Learning Partnerships Research Articles

An Economically Sustainable Glass Recycling Business Model in Puerto Rico: A Conceptual Solution for Regions Without Government Recycling Programs

In Puerto Rico, less than 5% of glass waste is recycled annually compared to a US national average of 25%. In regions like Puerto Rico, where government glass recycling programs are absent, glass presents a challenging waste stream to profitably recycle due to high transportation costs and low market prices, with few scalable models identified in the literature. This study emerged from a multi-year shared action learning partnership between Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Puerto Rico Project Center and the Corporación del Proyecto ENLACE, a community development NGO serving the Caño Martín Peña communities in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Based on online research and interviews with 16 key stakeholders, we describe an economically sustainable glass recycling business model designed for the Caño Martín Peña communities that offers broader applicability for similar contexts. The business model achieves three goals: (1) it offers a free and convenient glass-collection service for the Caño Martín Peña communities; (2) it generates local employment opportunities in a low-income region; and (3) it operates in an economically sustainable manner. The viability of the glass-recycling business model is premised on strategic partnerships with government agencies, recycling companies, glass-sand markets, and local businesses.

Is scalable 'students as partners’ possible?

Amid the growing practice of engaging with students as partners in learning and teaching, there have been well-known critiques of the practice’s often small-scale, extra-curricular, project-based, and often exclusive, models of student participation. In this research, we respond to these concerns through the evaluation of a whole-of-class approach to student partnership which harnessed a scalable, online peer-recommender platform known as RiPPLE (Recommendation in Personalised Peer Learning Environments). Through the platform, educators partner with students to develop a large repository of learning resources where students can contribute by authoring learning resources and/or reviewing and providing feedback on their peer's submissions. In this study, we present the evaluation of this intervention, including the development of a transferable survey instrument based on key outcomes related to student partnership. Survey results (N= 889) indicated that many, though not all, of the previously evidenced benefits of partnership occurred, for example, students’ self-reported gains in learning engagement and self-efficacy about their ability to contribute learning resources. These findings suggest that large-scale, in-class partnerships have promising potential to expand the benefits of partnership at scale and open up new insights on how to leverage technology to support large-scale, inclusive learning and teaching innovations.

Research partnerships as transformational learning experiences

A common partnership between faculty and students in post-secondary education is that of researcher as a primary investigator (PI) and research assistant (RA). In this reflective essay, we examine an unconventional research partnership between Allison, a PI, and Bailey, an RA. Our experiences as PI and RA prompted us to reflect upon our learning partnership. We asked: In what ways might the role of RA be transformative (Mezirow, 1994) in teacher education for both researcher and student when it is approached through partnership? This partnership is unique because of its relational approach, where the PI and the RA collaborated in making decisions about the direction of the RA work. The RA’s perspective offered a different viewpoint on the research focus through which the researcher aimed to gain insights. This approach altered the dynamics of the research partnership, which evolved along the lines of both partners acting as equal contributors and co-learners through the research process. In this paper, we reflect on our consequential learning. Specifically, we focus on the learning that occurred when Bailey self-directed RA work on the topics of radical imagination, restorative justice, and appreciative inquiry, as well as the insights Allison gained through Bailey’s work. We use “I” in our respective sections and “we” and “our” in our collective writing, and we also refer to ourselves in the third person for clarity when needed.

Building pedagogical partnerships

Engaging students as pedagogical partners in teaching and learning in higher education is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, developing and sustaining such partnerships can be challenging. The present study highlights the potential of utilizing work-integrated learning (WIL) students as partners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 university instructors to explore how access to an online learning assistant (OLA) program helped them navigate remote instruction challenges. The OLA program was a novel WIL initiative providing co-operative (co-op) education students with full-time, paid work to assist instructors transitioning to remote learning. Unexpectedly, our findings demonstrate that pedagogical partnerships emerged in the context of this WIL program, leading to teaching and learning benefits. Online learning assistants were able to assist instructors with many of the difficulties they faced, although some program challenges also emerged. Our findings suggest that full-time, paid co-op student positions offer a unique program structure that make them ideal for the development and ongoing success of pedagogical partnerships.

