Knowing what predicts discontinuation or success of psychotherapies for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is important to improve treatments. Many variables have been reported in the literature, but replication is needed and investigating what therapy process underlies the findings is necessary to understand why variables predict outcome. Using data of an RCT comparing Schema Therapy and Transference Focused Psychotherapy as treatments for BPD, variables derived from the literature were tested as predictors of discontinuation and treatment success. Participants were 86 adult outpatients (80 women, mean age 30.5 years) with a primary diagnosis of BPD who had on average received 3 previous treatment modalities. First, single predictors were tested with logistic regression, controlling for treatment type (and medication use in case of treatment success). Next, with multivariate backward logistic regression essential predictors were detected. Baseline hostility and childhood physical abuse predicted treatment discontinuation. Baseline subjective burden of dissociation predicted a smaller chance of recovery. A second study demonstrated that in-session dissociation, assessed from session audiotapes, mediated the observed effects of baseline dissociation on recovery, indicating that dissociation during sessions interferes with treatment effectiveness. The results suggest that specifically addressing high hostility, childhood abuse, and in-session dissociation might reduce dropout and lack of effectiveness of treatment.
LINK
Educational programs teaching entrepreneurial behaviour and knowledge are crucial to a vital and healthy economy. The concept of building a Communities of Practice (CoP) could be very promising. CoP’s are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavour (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002). They consist of a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Normally CoP’s are rather homogeneous. Saxion institute Small Business & Retail Management (SB&RM) started a CoP with entrepreneurs September 2007. Typical in the this community, are the differences between the partners. The Community consists of students, entrepreneurs and members of an institution for higher education. They have different characteristics and they don’t share the same knowledge. Thus, building long-lasting relations can be complicated. Solid relations for longer periods are nevertheless inevitable in using CoP as a mean in an educational concept that takes approximately 4 years. After one year an evaluation took place on the main aspects of a lasting partnership. The central problem SB&RM in Deventer faces is to design the CoP in a way possible members will join and stay for a longer period and in a way it ensures entrepreneurial learning. This means important design characteristics have to be identified, and the CoP in Deventer has to be evaluated to assess whether it meets those design characteristics in an effective and efficient way. The main target of the evaluation is to determine which key factors are important to make sure continuity in partnership is assured and entrepreneurial learning is best supported. To solve the problem, an investigation on how a CoP works, what group dynamics take place, and how this can be measured has to be conducted. Furthermoreusing the CoP as a tool for entrepreneurship means key aspects of entrepreneurial learning have to be identified. After that the CoP in Deventer has to be examined on both aspects. According to literature CoP’s define themselves along three dimensions: domain (indicating what is it about), community (defining how it functions), and practice (indicating what capabilities it has produced) (Wenger, 1998). This leads to meaningful, shared and coordinated activities (Akkerman et al, 2007): Key aspects of a successful CoP lie in both hard and soft sides of creating a partnership. It means on one hand a CoP has to deal with defining their own overall vision, formulating long term goals and targets on the short term. They have to formulate how to achieve those targets and create meaningful activities (reification). On the other hand a CoP has to deal with relations, trust, norms and values (participation). Reification and participation as design characteristic can provide indicators on which the CoP in Deventer can be evaluated. A lasting partnership means joining the CoP and staying. Weick provides us with a suitable model that enables us to do research and evaluate whether the CoP in Deventer is successful or not, Weick’s model of means convergence. To effectively ensure entrepreneurial learning the process in the CoP has to provide or enable actionoriented forms through Project-based activity, accompanied by reflection, with high emotional exposure (or cognitive affection) preferably caused by discontinuities to be suitable as a tool in entrepreneurial learning. Furthermore it should be accompanied by the right preconditions to work effectively and efficiently. The evaluation of the present CoP in Deventer is done by interviewing all participants at the end of the first year of the partnership. In a structured interview, based on literature studies, all participants were separately questioned
MULTIFILE
At the 2008 ECER conference Ellström introduced the concept of interactive research. Interactive research often takes place in the context of innovation processes. In this proposal we chose to focus on the context of educational innovation. In contemporary Dutch education, particularly in vocational education, many innovation projects take place in which research is incorporated. As there are no clear-cut answers in how to organize the interaction between such innovation and research, we studied three projects in Dutch vocational education from the learning perspective one can take on the interplay between knowledge creation and innovation (Ellström, 2010)
