Farmers’ intention to use text messaging for extension services in Trinidad

Purpose: The effectiveness of new extension approaches hinges on farmers’ willingness to adopt innovative ways to interact with extension. Therefore, this study explored farmers’ willingness to use mobile text messaging for two-way interactions with Ministry Extension officers.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study followed a correlational design and survey data were conveniently collected from 200 farmers of Trinidad.

Findings: Findings showed most farmers of the sample knew how to send and receive text messages, and many owned Internet-enabled smartphones. In addition, most farmers were willing to communicate with extension officers through text messages.

Practical Implications: Ministry Extension should revisit and revise their policies of communicating with farmers. Administrators should encourage extension officers to use SMS to respond to farmers’ requests and information needs.

Theoretical Implications: While the UTAUT provided an appropriate framework for understanding farmers’ use of text messaging, researchers should tailor the moderator variables to the country’s context.

Originality/Value: This study is the first to look at farmers’ willingness to use two-way information communication technologies in Trinidad. Results showed there is potential for Ministry Extension to use text messaging to communicate with farmers.     

Evaluating the effects of interactive innovations at farm level: the potential of FADN

Purpose: This study explores the potential of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) to assess the technical, economic and environmental effects of cooperative innovation projects at farm level.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The analysis of the FADN potential relies on the classification of innovations and the co-identification, through the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach, of the most relevant indicators for tracking and assessing the performances of innovations and attributing to them the effects of a specific innovation.

Findings: The study shows that the FADN has a certain range of useful indicators and that they have a good coverage of the different types of innovation. Furthermore, the farm visits let emerge the importance of participatory approaches to capture the different changes and interplays occurred in farming processes.

Practical implications: The paper lays the foundations for the adaptation of the current methodology for data collecting and provides useful insights concerning the overcoming representativeness claims, costs’ issues, and problems related to the observation time limit.

Theoretical implications: The paper reveals the importance of participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches in helping the collection of more robust and relevant account data on farm, as well as in attributing certain results to a specific innovation and recognising synergies and side-effects of cooperative processes.

Originality/Values: The paper provides some recommendations on how to enlarge the scope of the FADN survey in order to be used effectively in the analysis of the performance of cooperative innovations at farm level.     

Becoming an agricultural advisor – the rationale,the plan and the implementation of a model of reflective practice in extension higher education

Purpose: This paper argues the rationale for a model of reflective practice in the formation of young agricultural advisors and to use this model to inform a wider discussion on the importance of the different levels of reflection in agricultural extension higher education.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a model of four reflective practice modules conceived as successive building blocks in the professional development of a reflective agricultural advisor and examines the model through the lens of theory and the lens of experience of the first cohort of students to complete the programme.

Findings: Experiential learning with structured critical reflection is shown to support the integration of knowledge gained into new professional identities as agricultural advisors.

Practical Implications: Curricula for higher education in agricultural extension need to be revitalised and refreshed to address the mismatch between the emphasis on the social dimensions of extension in the literature and the general lack of attention to this in the education and formation of agricultural advisors.

Theoretical Implications: The paper presents a model of reflective practice that draws on experiences in other professions that could be applied to early career and continuing professional development for agricultural advisors.

Originality/Value: By presenting a model for reflective practice, the author intends to stimulate a wider discussion on the importance of the different levels of reflection in agricultural extension higher education.     

Some Aspects of Special Education in Singapore

The Special Educational provision in Singapore for children with disabilities has progressed considerably since the first voluntary group began in 1947.

By mid-1986, there were 12 special schools catering for some 2,000 pupils; intellectually disabled, educationally subnormal, hearing impaired, visually handicapped, cerebral palsied and multiple handicapped. All these schools are run by Voluntary Associations with Government support in terms of funds, buildings and some teachers.

However, an analysis of prevalence figures indicates a possible shortfall in the numbers of disabled children actually attending special schools, and an over-concentration of these schools in one part of Singapore which might deter some parents from sending their children to the appropriate special school.

One major improvement in the quality of Special Education has been the systematic training (since 1984) of the unqualified Association teachers at the Institute of Education on the Certificate in Special Education Programme.

However, there would still seem to be a need for more therapists and para-professionals to support the services offered in the special schools.     

Multi-actor co-design of extension interventions: paradoxes arising in three cases in the Republic of Ireland

Purpose: This paper demystifies the processes, methodologies and outputs of three co-design projects, identifying how and to what extent are aims and principles of the multi-actor approach realised and upheld in the field. Implications from the cases for participatory principles are discussed.

