Sustainable community health improvement often requires the implementation of complex interventions in complex systems. Drawing from the "Four Keys to Success" frame (theory, implementation, support, and evaluation), this article describes how we used a formative evaluation approach to foster a learning system capable of monitoring and…

Background: In healthcare, bridging the research-to-practice gap is a top priority. Knowledge mobilisation scholars suggest that this gap can be closed through collaboration between knowledge users and producers. The concept of boundary objects--shared things and ideas that enable communication--has gained popularity across various collaborative…

In April 2019, the Australian Government's well-regarded Endeavour Leadership Program was quietly scuttled. Since 2003, the Endeavour program (previously known as the Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships program) had supported Australian postgraduate students, researchers and career professionals to study overseas. It also brought talented…

Using a mixed model, we evaluated effects of national 4-H hippology and livestock skillathon contests on youths' content knowledge, 21st century skills, and postsecondary plans. Hippology participants gained significant knowledge in all topics except breeds, and livestock skillathon contestants gained significant knowledge in all topics. The…

This paper investigates the impact of the "adopt a school initiative" at a primary school that has been adopted by a private organisation in a small village in the vicinity of the university at which the researchers are based as employees. The government of Botswana through its Education Hub embarked on an initiative to involve private…

Eradicating homelessness is one of the most pressing challenges for efforts aimed at equity and social justice in the world. Many people who experience homelessness have histories of violence, growing up in child protection institutions, involvement in criminal activities, and mental and health problems connected with substance abuse. Homelessness…

Starting this Parliament, the United Kingdom (UK) Government is providing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) for a new National Skills Fund (NSF) to help adults learn valuable skills and prepare for the economy of the future. The NSF builds on extensive user research and engagement with local…

This paper reports on final findings from phase 1 of a national program of 22 regional networks. This paper presents the overall period for nine networks with three measurements in time. The analysis in this paper draws on quantitative as well as qualitative data. The analysis of the qualitative data show that exchanges of knowledge between…

A multiple-case study design explored how middle school-level expert makerspace educators assess the people, resources, and activities in their spaces. Broadly put, the maker movement is a social movement that brings together a community of people (makers) who share an interest in creating (making) projects in collaboration with other makers in a…

Purpose: One of the means to enhance the employability skills of tertiary graduates transiting into the job market has been the compulsory national service instituted by the Government of Ghana. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the contribution of the mandatory national service to enhance the employability of tertiary graduates…

The proposed creation of a National Education Service (NES) for England offers us the possibility of a decisive break from the market paradigm, where education is seen as a commodity in mainly economic terms and where individual and institutional competition are regarded as the drivers of improvement. Is the advocacy of an NES by the Labour Party…

There have been recent calls for a royal commission (RC) on the British National Health Service (NHS). This article focuses on the impact of RCs and similar advisory bodies, particularly on finance recommendations, of three inquiries with broad remits across the whole of the NHS from very different periods: Guillebaud (1956); Royal Commission on…

In Australia, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was rolled out in pilot sites in 2013. This article reports a formative study conducted with qualified preschool teachers in one site in a context of change. The NDIS has been hailed in the media as a bold move to deliver more choice of services to people with disabilities and…

Do nudge interventions that have generated positive impacts at a local level maintain efficacy when scaled state or nationwide? What specific mechanisms explain the positive impacts of promising smaller-scale nudges? We investigate, through two randomized controlled trials, the impact of a national and state-level campaign to encourage students to…

We greatly appreciate the thoughtful participation of the early childhood educators whose contributions to the project were invaluable. Working collaboratively with colleagues from eight institutions across the country on the "Snail Project" has enriched our perspectives on childcare in Canada and we are grateful for the opportunity to…