Reimagining a Pedagogy of Care Using ePortfolios as a scholarly, ‘visibility’ tool in Higher Education

Assigning ePortfolio tasks to students should not only focus on instruction and activities that connect to real world learning. Humanising the learning experience by constructing an environment and teaching approach that builds trust, respect and resilience will strengthen learning partnerships, resulting in enhanced achievement for students (Henriksen et al., 2022). The aim of this paper is to consider how embodying a pedagogy of care can humanise the learning experience of ePortfolio activities in an online environment. How could we institute a pedagogy of care when designing ePortfolio tasks with academic colleagues? What strategies do we use to develop a safe space to reflect on our experience? How would a pedagogy of care approach improve student outcomes and inform new ways of working and studying? Findings indicated that implementation of the Modelling and Dialogue phases to support student learning, based on Noddings’ 1988 framework, enabled the students to transform their learning due to scaffolding, building trust and the authors encouraging a collegial environment to share feedback.

Digital storytelling to promote disability-inclusive research in Africa

Background: Digital stories have been shown to be effective in sharing information. The Partnerships for Inclusive Research and Learning (PIRL) was a 4-year international participatory research project focussed on the digital divide in inclusive research.Objectives: Members of PIRL share their experience of using digital storytelling to get key messages from the project to a wide range of people.Method: Members of PIRL were invited to develop digital stories and create project-specific guidelines for digital story development. Seven people participated in workshops given by experts, read literature, watched digital stories and discussed how to create digital stories.Results: The group created six digital stories, each one addressing a different aspect related to disability-inclusive research, with many having a focus on Africa and the creation of credible African evidence. The importance of assisting community members to think about and support research and evidence creation was one of the goals of the project. The videos provide an avenue to share insights about disability-inclusive development research. Group members stated that being part of the process significantly improved their understanding of translating evidence into formats that are more understandable.Conclusion: Creating digital stories requires commitment, a significant amount of time, access to digital tools, and financial resources. Working collaboratively on this project was not only meaningful but also encouraged positive working relationships and fostered critical thinking.Contribution: This article contributes to a better understanding of ways in which digital storytelling can be used in knowledge-sharing strategies to promote disability inclusion.

Faculty development for supervisors of medical student rural attachments in Zimbabwe.

Reflective writing and keeping portfolios during rural hospital attachments has been shown to give medical students more confidence, better communication skills and clinical competence, thereby making them stronger adult learners. The role of supervisors as facilitators of learning during Community-based Education rural site visits is critical. The University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences established faculty development workshops to train supervisors to be better able to support students in becoming active learners and critical thinkers, giving them constructive feedback, and encouraging them to look for positive outcomes during their rural attachments. These educational skills were new to most supervisors, requiring a culture change from the usual didactic approaches. Educators had to learn about adult learning theories, the constructivist approach to knowledge creation, role-modelling and methods of assessment that were empowering for students. They were encouraged to form communities of practice through the faculty development process of training and assessment and to consider how to develop research and scholarship in documenting their experiences as facilitators and learning partners with their students and colleagues. These activities enhanced their professional identity formation as scholars, educators and facilitators. Their exposure to the functioning of rural hospitals, partly through narratives of the students' reflective writing, enabled them to develop a greater appreciation of the potential of primary care and the district health services as the foundation of the Zimbabwe health system. Future benefits could include application of this training to other health professional programmes, as part of interprofessional education.

Pre-Service Teacher Education in a Postplagiarism World: Incorporating GenAI Into Teacher Training

This essay explores the integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into pre-service teacher education amidst contemporary debates on technology in education. It highlights the cautious stance taken by educational authorities, such as the Alberta Teachers’ Association, which advises against involving students directly with AI tools. The discussion contrasts this cautionary position with global trends, noting advanced AI curricula in countries like China and Japan. Emphasizing the necessity for hands-on GenAI training for pre-service teachers, the essay advocates equipping future educators with the skills and knowledge to effectively incorporate AI into their practice. It calls for engaging students as partners in learning and rethinking traditional notions of plagiarism in a postplagiarism world where AI co-creation becomes common.Keywords: Pre-service teacher education, postplagiarism, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), AI literacy, educational technology integration

Generative AI as Writing or Speaking Partners in L2 Learning: Implications for Learning-Oriented Assessments

The advent of generative AI (GenAI) technology has impacted second language (L2) learning and assessment, offering new opportunities for learners to practice and improve their skills. One approach gaining interest is employing GenAI tools as writing or speaking partners to provide personalized, real-time feedback and assistance to learners. These interactions allow learners to practice their writing and speaking skills while receiving assessment information on various aspects of language, including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Considering the potential of GenAI tools to enrich assessment and learning experiences, it is worth examining recent research on the use of this technology for this purpose. This paper reviews the literature on the use of GenAI as writing and speaking partners through the lens of the Learning-Oriented Assessment (LOA) framework (Purpura, 2024; Turner & Purpura, 2016) to explore how assessment data from GenAI tools could be leveraged to further learning.