Design/Methodology/approach: A detailed ethnographic account is presented of three multi-actor co-design cases, supporting diverse readers’ interpretations and learnings.

Findings: Three paradoxes were identifiable from the multi-actor processes: (1) outputs can be orphaned when they lack strong identifiers and affiliations with discrete professional communities outside of the co-design team; (2) combining diverse knowledges co-design can generate outputs that are new and strange (rather than familiar and acceptable) to end-users; (3) for Responsible Research and Innovation, co-creating interventions that are challenging (rather than popular) to society may be required.

Practical implications: Awareness of dynamics and paradoxes arising in the implementation of multi-actor co-design supports enhanced facilitation of processes and impacts of outcomes. Together, the paradoxes highlight the critical importance of communications and engagement initiatives across diverse communities in the aftermath of co-design efforts.

Theoretical implications: Although co-design processes are case-dependent, reflexive accounts of how they play out contribute to the body of knowledge of how co-design may be better understood. The cases in this paper identify paradoxes with implications for principles and theory of multi-actor co-design.

Originality/Value: This paper presents a detailed account of three unique co-design processes. Practical and theoretical implications of the cases are identified.     

Exploring youth engagement in agricultural development: the case of farmers’ children in the Philippines as rice crop manager infomediaries

Purpose: This paper explores the intersections between community development and youth development in an initiative that mobilized farmers’ children as Rice Crop Manager (RCM) infomediaries (information mediators). RCM is an ICT-enabled nutrient management application.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study engaged 30 farmers’ children in high school level from the provinces of Pangasinan, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Bukidnon, and Davao del Norte from November 2016 to October 2017. They interacted with the research team (the authors) and the RCM-SMS platform that sends text messages regarding fertilizer recommendations. A staff member from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) also called the students for some follow-up questions. The research team conducted three rounds of interviews with the students concerning the messages and calls that they received and what they did with the information.

Findings: This study finds that farmers’ children can perform infomediary roles quite effectively. Academically excellent children and those involved in farm work performed best.

Practical Implications: The study provides guidance on similar initiatives tapping young people in agricultural development.

Theoretical Implications: This paper finds that while Community Youth Development (CYD) Theory provides a powerful lens in understanding community and youth development intersections, some identified outcomes may overlap and may not be very easy to observe. Hence, the identified outcomes may be revisited for clarity and to make them more all-encompassing.

Originality/Value: The paper documents actual parent-child interaction when the latter is mobilized to serve as an infomediary to access nutrient management-related information on rice.     

The importance of supporting technological knowledge in post-primary education: a cohort study

Background: Substantial research highlights the differences between scientific and technological knowledge. Considering that learning is heavily focused on the acquisition of knowledge, it is important to examine the individual and systematic implications of these types of knowledge.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact on overall educational performance as a result of engaging with technology subjects at post-primary level.

Sample: A five year cohort study was designed to gather longitudinal data from a total sample of 1761 pupils’ grades from the Irish Leaving Certificate examination. The sample was distributed across four schools.

Design and methods: Grades from the Irish Leaving Certificate were selected because the examination is considered high stakes as it serves as the country’s primary mechanism for matriculation into third-level education. Individual examinations are designed externally to schools by a government body ensuring the validity of each examination in capturing the holistic interpretation subject syllabi. Finally, a points system is used to score each examination facilitating comparisons between subjects.

Results: The results show that pupils who study the technology subjects are statistically significantly less likely to perform well overall in comparison to pupils who study science and mathematics subjects. They also show that for pupils who study the technology subjects, those subjects are statistically significantly likely to be their best performing subjects.

Conclusions: Due to the array of variables impacting subject selection, a definitive causal explanation cannot be deduced from the data for these results. However, it is possible to infer that the variance in knowledge types between the science and technology subjects has an impact on the results. A case is made that a compulsory technological component should be incorporated into educational curricula to provide a comprehensive and general education and to facilitate the holistic development of pupils.     

Modifying the farmer field school method to support on-farm adaptation of complex rice systems

Purpose: Complex rice systems (CRSs) are polycultures of plants and animals that enhance ecological processes contributing to sustainable and profitable farming systems. However, the contextual management complexity can hamper adoption, despite the large long-term benefits that CRSs offer. This paper aimed to provide a method that encourages active farmer involvement and integrates farmer’s feedback to deliver timely adaptations to CRS management.

