cross-sectional field study in the banking sector, we investigated attitudes towards workplace errors (i.e. error orientation) as predictors of reflective activity. We assumed the organisational climate for psychological safety to have a mediating effect. The study participants were 84 client advisors from the retail banking departments in branches of a German bank. The client advisors’ were being affected by a range of changes in their workplaces at the time of the data collection. This situation afforded these workers opportunity for learning but also involved the risk of error by these staff. Regression analyses identified that error competence and learning from errors were significant predictors of reflection. The results confirmed the mediating role of psychological safety on the association between attitudes towards errors and reflective working behaviour.     

Aversive, appetitive and flavour avoidance responses in the presence of contextual cues

Appetitive, aversive and avoidance responses to a flavoured solution in distinct contexts were examined. Rats placed in either a white or black box were given access to saccharin. Consumption was followed by an injection of a toxin in one but not the other box. Rats showed more aversive responses in anticipation of and during the presentation of saccharin in the box paired with the toxin than in the box paired with vehicle. The reverse was true for appetitive responses. The acquisition of conditioned avoidance paralleled the acquisition of aversive and appetitive responses. These findings demonstrate that the toxin does not have to overlap exposure to contextual cues to produce conditioned aversive responses, that the aversive and appetitive responses to a flavour can be modulated by visually distinct environments that predict the toxin, and that conditioned avoidance and conditioned aversions develop simultaneously during acquisition. Thus, environmental cues can modulate anticipatory nausea and may prove helpful in the control of nausea in clinical settings.     

INDIAN SECONDARY STUDENTS�� VIEWS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING: BELIEFS ABOUT THE USEFULNESS OF ACTIONS AND WILLINGNESS TO ACT

A 44-item survey instrument was designed to determine secondary students?? views about how useful various specific actions related to reducing global warming might be, their willingness to undertake these various actions and the extent to which these 2 might be linked. The instrument was administered to students in grades 6??C?10 (n?=?768) from 4 large schools in metropolitan Delhi, India in which the teaching language was English. The findings indicated that this cohort of Indian students exhibited high levels of concern about climate change and strong willingness to act against global warming and in favour of the environment. The findings are tentatively compared with those from 2 similar survey studies conducted in Western contexts (Spain and Australia).