This special issue of Language Learning in Higher Education is devoted to the field of language testing and assessment, an area often underrated in higher education, where other concerns tend to be more in the focus of attention. Our call for papers made clear that our aim was “to cover a wide range of interrelated themes, in theory and practice, such as assessment and self-assessment, formative and summative assessment, performance standards and standard setting, use and impact of tests, tailoring and developing tests for special purposes, backwash effects (desirable/undesirable), quality issues and ethical concerns. Also considered would be contributions dealing with programme assessment and evaluation . . .” In other words, we were inviting contributions from a wider range of perspectives than is often associated with this field. As a result, the 12 articles selected and presented here cover a rather wide variety of issues often more concerned with the users of language tests, i.e. with those who have to apply them, to develop them within their own institutional constraints, and to interpret and defend the results, than with full-time researchers talking to full-time researchers.

Only men can initiate boys into men. Boys are prepared into men by men of integrity, for that reason, when a father is absent a male model has to be found. Lack of models is the number one enemy for our adolescent males in Zimbabwe today. The absence of adult role models means adolescent males are moulded by unsupervised, doubtful and inexperienced peers. In the past the bringing up of a child was a community responsibility. In the present day children are growing up as sheep without a male shepherd. The qualitative and quantitative research methods guided the process of this study. The study revealed that fathers are absent because they have migrated to other countries and that their absence has a negative impact on developing healthy adolescent males. Migration of fathers to the Diaspora could not be resisted by men because of the socioeconomic and political situation in Zimbabwe. Fathers have left the country for greener pastures. The exodus of fathers to the Diaspora has created a vacuum when it comes to mentoring and moulding of male children into adults. The study carried out with adolescent boys indicated that fathers in the Diaspora are engaged in some form of income generating activities. As a result, some of these men are able to provide material needs intended for their families back home. However, the absence of these fathers has made some children feel emotionally abandoned and betrayed, while others are disappointed by fathers who did not bid them farewell at the time they were living the country. There is another group that felt that the absence benefited them. The absence of fathers destroyed father – son relationships, generated anger, bitterness and lack of any future trust with fathers. When children are angered and bitterness resides in them, they would go against their father’s potential assistance. On the other hand, in the process of the study on the absent father, a Christian model of caring for an individual and community emerged. The church has been noted to be the only institution that would guide the society to value the job of caring for the people of God who are in needy situations. When the church cares for the adolescents it will be caring for itself as well as the body of Christ. The author considered the views from James fowler (1981) and Gerkin (1997) on the stages of faith development and the idea of seeing the church as a community of faith in order for this research to portray the community of faith as a Community of Love. This is because it is only by Christ’s love that people are forgiven by God through grace. In addition, it is through love that people are nurtured; miracles of spiritual and numerical growth are realised. Acts 2; bears witness of the power in love fellowships or communities. He states that in sharing the gospel of Christ in love fellowships each member becomes a part of Christ’s body that spreads the gospel. The love fellowships make the church to be more than a preaching or meeting point. It becomes a family where all members have the opportunity to share their experiences at fellowship and individual levels. People will not depend on one person for spiritual growth but on each other for spiritual nourishment. Gerkin was important throughout the research with his pastoral care approach of caring for an individual and the communities of a Christian story in addition to guiding the researcher to create a model for a caring community. Therefore, caring of boys whose fathers are absent requires both individual mentors and local communities to model them. The church has been found wanting by the boys in this study. Boys have indicated that the church was not aware of their pain. This shows that the church was unable to see the depressed and hear the silent voices in order to interpret their situation. This reveals that the church has some parts that need spiritual attention in order for the body of Christ to function optimally. Children will open their hearts in love fellowships in order to be healed, nurtured, sustained and guided through love. Faith will be expressed in a more mature and responsible way when all is done in love. Faith in this study is the act of love that guides individuals and communities to an expression of freedom and responsibility in trusting God’s presence in human situations. It aims at increasing love for one another and to God. For it is only through Christ’s love that healthy memories are created. Chapter one gives the background and context of the problem to the study. It reveals that the motivation to carry out the study emerged from the author’s journey with his father and interactions with young people as a youth pastor. Therefore the socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe created an environment for the study to be carried out. In addition, absences of mothers at church prompted him to consider carrying out a study on the: Absent fathers due to migrant work: Its traumatic impact on adolescent males in Zimbabwe. Many women went to collect money from their husbands who are in the Diaspora each month end . Chapters twodemonstrates how a qualitative and quantitative method of carrying of the research is helpful. Listening to stories of the adolescent males enriched the research process. Chapter three dealt with the stages of human development coined by Erik Erikson with the intention to give the reader an understanding regarding the worth of adolescence stage. Chapter four explains father and fatherhood, the role of a father and impact of absence towards the up bringing of adolescent male children. Adolescent males develop their masculinity from their fathers for this reason every child should have a male model in order for him to be a man. In chapter five the researcher engaged in dialogue with adolescent males. Chapter six gave the concluding thoughts and recommendations to the study. The church has been identified as central in guiding children at individual and group levels in this era. The church should be a component of the extended family that is unique but related to the family units without competing with it. Every son needs a biological father from whom he learns how to manage weakness and strengths in his life and act in response to the challenges of the global village. Therefore, a father ought to be a male person in Zimbabwe who fears God and loves his sons not an angel out of this planet. Finally every adolescent child needs Christian males to guide him for it is through Christ’s love that healthy male memories are created. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / Unrestricted

