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.     

From adoption potential to Transformative Learning around Conservation Agriculture

Purpose: To develop a transformative learning process around the potential for innovation of technologies such as Conservation Agriculture.

Design/methodology/approach: We applied principles of Transformative Learning and Communicative Action theories to design a learning process structured by the Qualitative Expert Assessment Tool for Conservation Agriculture Adoption in Africa (QAToCA). Elements of the process include: agroecosystem health exploration, stakeholder mapping, innovation timeline, participatory video, the QAToCA exercise, and specifying change promotion. We tested this approach with a group of farmers and experts in Koumbia, Burkina Faso.

Findings: The agroecosystem in Koumbia is under demographic, economic, and climatic pressure. Conservation Agriculture has not been successfully integrated into socio-economic realities or implemented beyond a trial scale. The stakeholder mapping showed that dominant economic players and traditional means of communicating are essential to achieve innovation. Past interventions were not coordinated and focused on technical challenges. The participatory videos were rich in contextual information and created process ownership for research participants. The QAToCA provided a structure for lessons learned and suggestions for change.

Practical implications: The learning process may be applied to initiate innovation initiatives in an efficient manner.

Theoretical implications: The study shows how Transformative Learning and Communicative Action theories can be used for agricultural innovation. It also underlines the need for further work on how to address the implicit superiority of the process initiator and the integration of learning in institutional practice.

Originality: Few studies have attempted to design and test learning processes on agricultural innovation based on theories of learning and Communicative Action.     

Exploring the structure of science learning self-efficacy: the role of science learning hardiness and perceived responses to capitalization attempts among Taiwanese junior high school students

Background: Despite the growing body of research on self-efficacy, previous studies have failed to clarify exactly how it is constructed. Meanwhile, the literature indicates that, in Taiwan, junior high school students tend to show lower self-efficacy in learning science compared with elementary and senior high school students.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a mediational model providing the factors accounting for Taiwanese junior high school adolescents’ science learning self-efficacy (SLSE), especially from the perspectives of both interpersonal and intrapersonal factors.

Design: We therefore proposed a mediational model to delineate the relationships among students’ perceived responses to capitalization attempts – science learning (PRCA-SL), science learning hardiness (SLH) and SLSE by conducting structural equation modeling (SEM).

Sample: A total of 1,170 junior high school students in Taiwan were invited to take part in the study.

Results: The results confirmed our hypothesis that students’ PRCA-SL fostered their science learning hardiness, which in turn contributed to their science learning self-efficacy.

Conclusions: The findings confirmed the mediational model wherein science learning hardiness completely mediated the relationship between PRCA-SL and science learning self-efficacy.     

Traversing the context of professional learning communities: development and implementation of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge of a primary science teacher

Background: Professional learning communities are increasingly recognized for their significance in building teachers’ competencies for educational reform. However, the knowledge development cycle of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) through multiple professional learning communities is not well researched.

Purpose: This qualitative case study investigates a primary science teacher’s TPACK development in the context of two interdependent learning spaces: a joint-school and a within-school professional learning community. The school’s organizational and sociocultural influences on teacher learning are also examined.

Participant: Teacher Sean (pseudonym) embarked on a science innovation project after two years of teaching in a Singapore mainstream school. He was tasked to integrate mobile-based inquiry learning and visible thinking pedagogical approaches, and to pilot the designed lessons for a primary three class.

Design and methods: A case-study approach involving multiple sources of data with cultural historical activity theory as the analytical lens was employed, to unpack the complementary and contradictory interactions across different interrelated activity systems. The purpose was to understand the (mis)alignments within and between the two professional learning communities.

Results: The findings indicate that Sean’s (subject) learning from the joint-school professional learning community to the within-school professional learning community faced multiple tensions that hindered his TPACK development (object). He faced difficulty in manipulating tools (technology and visible thinking routines) to translate the joint-school co-designed lessons into classroom implementation. Additionally, the volatility of the school’s organizational routines (rules) and the lack of communicative leader–teacher partnership (division of labor) did not afford sufficient infrastructure or instructional support.

Conclusions: Interactions between the teacher’s personal and contextual factors inhibited the designed TPACK from being implemented successfully. For ambitious pedagogical undertakings as illustrated in this case, more perceptive and synergistic organizational design thinking is needed to support beginning teachers’ TPACK development.     

