Research-informed Practice Research Articles

Teaching as a clinical profession: translational practices in initial teacher education – an international perspective

In response to evidence that teacher quality has the greatest in-school impact on student learning, and the consequent need for reform of intial teacher education, clinical approaches to the preparation of pre-service teachers have gained international prominence since the turn of the twenty-first century. This adaptation of medical discourse for the preparation of teachers has presented a new paradigm for teacher preparation and professional learning: a key tenet of this approach is the ‘translation’ and application of theory and research in the sites of practice. This paper will explore the ways in which two clinical pre-service teacher preparation programme, The Master of Teaching at the University of Melbourne and the Partnership Model at the University of Glasgow, utilise clinical approaches to develop the research-informed practice of pre-service teachers working at designated clinical sites (schools). A central aspect of this paper is a discussion of the ways in which the medical metaphor and its consequent models can be effectively translated into different national contexts, and the affordances and appropriations required when undertaking this cross-disciplinary work.

A Substantive and Methodological Review of the Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy Research Program: Clinical Implications for a Research Informed Practice

These authors provide a review of the Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) research program written from the research informed clinical perspective. Research informed clinicians attempt to integrate scientific research into real world clinical practice. Therefore, determining the clinical implications and relevance of the IBCT research program is the focus of this review. The IBCT intervention, developed by Andrew Christensen and Neil Jacobson, integrates the change-based strategies of traditional behavioral couple therapy with emotional acceptance, tolerance building, empathy, and mindfulness techniques. The IBCT research program's research methodology is among the most rigorous in the field of couple therapy, increasing confidence in research findings that have shown IBCT to be a beneficial treatment for highly distressed couples. Because these promising outcomes are founded in strong research methodology, research informed clinicians should be compelled to consider the use of IBCT with those chronically and highly distressed couples who seek treatment in real world clinical settings.

The BE-ACTIV Project: How Research, Professional Training, Education, and Practice Were Integrated in a Single Clinical Trial

This article describes how research, practice, and education were integrated in a National Institutes of Mental Health-funded clinical trial for treating depression in nursing homes. Involving undergraduate and doctoral students in this clinical trial supported the development of key competencies, expanded the professional pipeline, and provided an avenue for disseminating the treatment to other settings. The clinical trial served as a teaching laboratory for sixteen undergraduate and six doctoral students to (1) observe the culture of older adults in nursing homes, (2) develop and adapt clinical skills to a challenging patient population, (3) refine skills for collaborating in multidisciplinary teams, and (4) appreciate the relationship between science and practice. Dissemination of the intervention to nonresearch settings was served when the students took their skills to the settings where they launched their careers. Involvement of trainees in clinical trial research expands and enriches the capacity of the health care workforce in evidence-based practice and practice-informed research.

Delivering the aims of the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care: understanding their strategies and contributions

BackgroundIn 2008, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in England established nine Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs) to develop partnerships between universities and local NHS organisations focused on improving patient outcomes through the conduct and application of applied health research.ObjectivesThe study explored how effectively the CLAHRCs supported the ‘translation’ of research into patient benefit, and developed ways of doing applied research that maximised its chances of being useful to the service and the capacity of the NHS to respond. It focused on three issues: (1) how the NHS influenced the CLAHRCs, and vice versa; (2) how effective multistakeholder and multidisciplinary research and implementation teams were built in the CLAHRCs; (3) how the CLAHRCs supported the use of research knowledge to change commissioning and clinical behaviour for patient benefit.MethodsThe study adopted an adaptive and emergent approach and incorporated a formative evaluation. An initial phase mapped the landscape of all nine CLAHRCs and the context within which they were established, using document analysis, workshops and interviews, and a literature review. This mapping exercise identified the three research questions that were explored in phase 2 through a stakeholder survey of six CLAHRCs, in-depth case studies of two CLAHRCs, validation interviews with all nine CLAHRCs and the NIHR, and document review.Results(1) The local remit and the requirement for matched NHS funding enhanced NHS influence on the CLAHRCs. The CLAHRCs achieved positive change among those most directly involved, but the larger issue of whether or not the CLAHRCs can influence others in and across the NHS remains unresolved. (2) The CLAHRCs succeeded in engaging different stakeholder groups, and explored what encouraged specific groups to become involved. Being responsive to people’s concerns and demonstrating ‘quick wins’ were both important. (3) There was some evidence that academics were becoming more interested in needs-driven research, and that commissioners were seeing the CLAHRCs as a useful source of support. A growing number of completed projects had demonstrated an impact on clinical practice.ConclusionsThe CLAHRCs have included NHS decision-makers in research and researchers in service decision-making, and encouraged research-informed practice. All the CLAHRCs (as collaborations) adopted relationship models. However, as the complexities of the challenges they faced became clearer, it became obvious that a focus on multidisciplinary relationships was necessary, but not sufficient on its own. Attention also has to be paid to the systems within and through which these relationships operate.Recommendations for researchFuture research should compare areas with an Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and a CLAHRC with areas with just an AHSN, to understand the difference CLAHRCs make. There should be work on understanding implementation, such as the balancing of rigour and relevance in intervention studies; systemic barriers to and facilitators of implementation; and tailoring improvement interventions. There is also a need to better understand the factors that support the explicit use of research evidence across the NHS, and the processes and mechanisms that support the sustainability and scale-up of implementation projects. Research should place emphasis on examining the role of patient and public involvement in CLAHRCs and of the relation between CLAHRCs and NHS commissioners.FundingThe NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