The purpose of this descriptive and exploratory study was to obtain insight into collaborative partnership trends between educational psychology researchers and teachers, in order to inform participatory theory and practice in future methodology studies. The Community of Practice Framework theoretically framed the study, describing professional communities and the way in which meanings, beliefs and understandings are negotiated and reflected in communal practices. Five symposium and two reflection session presentations were purposefully selected and transcribed for qualitative content analysis in terms of a trend analysis. Findings indicate that collaborative partnerships between educational psychology researchers and teachers differ from other partnerships in that collaborative partnerships between teachers and educational psychology researchers appear to be directed by an overarching philosophy of “care”. Also, collaborative partnership studies between teachers and educational psychology researchers favour methodologies encouraging participation in identifying and addressing school-community issues. In this way, knowledge exchange and the co-creation of knowledge is promoted. These partnerships focus on how education, as well as teacher and learner experiences can be enhanced and be meaningful, rewarding, enabling and supportive. Finally, benefits and challenges in collaborative partnerships between teachers and educational psychology researchers are similar to those experienced by other professionals participating in collaborative partnerships. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Research philosophies and paradigms (RPPs) reveal researchers’ assumptions and provide a systematic way in which research can be carried out effectively and appropriately. Different studies highlight cognitive and comprehension challenges of RPPs concepts at the postgraduate level. This study develops a natural language processing (NLP) supervised classification application that guides students in identifying RPPs applicable to their study. By using algorithms rooted in a quantitative research approach, this study builds a corpus represented using the Bag of Words model to train the naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machine algorithms. Computer experiments conducted to evaluate the performance of the algorithms reveal that the Naïve Bayes algorithm presents the highest accuracy and precision levels. In practice, user testing results show the varying impact of knowledge, performance, and effort expectancy. The findings contribute to the minimization of issues postgraduates encounter in identifying research philosophies and the underlying paradigms for their studies. / Science and Technology Education / MTech. (Information Technology)

This Dissertation-in-Practice introduces a law enforcement concept-to-practice model designed by combining tested methods of organizational analysis often utilized by those in the discipline of education. The model incorporates a two phase design with the first phase focusing on implementing and evaluating innovative changes within a medium size law enforcement agency for a micro-level analysis. A second phase examines the ability to replicate the concept program on a statewide, macro-level, by incorporating a re-design method utilizing organizational resource and structure frames. The concept applied to this model was the introduction of a therapy dog interaction during investigations involving crimes against children to reduce anxiety and increase communication. The first phase concluded that the introduction of therapy dogs during law enforcement investigations had a statistical significance in the reduction of anxiety and increased disclosure rates with child victims, without interfering with judicial policies and procedures. The second phase produced a series of flexible options allowing law enforcement agencies of all types to replicate therapy dog programs that are consistent, cost effective, and sustainable. The overall results indicate the use of this concept-to-practice model was successful in examining and introducing an innovative concept that provided a significant impact in the complex organizations of the justice system.