Networked learning for agricultural extension: a framework for analysis and two cases

Purpose: This paper presents economic and pedagogical motivations for adopting information and communications technology (ICT)-mediated learning networks in agricultural education and extension. It proposes a framework for networked learning in agricultural extension and contributes a theoretical and case-based rationale for adopting the networked learning paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach: A review of the literature highlights the economic and pedagogical need for adopting a networked learning approach. Two examples are described to instantiate the language for learning networks: a small community of farmers in India and large Twitter community of Australian farmers.

Findings: This paper reviews evidence that successful networked learning interventions are already occurring within agricultural extension. It provides a framework for describing these interventions and for helping future designers of learning networks in agricultural extension.

Practical implication: Facilitation of learning networks can serve to achieve efficient agricultural extension that connects farmers across distances for constructivist learning. To realize these benefits, designers of learning networks need to consider set design, social design and epistemic design.

Theoretical implication: This paper contributes a theoretical framework for designing, implementing and analysing learning networks in agriculture. It does this by integrating existing ideas from networked learning and applying them to the agricultural context through examples.

Originality/value: This paper contributes an understanding of the value of networked learning for extension in terms of economic and pedagogical benefits. It provides a language for talking about learning networks that is useful for future researchers and for practitioners.     

The role of inquiry-based self-efficacy,achievement goal orientation,and learning strategies on secondary-school students’ inquiry skills

Background: In recent years, science curricula (chemistry, physics, biology, earth science, life science, etc.) in many countries have been prepared and applied according to the inquiry-based learning approach. Although the acquisition and application of the inquiry skills are one of the important objectives of the science curriculum, the inquiry skills of each student do not enhance at the same level. The inquiry level of the learning environment; the importance and value attached to the inquiry in that environment, students who have different goals when attending to the learning environments, and students who do not get involved in the learning process at the same level can be shown as the reasons of this.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine both the direct and indirect relationships between the inquiry-based self-efficacy, the achievement goal orientation, the learning strategies, and the inquiry skills variables.

Sample: This research was conducted during the 2015-2016 school year among 498 seventh and eighth graders at public schools in Turkey’s Ayd?n province.

Design and methods: The Inquiry-based Self-Efficacy Scale, the Goal Orientation Scale, the Learning Approach Scale, and the Inquiry Skills Test were applied to the students. The analysis of data was carried out through the Multilevel Structural Equation Model (MSEM).

Results: The findings related to the first model did not provide evidence for either direct or indirect effects of the inquiry-based self-efficacy on inquiry skills, achievement goal orientation, and learning strategies. However, findings from the final models provided evidence for both direct and indirect effects of separately inquiry-based self-efficacy and the achievement goal orientation on the inquiry skills through the learning strategies.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential that relations with self-efficacy, achievement goal orientation, and task value theory while improving inquiry skills.     

Can agricultural research and extension be used to challenge the processes of exclusion and marginalisation?

Purpose: This paper examines if and how agricultural researchers and extension officers can see, understand and change processes that exclude some people and influence marginalisation.

Design and methodology: We used participatory action research (PAR) in a programme building sustainable farming practices for nutrition and income in Solomon Islands as our case study. Two qualitative PAR data streams were analysed: (i) documentation of community activities over three years including action planning, learning activities, training workshops, focus group discussions, key informant and informal interviews and (ii) documentation of the research teams’ own learning and reflection sessions.

Findings: Agricultural research and learning activities facilitated through PAR can help researchers and extension officers see, understand and challenge processes that cause social exclusion and marginalisation and lead to inequitable access to agricultural opportunities. A combination of (i) starting with a collective vision; (ii) facilitating systematic reflection exercises; and (iii) having locally tuned facilitators creating safe spaces; makes processes of social exclusion tangible, discussable and ultimately actionable, illustrating the potential of the research and extension processes to facilitate social change in real time.

Theoretical Implications: The paper makes a contribution to the growing body of theory and literature on innovation systems and people-centred approaches to agricultural development, by highlighting the facilitation challenges and opportunities that can create more learning focused and power-aware agricultural programming.

Practical Implications: Our approach, examined in this paper, can improve implementation of policies such as the Solomon Islands Agriculture and Livestock Sector Policy (2015–2019), which aims for active participation of women and youth in agricultural development.