Workplace menstrual health in the private sector: Results from a pilot study in Kenya and Nepal

ABSTRACT Menstrual health (MH) efforts have not focused on challenges experienced by working adults. For individuals who identify as women, managing one's periods outside the home is especially difficult when working in male-dominated workplaces. In response, USAID Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships for Learning and Sustainability implemented four workplace interventions in Kenya and Nepal to improve MH conditions, promote women's economic empowerment, and garner support from company leadership for workplace MH programs. Over 9–11 months, interventions focused on (i) menstrual products and WASH infrastructure; (ii) workplace policy environment; and (iii) education and behavior change. Pre–post, mixed methods evaluations revealed that awareness and confidence regarding MH increased in all workplaces. Improved access to menstrual products increased women's comfort and lowered anxiety. In both countries, improved toilets and reduction of supervisory barriers to toilet use during working hours helped women employees to change products regularly. Changing the social and institutional workplace environments through policy recommendations, education and behavior change efforts increased social support and reduced menstruation-related stigma, leading to improved work performance and job satisfaction. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of implementing workplace MH programs and improving working conditions for menstruating employees in pursuit of economic empowerment and better business outcomes.

CONCEPTS OF MEDIA LITERACY IN INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING

Understanding, applying, and re-contextualising media literacy concepts are viewed as part of the tools beneficial for intergenerational learning. The individual autonomy of media content users is now, more than ever, under the pressure of accelerated media content production and consumption on the one hand, and on the other, amidst completely new consumerist needs. Approaches and perspectives in the field of media literacy are continuously developing to respond to the challenges brought by the digital age and changes in the media landscape. Based on the Central Concepts of Media Literacy, discussed by Potter and Hobbs, we believe that the continuous implementation of intergenerational learning about media literacy is necessary in Serbia, with a focus on digital literacy and technological competencies. Intergenerational learning is viewed as a learning partnership based on reciprocity and mutuality involving different ages, with generations working together to acquire skills, values, and knowledge. We approach education for media literacy holistically, viewing media literacy as a kind of intellectual curiosity activation, and we advocate for media literacy as activism in intergenerational, non-familial educational programs.

Collaborations on education for sustainable healthcare

Sustainable healthcare is a hot topic, andnot just because of its relationship to awarming planet. In the last two editions ofSurgo, the topic of sustainable health care,and of the impact of climate change onhealth has been introduced by the Head ofUndergraduate School of MedicineProfessor Malcolm Shepherd and by theSurgo Editor Anna Bradford. Education for Sustainable Healthcare (ESH)to call it by one of its accepted names (theother being SHE – Sustainable HealthcareEducation), has become crucially importantfor medical schools globally since theintroduction of the Planetary Health ReportCard, which ranks medical schools based ontheir engagement with planetary health.Glasgow has received a C- this year – whilstit is an improvement on our previous score,clearly more work is needed. So how can we educate our students on theimportance of sustainable healthcare, andof the recognised interplay between healthand climate change? Dr Noy Basu, our vertical theme lead for global and planetaryhealth has energetically implementedplanetary health into the teaching andassessment of the Glasgow MBChB, but thiscan be challenging. Whilst most, if not all,faculty members are enthusiastic, it can bedaunting for any lecturer accustomed todelivering teaching on a subject they havein-depth expertise in, to add in content onthe impact of climate change – a topicscarcely any of our faculty were themselvestaught as students. To further our efforts toinclude ESH into the MBChB curriculum,faculty development is therefore required a challenge encountered by most medicalschools in the UK and globally. The solution is collaboration. In 2022, theMedical Schools Council published an ESHcurriculum, and to support itsimplementation, the University of GlasgowMedical School, together with a nationaltask force, has set up an MSC supportedESH network, with representatives fromevery established medical school in the UK.The aims of this group will include: toprovide support in implementing ESH, tocollaborate in faculty developmentinitiatives and to share resources freelywhich can be adapted for each of our variedcurricula. A first meeting in March served as anintroduction, and we are looking forward togetting started with faculty support at thenext meeting taking place in June. This network follows in the footsteps of theUniversitas 21 Health Sciences GroupSustainable Development Goals network, an international and interprofessionalpartnership which the University ofGlasgow Medical School has been a part ofsince 2017. The network has established aGlobal Learning Partnership, which takesplace in Nepal, and at which University ofGlasgow students have had atransformative experience every year, as aself-proposed SSC. The network alsoorganises an annual student workshopweekend – it takes place in June inNottingham, and this year looks at big dataand sustainability. The University ofGlasgow is taking five students across theschools of medicine, dentistry and nursing.The network has also created teachingresources in the form of case studies, whichare freely available, and which we use in our“Introduction to sustainable healthcare”SSC. Collaboration, under the guise ofpartnerships, is one of the SDGs itself(number 17), and it is so important and keyto delivering the other SDGs that it is theonly mandatory SDG reported in the TimesHigher Education (THE) IMPACT awards,ranking universities globally based on theirimpact on the SDGs. So let’s celebrate collaboration nationallyand internationally to empower our facultyto deliver ESH, and hope to see the fruits ofthese collaborations in a curriculum nearyou soon!

