scholarly journals From Model to Reality: The Role of Implementation Readiness

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 162-170
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Moroney
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Development Organization ◽  
General Capacity ◽  
Development Practice ◽  
Timely Work

Arnold and Gagnon’s timely work on the 4-H Thriving Model is an excellent example of the application of developmental science in youth development practice. In their article, the authors describe how 4-H, an established youth development organization, updated the theory of change. Designing an actionable theory of change based on science is indeed a commendable effort for any youth-serving organization. However, the work does not stop there. The diverse 4-H system now has the ultimate challenge of adopting and implementing the principles presented in their theory of change. In this commentary, I discuss the often-overlooked components of implementation readiness: motivation, general capacity, and content-specific knowledge (R=MC2) in relation to the 4-H Thriving Model.  When staff are ready, they can succeed in aligning resources and coordinate professional learning for the adults, or implementers, to know and understand the theory of change and associated practices. Fostering learning and development to enact science-informed strategies, as Arnold and Gagnon have done in the 4-H Thriving Model, is critical to developing sound models of youth programming. However, to implement a model into practice, the real and human factors of implementation readiness are key to success.

scholarly journals A Roadmap for Youth Thriving: A Commentary on the Arnold and Gagnon Vision for Positive Youth Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Richard M. Lerner
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Positive Youth Development ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Developmental Science ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
The Common ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Development Practice

Youth development researchers and practitioners have the common goal of understanding and enhancing the positive development of all young people. The work of Professors Mary Arnold and Ryan Gagnon on the 4-H Thriving Model provides a creative and richly theoretically and empirically informed vision for promoting positive youth development (PYD) through integrating youth development research and practice. Their vision is an exemplar of how theoretically predicated and cutting-edge developmental science and the enactment of youth programs can be mutually informative. Drawing on the theory, research, and ideas for program design encompassed within the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) Alliance, which applies developmental scholarship that integrates research from multiple disciplines and underscores the malleability, agency, and specificity of mutually influential coactions between youth and their contexts, Professors Arnold and Gagnon illustrate the features of researchópractice integration that must be enacted for innovative progress in programs aimed at enhancing youth thriving. The compelling roadmap for promoting PYD through the integrations framed by the 4-H Thriving Model will advance youth development practice, developmental science theory and research and, most important, the lives of the diverse young people of our nation.

scholarly journals The Youth Development Workforce: The People, the Profession, and the Possibilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Lynne M. Borden ◽  
Michael Conn ◽  
Casey D. Mull ◽  
Michele Wilkens
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
The People ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
System Approaches

Understanding the role of youth workers and promoting an accurate representation of these professionals and their work requires a focus on current research, practice, and policies that capture the challenges and opportunities of the youth development workforce. An overview of this special issue of the Journal of Youth Development examines efforts to support individual youth workers, strategies organizations use to prepare and assist youth workers, and system approaches to building the capacity of the workforce in key areas such as quality and social emotional learning, and concludes with an encapsulation of interviews with 10 key leaders nationwide. They identified the overarching task as one of identification of the elements that can make the field cohesive across the different settings and programs, while supporting youth in their growth through experiences that are rooted in the science of learning and development. Finally, this special issue offers the opportunity to better understand the youth workers, examine different types of professional development pathways, explore the role that systems can play in support of these workers, and reflect on the challenges and opportunities raised by key leaders in the profession.

Instructional coaches' framing of a mathematics reform

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Higgins ◽  
Ro Parsons
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Development Project ◽  
System Level ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Instructional Reform ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Instructional Coaches ◽  
Reading Reform

PurposeInstructional coaches are pivotal to articulating the agenda of system-wide reform, yet their role remains largely unexamined. Their approach with educators is contextually situated within the schooling system in which they work to reflect the historical and sociocultural system influences. Given the downward trend in New Zealand's international test scores for mathematics, it is timely to review the role of instructional coaches.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors draw on qualitative data derived from interviews with experienced coaches to investigate how they brokered the vision and pedagogy of a system-level reform in mathematics. Using a sensemaking lens we specifically examined the collective stories they employed as explanatory tools.FindingsThe analysis revealed that coaches drew on factors from school and classroom contexts of professional development practice and from collective beliefs about effective practice, alongside the project materials incorporated in the design of the project. System-level stories of reading reform influenced coaches' leadership of professional practice in implementing the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project, a progressively scaled-up professional learning and development initiative designed to improve teacher knowledge and pedagogy.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the critical importance of coaches' knowledge and expertise, the complexity of the implementation process and the coherence of the infrastructure that supports them in instructional reform.

Delegation and Control Revisited

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Honig
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Development ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Entry And Exit ◽  
Country Ownership ◽  
Development Organization ◽  
Workplace Experience ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter traces the relationship between political authorizing environments, international development organization (IDO) management, and IDO field agents, drawing on the empirics presented in chapters 6 and 7. It digs into the experience of working for USAID as compared to DFID. It also extends the discussion of delegation to implementing contractors and brings this book’s theorizing of Navigation by Judgment into conversation with other foreign aid solutions aimed at incorporating local knowledge, such as establishing country offices or ensuring projects have country ownership. This chapter connects Part II’s empirics more tightly to the mechanisms theorized in Part I , particularly the role of authorizing environment insecurity and the need to “manage up” (Chapter 4) and their implications for the workplace experience of agents (Chapter 3) and the entry and exit of personnel.

scholarly journals Behind an Accelerated Scientific Research Career: Dynamic Interplay of Endogenous and Exogenous Forces in Talent Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
David Yun Dai ◽  
Xian (Stella) Li
Keyword(s):  
Professional Training ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Talent Development ◽  
Early College ◽  
Research Career ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Endogenous Factors ◽  
Exogenous Factors ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

This study looks at the educational experiences, from the preschool years to advanced professional training in STEM fields, of a targeted sample of 10 (7 male, 3 female) early college entrants in China who later became professors at prestigious USA research universities. The purpose of the study was to find out (1) what some identifiable endogenous factors were about these individuals that facilitated the success of their accelerated learning and development; (2) what kinds of exogenous factors (e.g., environmental opportunities, resources, support) they experienced from childhood to adulthood that enhanced the successful acceleration experience; and (3) how these endogenous and exogenous factors facilitated their developmental transitions every step of the way, especially from the role of a student to that of an aspiring scientist. These questions are addressed in light of evolving complexity theory. Retrospective interviews were used for data collection. Thematic analysis of the codes from interview data yielded a conceptual map. A distinct set of endogenous and exogenous factors at different developmental junctures were identified, and their dynamic interplay was delineated to account for accelerated trajectories toward a scientific research career. The theoretical significance and practical implications of the study for talent development in science are discussed.

The Role of Preschool Peers in Children's Language Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 088-100
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Purtell ◽  
Arya Ansari ◽  
Qingqing Yang ◽  
Caroline P. Bartholomew
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Preschool Classrooms ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Maximum Benefit ◽  
Recent Attention

AbstractAlmost 5 million children attend preschool in the United States each year. Recent attention has been paid to the ways in which preschool classrooms shape children's early language development. In this article, we discuss the importance of peers and classroom composition through the lens of age and socioeconomic status and the implications for children's early learning and development. We also discuss the direct and indirect mechanisms through which classroom peers may shape each other's language development. As part of this discussion, we focus on exposure to peer language and engagement with peers, along with teachers' classroom practices. We conclude by discussing the ways in which teachers can ensure that children in classrooms of different compositions reap the maximum benefit, along with implications for research, policy, and practice.

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