Originality: Using a PAR approach to discover how agricultural research and extension activities can help transform the processes that cause social exclusion and create disadvantage and marginalisation.     

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.     

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.     

Students’ attitudes towards online pre-laboratory exercises for a physics extended curriculum programme

Background: Students’ well preparedness for laboratory sessions is of importance for a number of reasons including them being able to engage in and learn from the session and in acquiring the necessary laboratory skills needed for the scientific community and for possible further work in industry. To enhance the preparedness of the students an online environment was designed, developed and implemented in a structured logical manner.

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate student perceptions in a Science Extended Curriculum Program (ECP) of both the traditional pen and paper method they used in 2016, and the new online resource method they used in 2017 to better prepare them for Physics laboratories, and to compare the two methods.

Sample: N = 51 students from a first-year Extended Curriculum Programme in physics at a South African university voluntarily participated in this study.

Design and methods: The research was conducted using two non-standardised structured questionnaires where the enrolled ECP students were asked both open-ended – and closed questions (using a Likert response scale). Google Forms using graphs assessed these responses. An additional source of data was iKamva/Sakai which is the University of Western Cape’s institutional Learning Management (LMS) system, which allowed for detailed information regarding online activities.

Results: Four main research questions focussing on preparedness, time spent, lab activities and online resources were identified. Findings from these suggest that an introduction of an online environment positively affected the students’ perceptions of the online environment for pre-laboratory preparation in comparison with using traditional pen and paper.

Conclusions: The present study has successfully managed to both reveal that the introduction of online environment for Physics laboratories brought about some positive benefits as perceived by the students, as well as fruitful avenues for future research. While more work is needed, in terms of research and continuing evaluation of eLearning in Physics education, there is reason to be positive in terms of renewed emphasis to add blended learning within the broader Physics learning and teaching communities.     

Actor social networks as knowledge sharing mechanisms in multi-stakeholder processes: a case of coffee innovation platforms of Uganda

Purpose: This study examined knowledge sharing mechanisms in coffee IPs and their effect on actor linkages in four districts of Uganda.

Design/methodology/approach: Thirty one respondents from the public and private sector were interviewed using a qualitative approach. Data were analyzed using the Atlas ti qualitative software version 7.5.18 to generate themes for information sources, types and channels. Social network analysis was used to measure the actor centrality positions and influence in the IP network.

Findings: Results revealed seven main categories of actors in the Coffee IPs who shared information on coffee inputs, agronomic practices, processing and markets through three main channels. Level of cohesion was less than 10% which had negative implications on the knowledge flow, trust and collaboration among the actors. Influential positions were occupied by the processors and farmer leaders in IPs in the southern districts of Luwero and Rakai, while nursery operators were most influential in IPs of the western districts of Ntungamo and Bushenyi. Weak linkages within the social networks indicated that initiatives of the actors were fragmented, as each actor acted as an individual detached from the platform activities limiting inter-actor knowledge sharing.

Practical implications: Innovation intermediaries should focus on integrated systemic and innovative approaches to strengthen actor social linkages for knowledge sharing and better platform performance.

Theoretical implications: Actor positions and relationships in innovation networks are critical tenets for fostering knowledge exchange and performance. In an innovation platform, diverse actors are multiple sources for accessing information within a given social and institutional context.

Originality/value: The study contributes to existing debate and knowledge on institutional change in agricultural innovation systems.     

Modelling achievement in advanced computer science: the role of learner characteristics and perceived learning environment

Background and Context: Understanding the effects of learner characteristics and perceived learning environment on achievement in academic fields including Computer Science (CS) is of critical importance.

Objective: This study aimed at testing a hypothesized model of achievement in CS in terms of the learner and the learning environment characteristics.

Method: Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a random sample of 315 eleventh and twelfth-grade advanced CS students (28% girls). Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was utilized to test the proposed structural model.

Findings: The hypothesized structural model fits the data reasonably, yet five of the 17 assumed effects were not significant. A modified model with only significant effects fit the data well and accounted for 41% of the variance. Mathematics achievement, self-efficacy and classroom learning environment are the most influential variables on achievement in CS.

Implications: The findings bear important implication for helping students by resolving obstacles that obstruct their learning and achievement.     