Teacher educators as knowledge brokers: reframing knowledge co-construction with school partners

ABSTRACT This paper explores the contention that teacher educators are especially well placed to help teachers bridge between practical experience and wider forms of knowledge. In its focus on issues derived from practice, knowledge co-construction and professional judgement, the paper articulates an alternative, but complementary, vision of evidence-informed practice to set alongside prevailing ‘What Works’ approaches. The paper uses the concept of knowledge brokering to analyse the ways that teachers collaborated with one English school of education’s teacher educators in five different projects in the course of a single academic year. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, common brokering mechanisms are identified, yielding a set of principles for creating conditions, boundary crossing and reciprocal working which cut across subjects and age phases. Four distinctive attributes of teacher educators are proposed as part of reframing such collaborative relationships. The paper adds to debates about the need to reconfigure university-school partnerships for professional learning in order to identify more clearly the distinctive contribution of the university teacher educator, respond to the role tensions of teacher educators and support teachers’ critical professionalism.

Metabolizing the Challenges to Partnership: Partner Learning in a University-District Partnership for Leadership Preparation

We describe the contours of one leadership preparation partnership between a university and urban high school district, to demonstrate the affordances that have allowed the partnership to process and weather challenges. Critically, we describe the actual work of collaboration, presenting one extended example of learning-in-action. As such, the article addresses an existing gap in the literature on research practice partnerships, namely how partners can address widespread challenges. Findings suggest that the boundary practice of co-teaching and a “boundary stance” of ontological humility have been critical affordances toward partner and partnership learning.

Konsep Peeragogy Untuk Pembelajaran PAI Yang Bermakna Di Sekolah Dasar

Peeragogy is a learning concept that is based on the thoughts that each person has. Students participate in study groups with their own way or understanding and knowledge so that the learning process occurs easier and better. The presence of learning partners in learning is equipped with different information regulations between students so that they can exchange information which broadens each student's understanding and relationships. Strategy is a set of interdependent parts to achieve desired goals and objectives. A learning strategy can also be interpreted as a model of learning activities which can be selected and used contextually according to the characteristics of the students, the conditions of the learning environment and the surrounding environment that support it, as well as the specific learning objectives that are formulated. Peeragogy is an educational strategy that introduces students to education to focus on learning to work and be creative. The aim of this research is to investigate and describe the application of peeragogy strategies for meaningful PAI learning

External and internal sources of cognitive group awareness information: Effects on perception and usage

Group selection or group formation is an important but difficult task in learning groups. Group awareness tools collect, transform, and present group awareness information to provide learners, but also teachers with relevant information e.g., about potential learning partners. For these educational tools, the value and usage of the provided information may depend on how it is gathered and where it ultimately comes from. In our study (N = 150), we thus investigate how information from different sources is perceived and ranked. In the study, information about the skills of an anonymous person in a profile was either provided by external sources (teacher assessment, knowledge test result) or internal sources (self-assessment). Results show that information from external sources is perceived as more credible and weighted higher than internal self-assessed information. No difference between information from external personal teacher assessments and external non-personal knowledge tests was found. Hence, it is worth exploring possible effects of other external ratings than teacher assessments to see if these insights are transferable to other contexts.

Bringing together multimodal and multilevel approaches to study the emergence of social bonds between children and improve social AI.

This protocol paper outlines an innovative multimodal and multilevel approach to studying the emergence and evolution of how children build social bonds with their peers, and its potential application to improving social artificial intelligence (AI). We detail a unique hyperscanning experimental framework utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to observe inter-brain synchrony in child dyads during collaborative tasks and social interactions. Our proposed longitudinal study spans middle childhood, aiming to capture the dynamic development of social connections and cognitive engagement in naturalistic settings. To do so we bring together four kinds of data: the multimodal conversational behaviors that dyads of children engage in, evidence of their state of interpersonal rapport, collaborative performance on educational tasks, and inter-brain synchrony. Preliminary pilot data provide foundational support for our approach, indicating promising directions for identifying neural patterns associated with productive social interactions. The planned research will explore the neural correlates of social bond formation, informing the creation of a virtual peer learning partner in the field of Social Neuroergonomics. This protocol promises significant contributions to understanding the neural basis of social connectivity in children, while also offering a blueprint for designing empathetic and effective social AI tools, particularly for educational contexts.