Public Safety, Psychological Security: A Practice-Informed Research Study Exploring How California Parole Agents Experience Their Work

The maintenance of public “safety and security” drives the functioning of correctional systems, yet rarely addressed are the ways the individuals who work in such systems maintain their own psychological safety and security. In the tradition of practice-informed research, the author designed and implemented an exploratory, qualitative research study of former parole agents (N = 23) that aimed to understand how they experience their work. Findings suggest that parole agents recognized and held a fundamental tension between casework and law enforcement, were regularly exposed to intense affective experiences that influenced their practices, developed characteristic ways of managing the anxieties and stressors in their work, and found organizational dynamics to be sources of strain and sustenance. This article provides an overview of the study design and findings, as well as their implications for social work practice and practice informed research.

Bridging the Research and Cultural-Practice Gap in Early Language Intervention in Malaysia

“Following the child’s lead” and “collaborative consultation with parents” are solidly grounded in the best practice of early language intervention. However, the success of these two practices are based on assumptions that they are valued by families and that they can be feasibly implemented by the attending speech-language pathologist (SLP). Such assumptions can be unjustified in cultures that value the use of “adult-guided instructions” over following the child’s lead and when the work setting of the SLP does not readily accommodate those practices. This article takes the form of a position paper. Through review of the literature, the paper (1) identifies the research-cultural practice gap in early language intervention in Malaysia; (2) positions the two research-informed practices – following the child’s lead and collaborative consultation with parents, on the continuum of intrusiveness in early language intervention; and (3) proposes the techniques of Milieu Teaching as an approach to bridge the research-cultural practice gap in Malaysia. DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/JSKM-2015-1302-02

Humanistic psychotherapy research 1990–2015: From methodological innovation to evidence-supported treatment outcomes and beyond

Objective: Over the past 25 years, humanistic psychotherapy (HP) researchers have actively contributed to the development and implementation of innovative practice-informed research measures and coding systems. Method: Qualitative and quantitative research findings, including meta-analyses, support the identification of HP approaches as evidence-based treatments for a variety of psychological conditions. Results: Implications for future psychotherapy research, training, and practice are discussed in terms of addressing the persistent disjunction between significant HP research productivity and relatively low support for HP approaches in university-based clinical training programs, funding agencies, and government-supported clinical guidelines. Conclusion: Finally, specific recommendations are provided to further enhance and expand the impact of HP research for clinical training programs and the development of treatment guidelines.

Smart Teaching Matters! Applying the Research on Learning to Teaching RCR.

Requirements for educating the next generation of scientists in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) were published approximately 25 years ago. Over the years, an extensive collection of research ethics educational resources have been developed, most of which are available to the scientific community. We can use these resources to effect change in student learning about responsible and ethical research practices; however, research on RCR educational effectiveness reveals mixed results. Rather than assume ethics education is ineffective, perhaps we should examine whether we are making the best use of these training tools and resources when teaching RCR. Connecting the body of knowledge on how people learn with how we teach research ethics may be a solution to improving student-learning outcomes associated with research ethics education. This essay provides a brief review of the research on human learning and introduces practical tips for connecting evidence-based principles to RCR teaching. Next steps involve RCR educators planning empirical research to support the application of research-informed practices to teaching research ethics.

