Books on the topic 'Informal learning strategies'

Abstract: This chapter details the work of the UMSSW/TAC to connect with informal leaders and support neighborhood residents in accomplishing their goals. The TAC led or supported several strategies that directly assisted residents of the six Good Neighborhoods communities. These include the Leadership Academy (a co-designed model of individual capacity development), the Small Grants Resident Decision-Making Panel, workshops and issue forums, and staffing or participating in the various learning communities. Engaging and training residents and the creation of learning communities became signature tools of Good Neighborhoods. The learning communities include the Good Neighborhoods Learning Partnership; the Youth employment learning community, which eventually formed what is now the Detroit Youth Employment Consortium; the Ready to work, ready to hire learning community; and the Neighborhood-based transportation learning community.

This article begins with an overview of Arabic second-language acquisition (SLA) research. It discusses some SLA theories; the distancing of SLA research and theory from the traditional applied linguistics fields of methodology and teacher training; and major issues in current Arabic SLA research, which center on the development of skills in both primary and secondary discourses and efforts to balance these in formal and informal learning environments. The article then reviews published studies in Arabic SLA. This is followed by a discussion of five strands of research that distinguish themselves in the analysis of Arabic SLA: (1) studies on reading comprehension and word recognition; (2) listening comprehension; (3) learning strategies; (4) attitude and motivation; and (5) acquisition order of morphosyntactic features.

Chapter 7 explains why NATO’s institutional memory continues to develop in the way that it does – despite formal learning processes being underutilized. Findings in this chapter draw on the author’s survey-based interviews with 120 NATO elites. The chapter begins by arguing that NATO’s organizational culture locks-in elites’ preference for relying on informal processes and avoiding formal processes. Key characteristics of NATO’s culture posed challenges for identifying and reporting strategic errors. The organization’s norm of consensus made formal agreements on past strategic errors difficult. Moreover, NATO’s focus on reaction over retrospection and a broader culture of blame aversion provided elites with little incentive to break the tradition of reliance on informal processes for memory development. Elites described feeling continuous pressure to react to the crisis at hand and treat past crises as unique – leaving little reason to invest in learning from past failures.

Community music educators worldwide face the challenge of preparing their students for working in increasingly diverse cultural contexts. These diverse contexts require distinctive approaches to community music-making that are respectful of, and responsive to, the customs and traditions of that cultural setting. The challenge for community music educators then becomes finding pedagogical approaches and strategies that both facilitate these sorts of intercultural learning experiences for their students and that engage with communities in culturally appropriate ways. This chapter unpacks these challenges and possibilities, and explores how the pedagogical strategy of community service learning can facilitate these sorts of dynamic intercultural learning opportunities. Specifically, it focuses on engaging with Australian First Peoples, and draws on eight years of community service learning in this field to inform the insights shared.

This book will orient public health scholars and practitioners, as well as professionals from related fields such as the social sciences and design professions, to the tools and skills needed for effective urban health research, including foundational concepts, data sources, strategies for generating evidence, and engagement and dissemination strategies to inform action for urban health. The book brings together what the researchers are learning through ongoing research experience and their efforts to inform action. Chapters also feature brief contributions from other urban health experts and practitioners. The book highlights throughout the public health importance of urban environments and the critical need for diverse interdisciplinary teams and intersectoral collaboration to develop and evaluate approaches to improve health in urban settings. Urban health professionals are often charged with working in ways that take a systems perspective and challenge conventional silos, while also engaging in more traditional public health actions and research strategies. The text is infused with themes emphasizing the importance of place for health, the potential to link evidence with action, and the critical need to attend to health inequities within urban environments. By providing a primer on the range of activities and capacities useful to urban health researchers, the book supports reader in their own professional development and team building by covering a range of relevant skills and voices. The primary audience includes trainees at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels who are interested in creating actionable evidence and in taking evidence-informed action to improve health within urban settings.