Design/methodology/approach: FFSs that are commonly used in guiding rural development processes involve a long process of preparation, weekly meetings and dissemination of new technologies with a greater knowledge flows from researchers or institutions to farmers than contrariwise. We have simplified FFS components and modified its curriculum focusing on extracting and integrating farmers’ feedback into adaptation measures. Surveys were conducted and their results were validated through focus group discussions, which provided an adequate database to simplify the steps in the FFS approach.

Findings: Only four meetings for agroecosystems analysis that emphasised an analytical and reflective learning cycle generated suitable adaptation measures selected from farmers’ feedback. Repetition of the shortened FFS over several rice cropping cycles proved more effective than the frequent meetings within one cropping cycle.

Practical implications: The modified FFS could be considered as a promising approach to training farmers, whilst simultaneously identifying and discovering adaptations of agricultural innovations and monitoring the evolution of complex polycultures like CRSs, under diverse conditions.

Theoretical implications: The modified FFS provides participants additional time to reflect on the training topics, resulting in a significant improvement in their knowledge and the performance of the CRS.

Originality/value: The modified FFS approach is focused on reflexive learning cycles and adaptation of innovations. Therefore, it is highly suitable for management of complex polycultures such as CRSs.     

The Professional Development of Adult Educators: Some Structural and Methodological Considerations

The case is stated for a scheme of professional training for adult educators, which should at once be

_____ comprehensive and unified;

_____ able to take into account the particular possibilities of individual adult educators; and

_____ easily adjustable to the particular needs within the community.

Such a scheme can only be realized through the application of a modular structure. A scheme like this is being developed at Gwent College of Higher Education for a professional training programme which will give a Certificate in Continuing Education, conferring full teacher status in adult and further education. This development is used to illustrate the points the author wants to make. The development of a programme on such a scheme raises considerable structural and methodological problems, which are discussed and compared with what is done elsewhere.     

Perception of teaching competencies by administrators,faculty and students of Indian agricultural universities: an assessment of faculty training needs

Purpose: The study aims at finding out relevance and knowledge levels of selected teaching competencies as perceived by educational administrators, faculty and students, in order to assess the training needs of faculty of agricultural universities.

Methodology: Relevance and knowledge levels were tested through a teaching competency questionnaire developed and run on 292 respondents fitting into administrator, faculty and student groups. Needs Assessment Model by Borich [1980. “A Needs Assessment Model for Conducting Follow-up Studies.” Journal of Teacher Education 31 (3): 39–42] is used to identify training needs.

Findings: Results indicate differences in perceptions among groups towards teaching competencies. Prioritized training needs were identified which provide the content and direction for the development of faculty in-service educational programmes.

Practical implications: Faculty of agricultural universities need periodic in-service training programmes in order to improve their teaching competencies so that they become effective and competent teachers in the present educational environment.

Theoretical implications: The statistically validated methodological framework provides for capturing the perception of all stakeholders on the teaching competencies among the faculty members of Agricultural Universities in India, and offers a scope for scaling up the study for similar educational setting in the region.

Originality/value: The perception of students and administrators was also considered along with the self-perception of faculty about the relevance and knowledge levels of teaching competencies.     

Using the theory of planned behaviour framework to understand Tasmanian dairy farmer engagement with extension activities to inform future delivery

Purpose: To identify and understand factors influencing farmers’ decisions to engage with extension activities. To understand farmer segments and how these factors vary in order to develop recommendations for future extension delivery.

Methodology: Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Tasmanian dairy farmers. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework was used to identify and explore factors influencing farmer engagement intentions and behaviour.

Findings: There was a negative effect of social influence on experienced farmers’ intention to re-engage with extension, due to the belief extension activities were targeted to less experienced, younger farmers. Perceived control factors limiting engagement included lack of confidence about existing knowledge, resulting in farmers perceiving extension activities as confronting.

Practical implications: Key factors influencing intention to engage and continued engagement with extension were identified. These findings will inform future design and targeting of extension activities to improve initial and continued engagement. Subsequent recommendations are presented.

Theoretical implications: Previous TPB studies on adoption as an outcome of extension have typically focused on quantifying adoption predictions, rather than exploring how social factors interact and influence intentions and behaviours. This paper demonstrates how the TPB can be qualitatively applied to better understand farmer decision making, in this instance with respect to their initial and continued engagement with extension.

Originality/value: This paper demonstrates how the TPB can provide an evidence-based framework to qualitatively explore farmer intentions and behaviour. This approach has led to new insights into farmer decision making that will inform improvements in future extension development.     

