Background: We are witnessing increasing demand from governments and society for all sciences to have relevant social impact and to show the returns they provide to society.<br />Aims and objectives: This paper reports strategies that promote social impact by Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research projects.<br />Methods: An in-depth analysis of six Social Sciences and Humanities research projects that achieved social impact was carried out to identify those strategies. For each case study, project documents were analysed and qualitative fieldwork was conducted with diverse agents, including researchers, stakeholders and end-users, with a communicative orientation.<br />Findings: The strategies that were identified as contributing to achieving social impact include a clear focus of the project on social impact and the definition of an active strategy for achieving it; a meaningful involvement of stakeholders and end-users throughout the project lifespan, including local organisations, underprivileged end-users, and policy makers who not only are recipients of knowledge generated by the research projects but participate in the co-creation of knowledge; coordination between projects’ and stakeholders’ activities; and dissemination activities that show useful evidence and are oriented toward creating space for public deliberation with a diverse public.<br />Discussion and conclusions: The strategies identified can enhance the social impact of Social Sciences and Humanities research. Furthermore, gathering related data, such as collaboration with stakeholders, use of projects’ findings and the effects of their implementation, could allow researchers to track the social impact of the projects and enhance the evaluation of research impact.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>The social impact of SSH projects is amplified via a focus and an active strategy for achieving it.</li><br /><li>The social impact of SSH research is enhanced by meaningful involvement of stakeholders and end-users.</li><br /><li>Dissemination leading to social impact is evidence-based, useful, involves beneficiaries and allows debate.</li><br /><li>Tracking the social impact of projects could enhance the evaluation of the impact of research.</li></ul>

No abstract

Access to high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), particularly for disadvantaged children, is critical to ensuring that future learning is more effective and more likely to continue throughout life. A wealth of research has provided extensive information about the key factors that impact the quality of ECEC and improve cognitive and social outcomes. Despite the European priority to make high-quality ECEC available to all children, accomplishing this goal remains a challenge. The present article discusses a specific type of inclusive classroom organisation called Interactive Groups (IGs). IGs were studied in the preschool classrooms of an urban school located in a disadvantaged area of Spain that has high levels of unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. Empirical data from interviews with teachers, daily life stories from mothers and children, and classroom observations shed light on the perceptions of the potential of this particular classroom setting, where children are placed in small, mixed-ability groups coordinated by one volunteer from the community, to benefit children and promote their cognitive, social and emotional development. The findings suggest that this particular form of inclusive classroom organisation can reach children from a minority background while providing high-quality ECEC.

La evaluación en sus diversas formas es un elemento clave en cualquier proceso de enseñanza. Esta investigación se centra en cómo se puede utilizar la evaluación formativa para mejorar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje y proporcionar a los estudiantes comentarios sobre su progreso en lugar de solo calificaciones. El objetivo principal es analizar cómo los procesos de autoevaluación formativa individual, a través de la aplicación Socrative (SA) y los cuestionarios Moodle (MQ), afectan al proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje y si mejoran el rendimiento y la satisfacción de los alumnos. Se ha utilizado una metodología cuantitativa mediante un estudio de caso. La muestra estudiada está formada por 374 estudiantes (315 mujeres) del segundo año del grado de educación. De estos, 245 formaron parte FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AT UNIVERSITY USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TOOLS Evaluación formativa en la universidad a través de herramientas tecnológicas digitales

The Dialogic Inclusion Contract (DIC) consists in an agreement between the scientific community and social agents to define successful actions aimed at overcoming social exclusion in highly underprivileged areas. Taking the case of a Spanish neighborhood that is generating important transformations, this article explores the process of defining these successful actions by the means of contrasting the scientific community knowledge and the one arising from the experiences of the people living and working in that particular neighborhood. The contrast is analyzed through three principles that are part of the Critical Communicative Methodology (CCM): communicative rationality, elimination of the interpretative hierarchy, and considering people as transformative social agents.