How are an individual’s ability and motivation to be creative shaped by the world around her? Why does creativity seem to flourish in some environments, while in others it is stifled? Many societies value creativity as an abstract concept and many, perhaps even most, individuals feel an internal drive to be creative; however, tremendous social pressures restrict development of creative skill sets, engagement in creative activities, and willingness to take creative risks. Becoming Creative explores how social and cultural factors enable or inhibit creativity in music. The book integrates perspectives from ethnomusicology, education, sociology, psychology, and performance studies, prioritizing the voices of practicing musicians and music educators. Insights are drawn from ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with classical, jazz, and traditional musicians in South Africa, Finland, and the United States. By comparing and analyzing these musicians’ personal experiences, Becoming Creative deepens our understanding of the development and practice of musical creativity, the external factors that influence it, and strategies for enhancing it. The book reveals the common components of how musical creativity is experienced across these cultures and explains why creativity might not always be considered socially desirable. It identifies ideal creativity-enabling criteria—specific skill sets, certain psychological traits and states, and access to opportunities and authority—and illustrates how these enablers of creativity are fostered or thwarted by a variety of beliefs, learning methods, social relationships, institutions, and social inequalities. Becoming Creative further demonstrates formal and informal strategies for overcoming inhibitors of creativity.

In crisis management operations, strategic errors can cost lives. Some international organizations (IOs) learn from these failures, whereas, others tend to repeat them. Given high rates of turnover and shorter job contracts, how do IOs such as NATO retain any knowledge about past errors? Institutional memory enhances prospects for reforms that can prevent future failures. The book provides an explanation for how and why IOs develop institutional memory in international crisis management. Evidence indicates that the design of an IO’s learning infrastructure (e.g. lessons learned offices and databases) can inadvertently disincentivize IO elites from using it to share knowledge about strategic errors. Under such conditions, IO elites - high-level civilian and military officials - view reporting to be risky. In response, they prefer to contribute to institutional memory through the creation and use of informal processes such as transnational interpersonal networks, private documentation and conversations during crisis management exercises. The result is an institutional memory that remains vulnerable to turnover since critical knowledge is highly dependent on a handful of individuals. The book draws on the author’s interviews and a survey experiment with 120 NATO elites, including assistant secretary generals, military representatives and ambassadors. Cases of NATO crisis management in Afghanistan, Libya and Ukraine serve to further illustrate the development of institutional memory. Findings challenge existing organizational learning scholarship by indicating that formal learning processes alone are insufficient to ensure learning occurs. The book also offers policymakers a set of recommendations for strengthening the learning capacity of IOs.

Connecting the art of puppetry with deeper learning for children, this workbook offers a comprehensive guide on how to bring puppetry into the classroom. It places puppet design, construction and manipulation at the heart of arts education and as a key contributor to ‘manual intelligence’ in young people. Packed with practical, illustrated exercises using materials and technology readily available to teachers, Puppetry in Theatre and Arts Education shows you how the craft can enliven and enrich any classroom environment, and offers helpful links between puppetry, the curriculum and other aspects of education. Informed by developments in assessments and cognitive research, this book features approachable puppetry activities, educational strategies and lesson plans for teachers that expand any syllabus and unlock new methods of learning, including: - Making puppets from basic materials and everyday objects - Puppetizing children’s literature - Puppetizing science - Film-making with puppets Puppetry in Theatre and Arts Education is a core text for arts education courses as well as an essential addition to any teacher’s arsenal of teaching strategies.

Chapter 2 describes what institutional memory is and provides an overview of the book’s theoretical argument. The chapter begins by conceptualizing institutional memory. The subsequent section introduces the book’s theoretical argument, which builds on assumptions from rationalist institutionalist theories. Depending on an IO’s design, formal learning infrastructure can inadvertently deter IO elites from sharing their knowledge about strategic errors. Elites respond by choosing instead to socially construct memory through three informal processes: transnational interpersonal networks, private documentation and socializing during crisis management exercises. The chapter then identifies key premises of the book’s argument. These four premises concern the impact of the design of formal learning processes, elites’ built-in incentives to share, the role of an active secretariat and sources that motivate elites to act. The chapter concludes by identifying predictions, based on the book’s argument and by describing conditions under which the argument should hold.

Implementation science can be incorporated within genomics precision medicine research across the cancer care continuum. Cancer is at the forefront of precision medicine. To move the field forward, the use of implementation science frameworks, theories, models, strategies, and outcome measures is essential so that we can consistently explore how precision medicine discoveries are optimally integrated into care delivery systems. Learning health care systems are model systems for adoption, uptake, and sustainability of precision medicine throughout the cancer care continuum, with both systematic processes in place for research to inform practice, and capacity for a multilevel research agenda, including the utilization of implementation strategies across and among multiple levels. This chapter explores precision medicine across the cancer care continuum and describes implementation science challenges and opportunities.

