This volume delivers a selection of papers presented at an international teaching conference on issues of theory and practice. These key topics will be of interest to novice and veteran teachers, policy makers and all education professionals.

Traditionally, human services policy has been made by people whose own lives are unaffected by their decisions. As a consequence, that policy often fails to meet the needs of service users. In this second edition of Connecting Policy to Practice, as in the first, Wharf and McKenzie suggest that a more inclusive process will produce better results. Following a careful examination of current practices, they look at a number of alternative strategies, including shared decision-making, policy communities, community governance, and family group conference.

Children who receive child welfare services are a vulnerable group, and their numbers are growing. All who care about them need to be fully informed about current outcomes, indicators of success and failure, and best practices. This second edition of Child Welfare: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice has a special focus on Canadian child welfare and contains entirely new material on these important themes. The book highlights major developments in child welfare and shows how these inform directions taken in research, policy, and practice. The book includes new sections on Indigenous issues and best practices, and several of its chapters review efforts to increase supports for families in need. Contributions from new and international authors illustrate the endemic nature of child welfare challenges and how we can learn from these experiences. Contributors provide recommendations for promoting best practice and enhancing resilience among children and families. Closing chapters within each section and at the end of the book summarize key theoretical and practice issues along with recommendations to improve the research, policy, and practice continuum in child welfare. The challenge is to translate good research into policy and practice in ways that enhance the life chances of children who need our care and protection.

Connecting Research and Practice for Educational Improvement presents powerful arguments and richly illustrated cases for how more collaborative relationships between researchers and educators can yield more relevant research that impacts practice. This book can be useful for anyone teaching or learning about research–practice partnerships, in both school and out-of-school settings. The chapters highlight the different dispositions and skills needed to cultivate ethical relationships and promote equity through partnerships and provide rich frameworks for guiding future work.

Describes play workshop experiences that give educators a deeper understanding of play-based learning and illustrate the power of play.

This ground-breaking book comprehensively addresses an area of major and sustained concern: how to improve the use of research evidence and enhance educators’ research engagement as a route to the improvement of educational practice. It focuses on the topic of knowledge brokering and mobilization in education, and its role in fostering evidence-informed practice. Divided into three sections, each addressing a different role of knowledge mobilizers, the book is based in clear evidentiary grounding. The chapters: Explore payoffs and challenges of connecting research to practice Provide recommendations in relation to practice and decision-making Present organized and professionally-enhancing tools, strategies and insights Written by internationally-recognized leaders and expert contributors, The Role of Knowledge Brokers in Education brings together extensive and global perspectives in an accessible yet comprehensive volume. This book is an invaluable resource for educational leaders worldwide who are interested in using or generating research for school improvement, as well as researchers, academics, and students in schools of education.

This volume explores how children's rights has influenced research with children and how research can in turn shape policies and practices to enhance children's rights. The book examines the impact children's rights and Childhood Studies has had on how children are constructed and regulated internationally.

Eighty brain-based activities to promote cognitive and emotional development in young children.

Families and schools share a desire for students to succeed but are often perplexed about how to collaborate and support this achievement, especially during the transition to middle and high school. This book will help educators and policymakers identify and implement the most effective strategies to help parents remain involved in their teens’ education. The research in this book looks at diverse families and adolescents from a wide range of backgrounds while considering cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives—including prominent researchers from the fields of teacher education, psychology, and sociology —this authoritative book: Presents new research on family-school partnerships in the unique developmental period of adolescence. Outlines the challenges teachers experience in maintaining communication with families. Offers strategies that reflect academic socialization among African American, Asian American, Latino, and European American families as key factors that promote achievement. Describes how technology can bridge the gap between families and schools in a way that fits with the developmental needs of adolescents. Examines the roles of policymakers, communities, and school districts to highlight developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive policy solutions.