Syftet med studien har varit att synliggöra och analysera professionen gästforskare. Attkunna bidra med ökad förståelse och kunskap. Vi har utgått från två frågeställningar:Vad innebär professionen gästforskare? och Hur upplever gästforskare sitt arbete ochsin arbetsmiljö? Studien har utgått från ett interpretativistiskt perspektiv med enhermeneutisk inriktning.Studien utfördes vid två institutioner vid Linköpings universitet med en årliggenomströmning av cirka 80 till 100 gästforskare. För att nå en djupare kunskap harstudien antagit en kvalitativ ansats med intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod.Resultatet visar att gästforskare upplever sin profession som både utvecklande ochinspirerande kunskapsmässigt. Det visar även på det engagemang de känner inför sinprofession, sitt arbete, som gästforskare.Nyckelord: gästforskare, Guest Researcher, profession

There is a pandemic of low-value clinical care that threatens the sustainability of our publicly funded healthcare systems. Over 30% of the health services provided to patients provide no benefit or may actually result in harm. Health services research is needed to critically evaluate our clinical practices and programs to ensure we create systems that consistently deliver high-value care. Unlike drug trials, health services research is complicated by enormous heterogeneity across cultures, environments, behaviours and systems. Ideally, local research communities should devise and conduct health services research to ensure that both the research questions and outcomes are relevant to community members, and thus more likely to result in sustainable healthcare systems. Embedded researcher models are emerging as a viable approach to supporting local research activities. Embedded researchers are part of the community they serve, provide research expertise to local investigators and community members, and help develop local research systems that facilitate health services research activities. While they may still collaborate with academic partners, this is not necessary for their research success. This thesis documents the transformation of a large community hospital in Ontario into a learning health centre through the use of an embedded researcher model. The first part of the thesis is focused on the results of incorporating an embedded research plan into the hospital’s new antimicrobial stewardship program. The research that emerges from this work contributes new knowledge about the value of antimicrobial stewardship to important patient outcomes such as reduced lengths of hospital stay and rates of Clostridium difficile infections. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implementation of all the necessary components needed to support a learning health centre and how an embedded researcher model facilitated this transformation and could be used by any similar organization to achieve the same result. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Over 30% of the health services provided by our healthcare systems does not benefit and may actually harm patients. Health services research is therefore a necessary activity required to reduce this waste. In Ontario, over 65% of patients receive their acute care in large community-based hospitals, and yet, these hospitals have minimal research activity and capacity despite repeated attempts by the academic research community to engage these institutions through a variety of collaborative models such as integrated knowledge translation. This thesis provides a blueprint for the transformation of a large community hospital into a learning health centre through the use of a locally created, locally relevant, embedded researcher model. Starting with a proof of concept through the systematic evaluation of an antimicrobial stewardship program, the thesis ends with a ‘how to’ guide for the implementation of the foundational elements needed to support health services research in similar organizations.

Genom utvecklingen av AI sker ett begynnande paradigmskifte inom organisationer då anställda använder sig av AI-verktyg för att optimera sin arbetsprestanda. Användning av AI-verktyg är även något som kan bidra med nytta för akademiska roller inom utbildningssektorn, såsom lärare och forskare. Det är dock oklart vilket stöd dessa AI-verktyg kan bidra till för dessa yrkesroller. Eftersom deras arbetsuppgifter karaktäriseras av hög kvalitetsnivå och hänsyn till etiska aspekter, ställs höga krav på AI-verktygets kapabilitet. Denna studie syftar till att ge en ökad förståelse för acceptansen av AI-verktyget Microsoft 365 Copilot inom utbildningssektorn utifrån lärares och forskares perspektiv. Som stöd för att undersöka acceptansen av AI-verktyget har studien haft utgångspunkt i Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och ostrukturerade observationer erhölls en insyn i lärares och forskares upplevelser med AI-verktyget och vilka möjligheter eller begränsningar de identifierat med dess användning inom sin yrkesroll. Vår slutsats visar att AI-verktyget inte upplevs upprätthålla en nivå som var likvärdig med användarna själva eller liknande AI-verktyg. Vidare finns det även behov av stöd och utbildning för lärare och forskare att använda AI-verktyg, både vad gäller AI-verktygets funktionalitet men även riktlinjer om informationssäkerhet. / Through the development of AI, a new paradigm shift is beginning within organizations as employees use AI-tools to optimize their work performance. The use of AI-tools can also bring benefits to academic roles in the education sector, such as teachers and researchers. However, there is an uncertainty about the support these AI-tools can offer to these professional roles. Given the high level of quality required in these professional roles, as well as the need to consider ethical aspects, there are significant demands on the capabilities of the AI-tool. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the acceptance of the AI-tool Microsoft 365 Copilot within the education sector from the perspectives of teachers and researchers. To examine the acceptance of the AI-tool, the study is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Through semi-structured interviews and unstructured observations, insights were gained into teacher’s and researcher’s experiences with the AI-tool and what opportunities or limitations they identified in using it within their professional role. Our conclusion indicates that the AI-tool was not perceived to maintain a level equal to the users themselves or similar AI-tools. Furthermore, there is a need for support and education for teachers and researchers in using AI-tools, both regarding the functionality of the AI-tool but also guidelines for information security.