Alarming the heart: Costume as performative body-object-event

Abstract The word ‘costume’, like ‘design’, connotes both artefact (noun) and action (verb), highlighting costume design as an active practice and activating object, capable of dynamically intervening between the body and space. This article looks to the affective and effective impact elicited by highly performative quotidian garments outside the theatre and how, linked to ancient mythology, human history and current sociopolitical events, they have been critically adopted for live performance. Focusing on the universally beguiling red dress, referred to by Anaïs Nin as capable of ‘alarming the heart with the violent gong of catastrophe’, the costume is discussed as a spatial body-object, disrupting and charging social environments to reveal their ‘evental’ nature: calling up monumental moments, productive aesthetic encounters and multiple daily experiences. This reiterates the complexity of our contemporary condition, in which we cannot separate the theatrical from the sociopolitical: something Jon McKenzie maintains could be understood through the critical tool of ‘performance design’ – a constructive means of drawing upon and critiquing the proliferation of manifold events played out in the new century. Referencing my own research-informed practice (created and often articulated in collaboration with choreographer/dancer, Carol Brown), this article will theorize costumes as spatial body-objects as well as active and activating agents that are integral to complex spatiotemporal webs, particularly in relation to our highly mediated reality.

Toward Intentional, Reflective, and Assimilative Classroom Practices with Students with FASD

The value of research-informed classroom practices is well recognized and thus this qualitative study was designed to explore, from multiple perspectives, the experiences and influences of classroom practices for students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The inductive analysis of 11 focus groups and three interviews involving 60 individuals working closely with this student population—31 teachers, seven administrators, 16 allied professionals, and six caregivers—generated three themes: understanding the whole student, responding within dynamic environments, and optimizing student-centered programming. This study provides an essential step toward better-prepared educators for meeting the learning and developmental needs of students with FASD as well as other complex populations. The implications for developing professional learning opportunities reflective of intentional, reflective, and assimilative classroom practices are discussed.

Towards an inclusive knowledge base for community-based research and sustainable knowledge production

The need for community-based research and knowledge development in municipalities is an unexplored area. This article explores the experiences and views on knowledge production based on a case study in a small municipality. It poses the question of what is relevant knowledge within social work practice framing it from a multi-actor perspective. We argue that by using an inclusive approach ensuring the views and experiences of different professionals, it may facilitate the development of a knowledge-based practice. The data material consists of focal municipality documents and semi-structured interviews with leading actors. These stakeholders represent different domains of practice within social work and the social welfare services and have different positions within the municipality. A conceptual framework of knowledge is used as a theoretical and analytical approach in the study. The results show that this approach serves as a starting point for mapping current interests and needs for knowledge development in the municipality and ensures the different voices of the professionals. The results also highlight the multiple sources of knowledge for developing a knowledge-based practice. We argue that organisational, practitioner, user, policy and research knowledge are all valid sources and must be taken into account in knowledge development processes to be able to contribute to the development of practices and policies. Multiple sources of knowledge can, together with collaborative learning, create a more sensitive and research-informed practice. Furthermore, long-lasting actor–researcher relationships between the university and the municipalities may offer a set of strategies for building a sustainable research collaboration.

An Integrative Review and Synthesis of XBRL Research in Academic Journals

ABSTRACTExtensible business reporting language (XBRL) was developed from an established markup computer language (eXtensible Markup Language, XML). XBRL facilitates data and information exchange between different information systems (IS). This important feature has attracted much research since the early 2000s. This article aims to provide a framework for XBRL research's contributions to information systems (IS). An integrative review is needed to draw an overall picture and canvas key findings regarding the various XBRL topics examined in past studies. Such a review also identifies research opportunities and guides future XBRL research. We conducted thematic analysis using an integrative literature review. A sample of 150 XBRL articles obtained from various peer-reviewed academic journals was used to understand past XBRL studies and suggest XBRL's future research direction. This article identifies and proposes four current XBRL research streams; namely, XBRL's impact on business, XBRL's adoption, XBRL's technical development, and XBRL education. This paper then examines the key findings of these XBRL papers, offers several potential areas where further investigation may be warranted, and suggests XBRL research-informed practices.

Active Implementation Frameworks for Successful Service Delivery

Traditional approaches to disseminating research based programs and innovations for children and families, which rely on practitioners and policy makers to make sense of research on their own, have been found insufficient. There is growing interest in strategies that “make it happen” by actively building the capacity of service providers to implement innovations with high fidelity and good effect. This article provides an overview of the Active Implementation Frameworks (AIFs), a science-based implementation framework, and describes a case study in child welfare, where the AIF was used to facilitate the implementation of research-based and research-informed practices to improve the well-being of children exiting out of home placement to permanency. In this article, we provide descriptive data that suggest AIF is a promising framework for promoting high-fidelity implementation of both research-based models and innovations through the development of active implementation teams.