Impact of Implementing Serious Illness Conversations Across a Comprehensive Cancer Center Using an Interdisciplinary Approach.

Gaps in communication of end-of-life care preferences increase risk of patient harm. Adoption of oncology practice guidelines advocating serious illness communication for patients with advanced cancer is limited. (1) Increase Serious Illness Conversation (SIC) use across oncology teams via an interdisciplinary quality improvement (QI) approach and (2) assess patient reported shared decision making (SDM) experiences with clinicians engaged in SIC implementation. QI methodology was applied to spread the implementation of SIC across 4 oncology teams. CollaboRATE scores were used to evaluate patient reported outcomes of SDM for patients with advanced cancer. The SIC QI initiative was a component of the Promise Partnership Learning Health System (PPLHS) piloted in the Dartmouth Cancer Center, Lebanon, NH, USA. (1) The percentage of eligible patients with documented SIC and (2) a comparison of a patient reported measure of SDM (CollaboRATE) among SIC eligible patients in encounters with providers who took part in the implementation versus those who did not. Oncology teams screened a total of 538 patients, identified 278 eligible patients, and completed 144 SIC conversations. The teams improved the proportion of documented SIC among eligible patients from near 0% to a collective frequency of 52%. For clinicians' top-box CollaboRATE scores, a chi-squared test demonstrated a statistically significant association between providers implementing SIC into practice and patient reported shared decision making (.16, p = .031). This approach allows for tailoring of iterative improvement cycles to mitigate barriers and improve the practice of SIC among oncology teams.

Strengthening collaborative learning in secondary school: Development and evaluation of a lesson-integrated training approach for transactive communication

BackgroundTransactive communication in collaborative learning environments occurs when students refer to their learning partners' ideas, build on them, and transform them into more elaborate ideas. This learning activity is essential for students to be able to benefit from collaboration, but they need scaffolding to produce transactive statements. From the teachers’ perspective, this intervention should take little effort. AimsWe developed and evaluated a lesson-integrated training in transactive communication for secondary school students, including instructions, exercises, and feedback on transactive communication, materials and tasks on curriculum-related content, and working with various cooperative learning methods. SampleIn a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design, 594 ninth-grade students in 23 classes received training in transactive communication or presentation skills. A complete set of data exists for a parallelized sample of 82 students in each condition. MethodsAt both points of measurement, students worked in dyads, and their communication was audiotaped, transcribed, and their transactive statements and non-transactive, content-related externalizations were coded. Furthermore, students completed knowledge tests about the topic of partner work and reported on their experiences with collaboration and motivation for group work (trait). ResultsAnalyses revealed positive effects of the training in transactivity on transactive statements and experiences with collaboration. Students with the training in transactive communication also produced more externalizations. However, no differences were found for students’ knowledge acquisition and motivation for group work. ConclusionThe training in transactive communication was effective for the collaborative working process, but transfer effects need to be further investigated.

International collaboration and connections through design thinking: A case study of the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation (GCDI)

This paper is based on the collaborative development of the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation (GCDI), and its month-long virtual pilot workshop, the 'Climate Change Design Jam’. The GCDI is an integrated learning partnership between three international universities located in Canada, South Africa, and Sweden, and civil society partners the Vancouver Design Nerds (VDN). Each partner brought unique skills to the GCDI, as new processes and methods for virtual, global student engagement and dialogue were co-designed. The GCDI hosted the Climate Change Design Jam over four consecutive weeks in March 2022. By employing a design thinking methodology, it facilitated online student project development around the interconnected and broad topics of climate change and democracy. Students and student facilitators were guided through the process of design thinking to develop grounded projects that address climate change issues locally and internationally. This paper argues that fundamental principles of fostering genuine connections (both 'online' and 'offline') between students can act as a useful foundation from which project development can be based. Further, this paper illustrates that when faced with 'wicked problems’ such as climate change and challenges to democracy worldwide design thinking methods and collaborative approaches can act as a catalyst for action (Manzini, 2015). Exploring political theory, democracy, and civic agency through dialogue and co-design provides students with innovative approaches to research, critical thinking, and activism. This pilot series provides insight into student engagement across international contexts, and thus the development of cross-cultural and collective intelligence which can be formative for similar projects in the future (Behari-Leak, 2020).