Introduction: Academic liaison librarians play a pivotal role in supporting graduate students with their scholarly endeavors, particularly research dissemination. Researcher profile systems (RPSs) are important for promoting academic work; they ensure name attribution and facilitate research distribution. Academic librarians are advocates of these systems and provide support and instruction for them. This article reports on a pre–post survey evaluating a library workshop on RPSs for graduate students, as well as the changes made to the workshop based on the results of the survey. Methods: The authors co-taught a workshop about RPSs six times between 2021 and 2022. Pre- and post-surveys were distributed to all registrants and attendees. Based on the results of the surveys, the authors updated the workshop in Fall 2023. Discussion: Changes to the workshop included a broader discussion of the linkages among RPSs, less discussion about profile setup, and the inclusion of a self-reflection exercise to help students decide which tool(s) to use. The changes led to a refreshed workshop reflective of graduate students’ needs. Conclusion: RPSs are important tools in creating researchers’ online identities. Librarians play an important role in guiding graduate students through these tools to help them promote their work. Using a mixture of asynchronous and synchronous instruction encourages uptake of these tools at a scholarly institution and supports graduate students in their academic development. Further, ongoing workshop assessment is important to keep the material relevant to students. Data Availability: All research data, worksheets, and workshop presentations are available at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F6KAR

Abstract Research indicates that understanding the influence of leadership and partnership development can inform the need to improve public education (Penuel & Gallagher, 2017). Although leadership theory and change theory support the need for partnerships in education, less attention has been given to how such partnerships develop and the role that leadership plays in that process. Therefore, the present study explored the role of leadership within researcher-practitioner partnerships and the process of developing sustainable partnerships in education as documented in a set of federal grant proposals, their final reports, and other descriptions of their efforts. Grant documents examined were awarded from the 2013 funding announcement of the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships (RPP) in Education Research program. In-depth qualitative document analysis provided a means to unobtrusively examine and interpret comprehensive, historical data (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Patton, 2002). Directed content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005; Kaid & Johnston-Wadsworth, 1989) of the documents directed the process of data collection. This process used key concepts from the literature on transformational leadership, shared leadership, and leadership for change as the initial framework for data collection. Data analysis employed Eisner’s (1998) process of educational criticism using description, interpretation, evaluation, and thematics. Hatch’s (2002) process of typological analysis led to four typologies to organize the data for description and interpretation: capacity building; strategies for partnership development; approaches to communication; and the role of reflection in partnership development. The evaluation dimension of educational criticism indicated that partnerships employed shared leadership with evidence of internal and external support and a cultivation of shared commitment. Themes indicated that partnerships focused on both rigorous research and reflective practice, leaders engaged partners in establishing the infrastructure and strategic plans of the partnership, and partnerships galvanized support to address complex social issues beyond their formal organizational structure. Recommendations for future research include the need: (a) to explore the dynamics of communication in partnership work; (b) to clarify and facilitate the process of change in grant and project development; and (c) to develop of a process for sustainability beyond a specific grant or project. Recommendations for practice include the need: (a) to explore the cultivation of relationships in support of partnership development; (b) to identify clearly the primary issue to be addressed in the work of the partnership, and (c) to clarify mutual outcomes. Conclusions from the present study indicate the importance of a focus on the deliberate development of the researcher-practitioner partnerships themselves, the importance of concrete strategies for sharing leadership, and the importance of the development of professional relationships that support sustainability in partnership development.