Research-Practice Partnerships: Learning about the World by Changing It
Friday, May 4, 2018, 12:00pm-2:00pm
About the Talk:
Research-practice partnerships, and similar university-industry partnerships, are a promising strategy for producing high-quality applied research, improving the use of research evidence in decision making, and addressing persistent problems of industry, policy, and practice. In this talk, Drs. Roberta Golinkoff and Brenna Hassinger-Das will discuss how their research collaborations with private industry, state and local governments, schools, and non-profits organizations have contributed to positive outcomes for children and families. Their work can help inspire research to create understanding all while directly improving the livelihoods of those being served.
About the Speakers: 
Roberta Golinkoff, Ph.D., (roberta-golinkoff.com) holds the Unidel H. Rodney Sharp chair in the School of Education, Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the University of Delaware. In addition to over 150 journal publications and book chapters, she has authored 16 books and monographs on language development, playful learning, and spatial development. She founded and directs the Child’s Play, Learning, and Development Lab, whose goal it is to understand how children tackle the amazing feat of understanding their world.
She is passionate about the dissemination of psychological science for improving our schools and families’ lives and with her long standing collaborator Kathy Hirsh-Pasek has also write books for parents and practitioners. How Babies Talk (1999); the award-winning Einstein Never Used Flash Cards (2004) and A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool (2009). Her latest book, Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children is with APA Press and reached the New York Times best seller list in 2016.
Brenna Hassinger-Das, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pace University. Her research examines children’s play and learning in home, school, and community contexts, particularly for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Her areas of expertise encompass executive functioning, early number sense, and vocabulary acquisition. She is particularly interested in investigating the role of play and games for learning. She is committed to translating her research for use by the public through community-based research projects as well as blog posts and commentaries featured in outlets such as The Huffington Post, WHYY, and as well as additional local outlets.
Click here to download a copy of Drs. Golinkoff and Hassinger-Das's presentation.