The Draw-a-Scientist Test in an African context: comparing students’ (stereotypical) images of scientists across university faculties

Background: People’s perceptions of scientists have repeatedly been investigated using the Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST). The test is used to identify people’s (stereotypical) images of scientists, which might affect attitudes towards science and science-related career choices.

Purpose: The current study has two goals. (1) Applying the DAST at a university in South Africa, the study will add to the existing research literature through its Southern African context. (2) The study will also look more closely at the link between (stereotypical) images of scientists and science-related career choices.

Sample: The DAST was applied to first-year students (n = 445) across different faculties at a South African university. If the assumption that young people’s perceptions of scientists influence their career choice is correct, one would expect differences in the drawings made by students who have opted for different fields of study.

Design and methods: The DAST was administered during orientation week of the first-year students in January 2017. Students were provided with a prepared blank sheet of paper and asked to draw a scientist and to fill in further information on the back of the paper. A content analysis applying the DAST checklist was used to analyse the images.

Results: The findings show that South African students use about four stereotypical indicators when drawing a scientist, and social science students drew stereotypical attributes more frequently when compared to students from other faculties. A typical scientist – as depicted in this study – is a man of uncertain age, who wears eyeglasses and a lab coat, and is surrounded by laboratory equipment.

Conclusions: Findings are largely in line with the international research literature. To challenge gender stereotypes, more contact between students and female role models might be essential. If (stereotypical) images really affect science-related career choices deserves further attention in future research studies.     

Motivational patterns in STEM education: a self-determination perspective on first year courses

Background: The high rates of attrition in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes causes concern over a future shortage of graduates entering STEM careers. Students’ first year experiences critically affect their motivation and are therefore also critical components of students’ academic success in terms of retention, learning and subsequent performance.

Purpose: This study explores STEM students’ encounters with an interdisciplinary first year. Specifically, motivational patterns towards learning in two introductory courses followed by students from multiple study programmes are investigated.

Sample: 173 Danish undergraduate students enrolled in three science programmes: biomedicine; biochemistry and molecular biology; and physics.

Design and methods: Within the framework of Self-Determination Theory, a measure of autonomous and controlled motivation forms the basis for quantitative analyses (n = 173). A qualitative thematic analysis of students’ open responses further supplements and gives nuance to the findings.

Results: The motivational pattern of physics students is found to differ significantly from that of biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) students and biomedicine students. The comments reveal that some students struggle to realise the relevance of the course content for their chosen study programme to an extent that makes them reconsider their study choice.

Conclusions: The study offers input to the discussion of how to present inter- and/or multidisciplinarity to students and points to implications on two levels: curriculum design and course content. The findings are of importance to educational planners, decision-makers and teachers dealing with the motivational range that exists within their courses.     

Entering the occupational category of ‘Farmer’: new pathways through professional agricultural education in Ireland

Purpose: Understand the emergence of new potential career trajectories in the liberalised Irish dairy farming sector through analysis of the narratives of students of a Professional Diploma in Dairy Farm Management

Design/methodology/approach: A review of the literature highlights that entry to a working life in agriculture has been characterised by protracted farm succession processes; a strong association between being a farmer and owning land in the family name; lingering male identities esteeming manual labour; and a pragmatic need at farm level for manual work. The abolition of milk quota in 2015 was predicted to catalyse expansion of production on dairy farms with an increase in milk production; accompanied by a demand for qualified personnel. The BNIM method was employed.

Findings: Results confirm that agricultural education is perceived and experienced as offering new pathways for young farmers to enter the occupational category of ‘farmer’, helping to manoeuvre around the constraints of non-inheritance. The students’ narratives evidenced managerial identities, being strongly influenced by encountering management approaches through their agricultural education. All students desired to eventually own a farm someday and to be to employed as a professional dairy farm manager was a perceived as an intermediary goal.

Practical implication: Discontinuation of the traditional family farming model based on family farm/land ownership is not imminent even among a cohort qualified to become employed dairy farm managers.

Theoretical implication: This paper contributes to theoretical framework which highlights the shift in farmer masculine identity and the career trajectory of graduates of specialised agricultural education programmes.     

Exploring the music: a teaching-learning sequence about sound in authentic settings

Background: Research regarding students’ ideas about the nature of sound reveals a variety of conceptions about sound. In order to reconstruct these ideas and explain sound phenomena, researchers’ teaching interventions often make use of everyday-life contexts. However existing research on sound only partially addresses the correlation between the properties of sound and its perceptive characteristics.

