Taking and teaching the test are not the same: a case study of first-year teachers’ experiences in high-stakes contexts

Background: Policymakers’ use of high-stakes exams to improve students’ academic achievement affects teachers and their tenure in the field at all levels of schooling. Novice teachers now being inducted into the field have been educated almost exclusively in these high-stakes learning environments. Yet, how their familiarity with these contexts combined with their experiences in their own classrooms affect novices’ induction into the field of teaching has not been fully examined. Aim: This article presents findings from an investigation into the experiences of two first-year teachers who were educated and trained to be teachers in the same high-stakes education system in which they taught. It examines how these first-year teachers viewed policymakers’ reforms affecting their teaching and tenure in the field. Methods: This qualitative case study centers on the experiences of two first-year teachers working in the same high-stakes standards-based accountability teaching context in which they were educated – the case. This study provides insight into the issue of how novices’ familiarity with high-stakes reform combined with their experiences in their own classrooms impacts their conceptions of their teaching and their tenure in the field. Outcomes: The findings from this case study reveal how policymakers’ high-stakes reforms impacted the development of these novice teachers in significant ways. Not only did they have to learn how to teach as they taught, but they also had to ensure they were teaching all of their students to pass the high-stakes exams. Their varied experiences also demonstrate how these high-stakes exams can ‘test’ beginning teachers out of the classroom. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that first-year teachers’ familiarity with policymakers’ high-stakes reforms is not enough to prepare them for the expectation that they immediately improve students’ academic achievement on high-stakes exams. Such findings not only challenge what it means to be a educator in these contexts, but they also shed light on how larger political and economic forces impact the teaching and tenure of novices. To support new teachers, teacher educators and mentors should rethink the education and induction processes while helping novices understand as well as prepare for the role context plays in their teaching and development as professionals.     

Information Search Behaviors of Indian Farmers: Implications for Extension Services

Abstract

Purpose: In India, a national survey conducted in 2003 showed that only 40% of farmers accessed extension. But little is known of the characteristics of farmers who did not access extension. However, this understanding is needed in order to target approaches to farmers, who differ in their access and use of information, that is their information search behaviors. The main objective of this paper is to segment farmers from this survey based on their information search behaviors and identify the factors that determine farmers' information search behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach: Cluster analysis is applied to the number of sources accessed and frequency of source used, to define farmers' information search behaviors.

Findings: The four groups that emerged are: ‘no search’, ‘low search’, ‘moderate search’ and ‘high search’. Sixty percent of farmers had no search behavior, which means they had not accessed any extension that year. By state, the largest group of these farmers was in Rajasthan. By comparison, the largest group of high searchers was in Kerala. Using Rajasthan and Kerala as case studies, these search behaviors differ by landholding size and education. ‘No search’ farmers had the smallest landholdings, lowest education, used fewer inputs and relied on groundwater for irrigation. By comparison, ‘high search’ farmers had the largest landholdings, most education, used more inputs and irrigated using canals.

Practical implications: The difference in search behaviors between the case study states, and within the states, shows that targeted extension approaches are needed to reach different farmers, particularly the no, low and moderate search groups, with programs customized to address their context-specific information needs.

Originality/value: Using information search strategy as the basis for analysis, this paper provides additional evidence of the need to consider the context-specific situations of farmers when designing extension services.     

Translating Knowledge into Action at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)

Abstract

Purpose: This article explores the impacts of action learning on graduates’ abilities to use interdisciplinary knowledge to solve problems, practice teamwork on the job and become change agents through study in two MSc programmes at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB).

Design/methodology/approach: Electronic questionnaires were sent to students who had graduated from the Agroecology and Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture (MNRSA) MSc programmes between 2000 and 2007.

Findings: Both study programmes encouraged students to become change agents promoting sustainable practices through application of knowledge and methods from natural and social sciences. Agroecology graduates applied a greater range of creative research methods, and improved their capacity for holistic and systems thinking more than MNRSA graduates, while the latter were more skilled in building consensus. Graduates from both programmes increased their abilities to create a positive team environment, bring people together to express their views and take multiple views into consideration when making decisions.

Practical implications: This survey documents how action learning develops students’ skills and knowledge to handle complex social and environmental challenges and become change agents.

Originality/value: In the context of increasing challenges in agroecology and natural resource management the findings on how to translate knowledge into action are important for teaching/learning institutions dealing with education for sustainable development.     

Facilitating conditions for farmer learning behaviour in the student-to-farmer university outreach

Purpose: This study elucidates on how faculty supervision support to students during farm placements and other facilitating conditions influence farmer learning in the student-centred university outreach.

Methodology/Design/Approach: Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 283 farmers who had previously hosted students of Gulu University in the student-to-farmer university outreach. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse how faculty supervision support to students in combination with other facilitating conditions affect the formation of intentions for learning and actual farmer learning behaviour.

Findings: Faculty supervision support in the student-to-farmer outreach was found to significantly influence formation of intentions for learning (β?=?0.380; t?=?5.263; P?β?=?0.182; t?=?2.081; P?Practical implications: Faculty supervision support to students is critical to fostering lasting learning relationships in university outreach. Thus, it needs to be a part of the transformation agenda of the higher education sector for improved community linkages and innovation.

Theoretical implications: Empirical data obtained from the context of student-centred university outreach is used to extend the model of facilitating conditions.

Originality/Value: The study addresses how faculty supervision support together with farmers’ perception of student attitudes and the value of the learning content influence farmers’ learning behaviour during university outreach.     