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the need for a new approach to modeling party competition. It then makes a case for the use of agent-based modeling to study multiparty competition in an evolving dynamic party system, given the analytical intractability of the decision-making environment, and the resulting need for real politicians to rely on informal decision rules. Agent-based models (ABMs) are “bottom-up” models that typically assume settings with a fairly large number of autonomous decision-making agents. Each agent uses some well-specified decision rule to choose actions, and there may be considerable diversity in the decision rules used by different agents. Given the analytical intractability of the decision-making environment, the decision rules that are specified and investigated in ABMs are typically based on adaptive learning rather than forward-looking strategic analysis, and agents are assumed to have bounded rather than perfect rationality. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

The proportion of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and also have other medical, neurodevelopmental, behavioral, or psychosocial conditions is increasing. Prevalence estimates run as high as 50% to 70%. The shifting complexity challenges not only the learners but also the teachers, administrators, and policymakers responsible for the education of deaf students. Documentation of diagnostic profiles contributes to understanding the learning profile of deaf students with concomitant conditions. This may also inform policy decisions, programmatic design, calibration of parental expectations, and implementation of effective teaching strategies. Through illustrative case examples, this chapter explores the principles of differential diagnosis and the implications of various conditions. Topics covered include genetic syndromes, vestibular dysfunction, intrauterine viral infection with associated congenital hearing loss, autism spectrum disorder, reactive attachment disorder, complex medical histories resulting in severe neurologic compromise, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and nonsyndromic genetic conditions.

These Guidelines are one of the results of the four-year research project “Open Online Learning for Digital and Networked Society” (2017-2021). The project objective was to enable university teachers to design open and online learning through open and online learning curriculum and environment applying learning analytics as a metacognitive tool and creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the needs of digital and networked society. The research of the project resulted in 10 scientific publications and 2 studies prepared by Vytautas Magnus university Institute of Innovative Studies research team in collaboration with their international research partners from Germany, Spain and Portugal. The final stage of the research attempted creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the learner needs in contemporary digital and networked society. The need for open learning recognition has been increasing during the recent decade while the developments of open learning related to the Covid 19 pandemics have dramatically increased the need for systematic and high-quality assessment and recognition of learning acquired online. The given time also relates to the increased need to offer micro-credentials to learners, as well as a rising need for universities to prepare for micro-credentialization and issue new digital credentials to learners who are regular students, as well as adult learners joining for single courses. The increased need of all labour - market participants for frequent and fast renewal of competences requires a well working and easy to use system of open learning assessment and recognition. For learners, it is critical that the micro-credentials are well linked to national and European qualification frameworks, as well as European digital credential infrastructures (e.g., Europass and similar). For employers, it is important to receive requested quality information that is encrypted in the metadata of the credential. While for universities, there is the need to properly prepare institutional digital infrastructure, organizational procedures, descriptions of open learning opportunities and virtual learning environments to share, import and export the meta-data easily and seamlessly through European Digital Hub service infrastructures, as well as ensure that academic and administrative staff has digital competencies to design, issue and recognise open learning through digital and micro-credentials. The first chapter of the Guidelines provides a background view of the European Qualification Framework and National Qualification frameworks for the further system of gaining, stacking and modelling further qualifications through open online learning. The second chapter suggests the review of current European policy papers and consultations on the establishment of micro-credentials in European higher education. The findings of the report of micro-credentials higher education consultation group “European Approach to Micro-credentials” is shortly introduced, as well as important policy discussions taking place. Responding to the Rome Bologna Comunique 2020, where the ministers responsible for higher education agreed to support lifelong learning through issuing micro-credentials, a joint endeavour of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and DG Research and Innovation resulted in one of the most important political documents highlighting the potential of micro-credentials towards economic, social and education innovations. The consultation group of experts from the Member States defined the approach to micro-credentials to facilitate their validation, recognition and portability, as well as to foster a larger uptake to support individual learning in any subject area and at any stage of life or career. The Consultation Group also suggested further urgent topics to be discussed, including the storage, data exchange, portability, and data standards of micro-credentials and proposed EU Standard of constitutive elements of micro-credentials. The third chapter is devoted to the institutional readiness to issue and to recognize digital and micro-credentials. Universities need strategic decisions and procedures ready to be enacted for assessment of open learning and issuing micro-credentials. The administrative and academic staff needs to be aware and confident to follow these procedures while keeping the quality assurance procedures in place, as well. The process needs to include increasing teacher awareness in the processes of open learning assessment and the role of micro-credentials for the competitiveness of lifelong learners in general. When the strategic documents and procedures to assess open learning are in place and the staff is ready and well aware of the processes, the description of the courses and the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to provide the necessary metadata for the assessment of open learning and issuing of micro-credentials. Different innovation-driven projects offer solutions: OEPass developed a pilot Learning Passport, based on European Diploma Supplement, MicroHE developed a portal Credentify for displaying, verifying and sharing micro-credential data. Credentify platform is using Blockchain technology and is developed to comply with European Qualifications Framework. Institutions, willing to join Credentify platform, should make strategic discussions to apply micro-credential metadata standards. The ECCOE project building on outcomes of OEPass and MicroHE offers an all-encompassing set of quality descriptors for credentials and the descriptions of learning opportunities in higher education. The third chapter also describes the requirements for university structures to interact with the Europass digital credentials infrastructure. In 2020, European Commission launched a new Europass platform with Digital Credential Infrastructure in place. Higher education institutions issuing micro-credentials linked to Europass digital credentials infrastructure may offer added value for the learners and can increase reliability and fraud-resistant information for the employers. However, before using Europass Digital Credentials, universities should fulfil the necessary preconditions that include obtaining a qualified electronic seal, installing additional software and preparing the necessary data templates. Moreover, the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to export learning outcomes to a digital credential, maintaining and securing learner authentication. Open learning opportunity descriptions also need to be adjusted to transfer and match information for the credential meta-data. The Fourth chapter illustrates how digital badges as a type of micro-credentials in open online learning assessment may be used in higher education to create added value for the learners and employers. An adequately provided metadata allows using digital badges as a valuable tool for recognition in all learning settings, including formal, non-formal and informal.