Integrating Left-Brain and Right-Brain: The Neuroscience of Effective Counseling

Based on emerging findings from neuroscience, the counseling professional can consider a different approach to research-informed by integrating leftand right-brain processing in client care. This new model is commensurate with counseling's historical lineage of valuing the counseling relationship as the core ingredient of effective counseling.Keywords: counseling, neuroscience, evidence-based, effectiveness, right-hemisphere, intuitionDuring the past decade, the field of counseling has considered the notion of identifying effective counseling practices. In 2005, the American Counseling Association's (ACA) Code of Ethics included a recommendation to use therapies that an empirical or scientific foundation (C.6.e). The Journal of Counseling & Development introduced a new journal feature in 2007, entitled Best Practices. In 2009, the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) modified their Standards for addiction counseling (1.3., p. 22), clinical mental health counseling (1.3., p. 34), and marriage, couple, and family counseling (I.3., p. 39) to require that the student knows treatments (EBTs; p. 5). In the September 2012 edition of Counseling Today, Dr. Bradley Erford, the current ACA President, asserted the following in his monthly column:If professional counselors use the best available research-based approaches to help clients and students, then counselor effectiveness, client satisfaction and third-party insurer satisfaction all improve. When professional counselors provide effective services, it also helps our professional advocacy and lobbying efforts with federal, state, and local politicians and bureaucrats, and leads to more counseling jobs and higher pay scales, (p. 5)Erford argues that counselors must use research to inform practice-the public, insurance companies, and clients demand it. Yet until recently, only one approach to research-informed practice has been available to the counseling profession-namely the EBT movement that originated in the field of psychology. Many techniques and theories exist outside of the EBT movement, in addition to other models for best practices such as the common factors movement (Duncan, Miller, Wampold, & Hubble, 2010). Counselors may feel confused about which model to follow. An approach to research-informed practice that is more commensurate with the counseling profession's values and identity is the application of research evidence from neuroscience to inform counseling interventions.Current Direction: The Left-Brain PathwayThe left side of the brain is responsible for rational, logical, and abstract cognition and conscious knowledge. Neuroscientists such as Allan Schore (2012) have suggested that activities associated with the left hemisphere (LH) currently dominate mental health services. This is evidenced by the current reliance upon psychopharmacology over counseling services, the manualization of counseling, a reductionist and idealistic view of evidence-based practice, and a lack of respect for the counseling relationship in client outcomes despite a large body of evidence. McGilchrist (2009) takes this argument further: if left unchecked, the modem will increase its reliance upon the LH compared to the than right hemisphere (RH), with disastrous consequences. A world would lead to increased bureaucracy, a focus on quantity and efficiency over quality, and a valuing of technology over human interaction, and uniformity over individualization. While this dystopia has not been fully realized yet, one could argue that the field's current reductionist and cookiecutter approach to mental health services and reliance on quantitative over qualitative research all point in one direction.To understand the importance of the association between the LH and the current mental health system, the author reviews the history of the counseling effectiveness movement, along with the counseling profession's gradual adherence to this left-brain movement. …

Leadership of schools as research-led organisations in the English educational environment

This article examines the conditions for the growth and expansion of research-engaged schools in England. The current policy climate is seeing a rapid growth of autonomous schools coupled with the continuing tendency to hold schools to account for overall student educational attainment indicators. Within this context, the article begins by considering some of the benefits of developing a research-led school culture and gives a brief account of the research-engaged school movement. Using a biological analogy, the article argues for an understanding of the growth of a school research culture as occurring within an interconnected ecosystem. Four ‘nourishing’ factors are explained in detail: systemic connectedness; leadership for knowledge creation; teaching as a research-informed practice; and the school as a learning organisation. School leaders are urged to consider developing a culture of research engagement as a long-term, sustainable improvement strategy.

The Actively Caring for People Movement at Virginia Tech and Beyond: Cultivating Compassion and Relationships in Residence Halls

A professor and a group of student leaders initiated the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Movement to establish a more civil, compassionate, and inclusive culture by inspiring intentional acts of kindness. This article explores the AC4P Movement in a first-year residence hall at Virginia Tech and a second-year residence hall at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a discussion of the findings. Using research-informed practice, the AC4P Movement on college campuses aims to foster student engagement, sense of belonging, and reinforce shared community values and beliefs.