The effects of first programming language on college students’ computing attitude and achievement: a comparison of graphical and textual languages

Background and Context: The relationship between novices’ first programming language and their future achievement has drawn increasing interest owing to recent efforts to expand K–12 computing education. This article contributes to this topic by analyzing data from a retrospective study of more than 10,000 undergraduates enrolled in introductory computer science courses at 118 U.S. institutions of higher education.

Objective: We explored the relationship between students’ first programming languages and both their final grades in an introductory computer science course and their attitudes about programming.

Method: Multiple matching techniques compared those whose first language was graphical (e.g., Scratch), textual (e.g., Java), or absent prior to college.

Findings: Having any prior programming experience had positive effects on both attitudes about programming and grades in introductory computer science courses. Importantly, students whose first language was graphical had higher grades than did students whose first language was textual, when the languages were introduced in or before early adolescent years.

Implications: Learning any computer language is better than learning none. If programming is to be taught to students before early adolescence, it is advised to start with a graphical language. Future work should investigate the transition between different types of programming languages.     

Online Digital Media: The Uptake of YouTube-based Digital Clinical Education (DCE)

There has been considerable growth in the uptake of digital clinical education (DCE) over the last few years. This growth has coincided with similar growth in social media platforms available to both educators and learners. In this article, we describe a novel, innovative video-based medical education project using YouTube for teaching, training, and learning. We created a series of short ‘System based’ clinical scenario videos and uploaded it to YouTube. Using the analytics function provided by Google and YouTube, end-user data including viewer engagement, uptake, and comments were then analyzed. To date, the channel has garnered more than 5.5 million views over five years between July 2012-July 2017.

With the increase in the use of video-based learning and the popularity of social media platforms, the uptake of DCE is set to increase. YouTube offers a novel approach to streaming medical education for training purposes. A quality assessed, structured and sustainable educational online platform is likely to meet the future requirements of a new generation of learners.     

Contexts for Independent Learning

One major world view that dominates the field of developmental psychology is the organismic world view. This world view depicts individuals, including children, as active agents who know the world in terms of their own operations upon it. Individuals are seen as being in control of their own learning. This control is exercised by individuals initiating and maintaining their own learning opportunities within a responsive social context.

The responsive social context is increasingly seen by developmental psychologists (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Wood, 1982) as of fundamental importance for the acquisition of intellectual skills. It is within responsive social contexts that individuals acquire not only specific skills but also generic knowledge about how to learn. It is this generic knowledge that allows individuals a measure of control over, and hence independence in, these social contexts.

Educational policy statements, school prospectuses and, more recently, the Core Curriculum, abound with aims and objectives to do with achieving individual autonomy and independence as a learner. Yet there is growing evidence that in many contemporary classrooms at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, we may be providing precisely the wrong contexts for students to become autonomous and independent learners. Too many classroom learning environments simply do not qualify as responsive social contexts. Individual learners have minimal control over learning interactions and hence are excessively dependent on external control by teachers.

Theoretical explanations for differences between unskilled and skilled performance are being sought increasingly in terms of characteristics of the specific contexts in which performance occurs and less in terms of qualitative differences in global capacities or in thinking processes between individuals (Wood, 1982). For example, differences in complexity of oral language between three‐year‐old children might be explained by differences in the amount and quality of language exchange with caregivers. They might also be explained by differences in caregiver skills in interpreting and responding to needs signalled by an individual child's use of language in a particular context. If we are genuinely concerned about aims of autonomy and independence in learning, then we need to discover and analyse those characteristics of responsive environments which support and promote independent learning. On the basis of existing research it is possible to specify four such characteristics of responsive learning contexts.

     

Characteristics of effective leadership networks: a replication and extension

Purpose: Replicating and extending earlier research, this mixed-methods study inquired about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual and collective leaders’ professional capacities.

Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by 283 school and district leaders to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Interview data were provided by 23 school leaders. Variables in the model included Network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, and outcomes.

Findings: Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data and, as a whole, explained 51% of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes, followed closely by the effects of Network Health and Network Connectivity. Interview data confirmed the nature of variables measured by the survey and added additional features for future research. Most results replicated the previous study.

Research Limitation: The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organised within districts, not networks organised by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalised to other types of networks.

Practical implication: In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Originality: Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.