This book presents computational interaction as an approach to explaining and enhancing the interaction between humans and information technology. Computational interaction applies abstraction, automation, and analysis to inform our understanding of the structure of interaction and also to inform the design of the software that drives new and exciting human-computer interfaces. The methods of computational interaction allow, for example, designers to identify user interfaces that are optimal against some objective criteria. They also allow software engineers to build interactive systems that adapt their behaviour to better suit individual capacities and preferences. Embedded in an iterative design process, computational interaction has the potential to complement human strengths and provide methods for generating inspiring and elegant designs. Computational interaction does not exclude the messy and complicated behaviour of humans, rather it embraces it by, for example, using models that are sensitive to uncertainty and that capture subtle variations between individual users. It also promotes the idea that there are many aspects of interaction that can be augmented by algorithms. This book introduces computational interaction design to the reader by exploring a wide range of computational interaction techniques, strategies and methods. It explains how techniques such as optimisation, economic modelling, machine learning, control theory, formal methods, cognitive models and statistical language processing can be used to model interaction and design more expressive, efficient and versatile interaction.

Expert public psychiatrists use case studies to share best practice strategies in this clinically oriented introduction to community mental health. Today, the majority of psychiatrists work with people who suffer not only from mental illness but also from poverty, trauma, social isolation, and discrimination. Psychiatrists cannot do this work alone but, instead, are part of teams of behavioral health workers navigating larger health care and social service systems. In an increasingly complex health care environment, mental health clinicians need to master systems-based practice in order to provide optimal care to their patients. The rapid development of public psychiatry training programs is a response to the learning needs of psychiatrists in an evolving system. This book begins with seven foundational principles of public psychiatry—recovery, trauma-informed care, integrated care, cultural humility, harm reduction, systems of care, and financing care—using cases to bring these concepts to life. Then, using a population health framework, cases are used to explore the typical needs of different age groups or vulnerable populations and to illustrate evidence-based/best practices that have been employed to meet these needs. Common to all of the chapters is a focus on the potential of each person, regardless of illness, to achieve personal goals, supported by a clinician who is also an advocate, activist, and leader.

Youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted and precarious. The Great Recession exacerbated these difficulties. The varied European experiences affect young people differently in terms of their gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, even in successful countries. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people’s integration into employment, transitions affected by the family and moving away to live independently, and the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify some of the key challenges for the future concerning young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs); overeducation; self-employment; ethnicity; scarring effects; as well as the values and attitudes of young people and how they identify with trade unions. The central concept informing this research is based on a comparative analysis of transitions, policy performance, and learning approaches to overcoming youth unemployment. It illuminates when and how labor market analysis informs policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation based on extensive multimethod empirical research across the European continent. Collectively, the authors illustrate the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of both the sphere of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective. Mapping and extensively analyzing these transitions is the result of original empirical analysis drawn from a three-and-a-half-year European Union-funded research project: STYLE—Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe.