understanding the nature of the problem. This resulted in a final review title ‘Interventions to support looked after children to stay in school’. This was based on young people’s decisions that the review would focus on: education, how to solve a problem, ‘support’ and ‘staying in’ rather than ‘dropping out’.” [Reference 15, page 9] Again developing a logic model for this example, (Fig. 3.), through working in partnership with young care leavers on a systematic review (activity), the researcher heard what young care leavers believe to be most important for their health, their concerns about stigmatising language (learning) as well as the strength of their feeling on these issues. This in turn informed the chosen topic and the focus of the evaluation of the published research findings i.e. influenced the design of the review (behaviour) and its findings (impact). Input Activity Short-term Medium-term Long-term outcome outcome impact Learning Behaviour Culture & conditions Setting up a Consultation on Researcher learns Selection of topic Findings of the group of young the scope of the what’s most and focus of review review addressed care leavers to review important to young the issues of most be involved care leavers in interest to young throughout the terms of their care leavers project health and desired research outcomes Fig. 3. A logic model created using Example 3. While there was an immediate, tangible outcome for the research the changed topic and scope - the researcher also reported how this experience increased her awareness of the bias in language used by researchers in this field. For example, the young people objected to including young offenders within the definition of looked after children, when many of the previous research studies had not made this distinction. Similarly many studies were focused on describing the ‘problems’ of looked after children, rather than seeking interventions to promote positive change in their lives. Importantly the face-to-face interactions between the researcher and the young care leavers, and the reported ‘fierce’ debate, ensured that not only information was exchanged, but also the young people’s values and emotions. Such an exchange led to a significant change in the researcher’s
understanding the nature of the problem. This resulted in a final review title ‘Interventions to support looked after children to stay in school’. This was based on young people’s decisions that the review would focus on: education, how to solve a problem, ‘support’ and ‘staying in’ rather than ‘dropping out’.” [Reference 15, page 9] Again developing a logic model for this example, (Fig. 3.), through working in partnership with young care leavers on a systematic review (activity), the researcher heard what young care leavers believe to be most important for their health, their concerns about stigmatising language (learning) as well as the strength of their feeling on these issues. This in turn informed the chosen topic and the focus of the evaluation of the published research findings i.e. influenced the design of the review (behaviour) and its findings (impact). Input Activity Short-term outcome Learning Medium-term outcome Behaviour Long-term impact Culture & conditions Setting up a group of young care leavers to be involved throughout the project Consultation on the scope of the review Researcher learns what’s most important to young care leavers in terms of their health and desired research outcomes Selection of topic and focus of review Findings of the review addressed the issues of most interest to young care leavers Fig. 3. A logic model created using Example 3. While there was an immediate, tangible outcome for the research the changed topic and scope - the researcher also reported how this experience increased her awareness of the bias in language used by researchers in this field. For example, the young people objected to including young offenders within the definition of looked after children, when many of the previous research studies had not made this distinction. Similarly many studies were focused on describing the ‘problems’ of looked after children, rather than seeking interventions to promote positive change in their lives. Importantly the face-to-face interactions between the researcher and the young care leavers, and the reported ‘fierce’ debate, ensured that not only information was exchanged, but also the young people’s values and emotions. Such an exchange led to a significant change in the researcher’s
A-link-between-learning-and-impact-22-June-17.docx