Practice-informed research

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to introduce a model for practice-informed research and to propose this as an alternative paradigm of enquiry, capable of satisfying the competing demands for research in the built environment to be both academically rigorous, and also relevant to practice. Design/methodology/approach – The model is defined in terms of research whose primary purpose addresses the immediate needs of professional practice, rather than theoretical, policy or other academic concerns, and which also utilizes the researcher's experientially gained knowledge as a methodological device. The extent to which this model is capable of demonstrating the required degree of rigour demanded by the academic world is then evaluated through a review of relevant theoretical and methodological literature. Findings – The model is seen to draw upon the Aristotlean notions of techne and phronesis, and to belong to a long epistemological and methodological tradition associated with the concept of knowledge in action. The relationship between this concept and that of tacit knowledge, as well as emic and ideographic approaches to research are demonstrated. The model is also seen to have particular resonances with recent developments in the arts and design disciplines, in qualitative social research and in aspects of the current discourse surrounding the emergence of the knowledge economy. Research limitations/implications – The paper demonstrates the academic legitimacy of the proposed model as an alternative research paradigm for use in a built environment context. Practical implications – The model presents an approach that has the potential to increase the relevance of research, and to generate an increased level dialogue between academics and practitioners in the built environment field. Originality/value – The paper places the concept of practice-informed research into the public domain for subsequent consideration and debate by members of the built environment research community. The concept's insider and practice-centric approaches distinguish it from earlier contributions to the relevance v. rigour debate. By drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary sources the paper also offers new theoretical insights that have not previously been aired in a built environment context.

Accountable for what and to whom? Changing representations and new legitimation discourses among teachers under increased external control

This article discusses how teachers construct new representations about accountability and professionalism in the context of increased external control. Over the last decade in particular, concerns about the quality of schooling and the quality of teachers has been raised by both politicians and the public alike, while prominent policy responses have seen an increased emphasis on student performance and the external control of professional work. Based on a 1 year long fieldwork in a Norwegian municipality, the findings imply how forms of external accountability are accepted by many teachers as a necessary and desirable development, but also one that is resisted as the policies are seen to downplay the broader aims of education. In this tension of external and internal accountability, however, alternative discourses have developed. In particular, an emphasis on scientific knowledge and research-informed practice becomes an important representation for enhancing professional legitimacy and trust. By opening up the concept of accountability, it is possible to investigate how teachers’ representations of being accountable may take new forms when teacher professionalism is reconstructed in policy.

Observation, Assessment and Planning Practices in a Children's Centre

This paper reports on the research process and findings of a commissioned study of a Sure Start Children's Centre based in the North West of England. The study focused specifically on how child observations were being carried out in the Children's Centre to inform assessment and planning. It was imperative that the research process should not be perceived as something being “done” to staff of the Children's Centre but as one in which there was a willing engagement with a view to making use of the research findings to build on their own practice. The led to the practitioners starting a cycle of action research themselves that informed the implementation of new approaches in the carrying out of child observations. It was useful for the research team to relate this course of action both to a personal and practical dimension so that practitioners could be supported in their own research-informed practice. This study identified that the practitioners are open to new ideas and are willing and eager to explore new procedures to facilitate effective practice. While the current process of observation, assessment and planning that is being followed for individual children is encouraging, it has its limitations because some children may not be observed on a regular basis and therefore information about their current needs, interests and abilities may be missed. The use of observations to assess children's progress is seen by most of the practitioners as a challenge. This study has revealed important insights into the ways in which outsider researchers can inspire early years practitioners to reflect upon their own practice and provision.

Processes and tasks in collaborative writing in engineering: research-informed views and pedagogical applications

Writing plays a central role in the activities that engineers carry out both in academia and industry. Different from other disciplines, in engineering a considerable amount of writing takes place as collaboration between a group of individuals. Despite this recognition, research in collaborative writing (CW) in engineering is rather scant and the available studies are mostly theoretical in nature, with very little empirical evidence. This article reports on an empirical study that examined CW in four schools at a faculty of engineering at a university in the UK. It specifically looks at the processes and the tasks in which engineering students and professionals get involved when writing collaboratively. Based on the findings of the study, the article suggests a number of research-informed pedagogical practices for developing CW in engineering.