Purpose: To identify the evolution of students’ conceptions regarding the nature of sound and its properties (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) through a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about sound phenomena in an authentic musical context. The described TLS consists of three activities aiming students to correlate the properties of sound waves (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) with its perceptive characteristics (pitch, loudness and timbre) via the use of smartphone applications.

Sample: Eight students, in the second year of their studies in the Department of Primary Education of the XXX University.

Design and methods: Students’ perspectives on sound and their progression are investigated through a teaching experiment design. Data are collected by recording students’ interviews. Due to the explorative nature of the research qualitative methods of content analysis are used.

Results: The results show that the students’ perspectives on sound evolved, as students managed to consolidate links between their everyday experience of sounds and the underlying science concepts as frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum. The authentic environment and the use of the smartphone’s applications were key factors for the success of the teaching experiment. The interaction with the activities shifted student’s conceptualizations closer to the scientific ones, by communicating every day sound experiences with their scientific interpretation.     

Story of a Seed: educational theatre improves students’ comprehension of plant reproduction and attitudes to plants in primary science education

Background Although plant reproduction is a core subject in school science curricula, botanical topics are typically unpopular with students. Integrating the arts into science subject matter has the potential to increase student interest and understanding. Educational theatre has shown particular promise in this area.

Purpose The study examined how an interactive theatre performance, where professional actors deliver a performance but invite regular audience participation as a way to promote active learning, benefited both understanding of plant reproduction and attitudes towards plants. Perceptions of the play and the way in which specific elements influenced learning and emotions were examined in detail and placed in a theoretical context.

Sample Opportunity sampling was used to recruit participants from five public primary schools in Devon, UK. One hundred and forty-four students (aged 9–11 years) participated in the study.

Design and methods A mixed methods approach was adopted. Quantitative analysis of pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests involved t-tests and repeated measures ANCOVA. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews made use of an emerging theme analysis with a priori categories.

Results Pre- and post-intervention tests indicated an increase in both knowledge of plant reproduction and positive attitudes towards plants. Follow-up interviews identified elements that were particularly beneficial for learning and enjoyment, including the thematic singing, humour, novelty of the play, visual elements and participatory art activities.

Conclusions This case study demonstrates the potential that an interactive theatre production offers for enhancing appreciation and interest in school science while improving knowledge.     

Students’ views of uncertainty in formal and personal science

Background: Uncertainty is a crucial element of scientific knowledge growth. Students should have some understanding of how science knowledge is developed and why scientific conclusions are considered more or less certain than others. A component of the nature of science, it is considered an important aspect of science education and allows students to recognize the limitations of scientific research.

Purpose: This study examined Grades 5 and 9 students’ views of uncertainty in their personal scientific research and the formal scientific research of professionals.

Sample: This study included 33 students in Grade 5 (n = 17) and Grade 9 (n = 16). The students were recruited from a charter school that emphasised inquiry instruction.

Design and methods: Data were collected through interviews. Students were asked their views of their inquiry-based projects and their views of professional science.

Results: Interview data and statistical analyses indicated that students recognized uncertainty in personal science, which varied across elements of the scientific process. Additionally, their views of uncertainty in formal science tended to change across grades and knowledge of uncertainty in personal and formal science were positively correlated.

Conclusion: These findings offer insights into the processes by which students come to understand uncertainty in science and point to ways of fostering such knowledge through teaching practices.     

Teaching about thermal expansion: investigating the effectiveness of a cognitive bridging approach

Background: It is widely known that for many students it is very difficult to correctly predict how thermal expansion affects the appearance of a metal plate with a circular hole. Interviews with school teachers show that the source of this difficulty could stem from the fact that students’ internal visualizations of an arbitrary object’s thermal expansion often boil down to visualizing changes along one dimension only.

Purpose: In this study, we investigated how students’ mental models about one-dimensional expansion can be extended for purposes of running mental simulations about expansion along two dimensions.

Sample: To that end a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment has been conducted, with 100 students in the control group and 95 students in the experimental group.

Design and methods: Whereas control group students received traditional instruction with a focus on formal representations, in the experimental group the students were led to draw an analogy between heating of a straight rod and a circular rod of same length, whereby the internal structure of the rods was represented by springs.

Results: Eventually, it has been found that students from the experimental group were significantly more successful at predicting the effects of thermal expansion, especially within contexts of objects with holes.

Conclusion: Analogies and extreme case reasoning can be effectively used for helping the students to correctly transfer their mental models about one-dimensional expansion to situations that require reasoning about expansion along two dimensions.