The Impact of Farmer Field Schools on Human and Social Capital: A Case Study from Ghana

Abstract

Based on a case study of Ghanaian cocoa farmers who attended farmer field schools (FFS), this paper explores the impact of the FFS methodology on farmers’ technical knowledge, experimentation, knowledge diffusion, group formation and social skills as a way of assessing whether the relatively high costs associated with the method is justified. We carried out focus group discussions for exploratory purposes and a formal survey of 70 FFS graduates and 70 non-FFS farmers. The superior knowledge test scores of FFS graduates relative to non-FFS farmers demonstrates the effectiveness of the method for communicating complex knowledge and information to farmers in a way that allows them to understand it and retain it. An assessment of changes in farmers’ experimental capacity showed variable results. On the one hand, a significant proportion of FFS graduates applied some of the principles and practices learned to solve productivity problems with other crops, while others did not perceive any change in their experimentation behaviour. Significantly, an important skill farmers learned in the FFS was making observations on cocoa trees and the wider ecosystem as the basis for decision-making. The case study confirmed that FFS strengthened social cohesion among cocoa farmers and enhanced individual social skills by creating new networks for knowledge exchange and support, promoting group formation and improving farmers’ confidence and ability to work more effectively in groups. The paper concludes by recommending areas for improving FFS and highlights how strengthening human and social capital in cocoa growing communities can serve as a springboard for broader development activities.     

Student teachers in school practice: an analysis of learning opportunities

Abstract

Over the past decade, educational policy in Britain, as in other industrial nations, has been increasingly driven by the concern that higher education should serve the needs of the economy more effectively. The report Highly Qualified People: supply and demand reflects this concern and attempts to establish from employers Britain's likely requirement, in the 1990s, for such expensively educated labour. Though the report concluded that Britain needed more graduates over the next few years, closer scrutiny of its data suggests a very different conclusion ‐ not that Britain needs more graduates to prosper, but rather that Britain needs first to prosper before it is likely to want the graduates it already produces.

     

Books Received

Abstract

This paper analyses the organizational, financial and technological incentives that service organizations used to motivate farmers to finance agricultural research and extension in Benin. Understanding the foundations and implications of these motivation systems is important for improving farmer financial participation in agricultural research and extension.

We studied three cases of farmer financial participation in the field of agricultural research and extension in Benin. We conducted semi-structured interviews with leaders of service organizations and farmers’ associations, local authorities and individual farmers. Our interviews focused on service delivery systems, mechanisms of farmers’ financial contribution, the functioning of farmers’ associations, and the appropriateness of services provided. We performed thematic and comparative analyses at the interfaces between (1) service providers and partner–farmer associations, (2) service providers and delivered services, and (3) farmers/farmers’ associations and services.

Incentives for farmer financial participation are the increasing participation strategy, the fulfillment of farmers’ needs and the local leadership valorization. The selection and combination of their variants determine the motivating capacity and orientation of service organizations. Conversely to the increasing participation strategy, an effective fulfillment of farmers’ needs and local leadership valorization can lead to sustainable motivation. As the fulfillment of farmers’ needs determines importantly the effectiveness and sustainability of farmers’ motivation, the strategies of farmer financial participation are likely to fail if there are no successful agricultural technological incentives.

In the current context of privatization of agricultural services in developing countries, this analytical framework is of interest for policy makers and development workers for identifying conditions of farmer financial participation and designing effective motivation strategies.     

Farmers’ Learning Strategies in the Province of Esfahan

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate changes in farming and to look at how farmers adapt to diverse changes in and around their farms in the province of Esfahan, Iran. It is part of a larger project aimed at developing a job competency profile for agricultural extension instructors (AEIs). One hundred and two farmers who had previously followed extension courses in the province of Esfahan were interviewed. The findings demonstrate that a large number of farmers in the target group who are older, married, have low education levels, are smallholders and lack adequate job diversity on their farms. The study revealed that these farmers have experienced sluggish internal and external agricultural change, and they are generally more positive about internal changes than external ones. Respondents designated ‘extension courses’, ‘individual farm visits by official extension agents’ and ‘trial and error’, respectively as their three main learning strategies (LS) to help them adapt to the various changes. The results also indicate that older and more poorly educated farmers have more problems in adopting different LS.     

Preparing engineers for social responsibility

In this paper I introduce the contributions to a special section of the journal: one devoted to the question of how engineering curricula can or should contribute to the preparation of graduates for socially responsible decision making and conduct. The special section is motivated by the circumstance that, although there is broad agreement that engineering education has a role in preparing its graduates for social responsibility, there is a considerable lack of clarity as to how graduates should be prepared for social responsibility, and what this entails for the engineering curricula. Bucciarelli and Conlon both provide reasons why, in order to prepare graduates adequately for social responsibility, considerations of the organisational, social, legal and political context in which engineers operate need to be included in the teaching. Conlon, in addition, explores the possible contributions that the field of sociology can make to this teaching. Heikkerö focuses on the attitudes that are required for socially responsible professional practice and that should be taught in engineering education. Didier and Huet present the results of a survey on how the issue of corporate social responsibility is being discussed and taught in engineering education in France. Both Börsen and Zandvoort et al. report on courses that they teach, and which are aimed at preparing students for ethical and social responsibility.     

Implications of Farmers’ Propensity to Discontinue Adoption of Downy-Mildew Resistant Maize and Improved Cowpea Varieties for Extension Education in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of farmers’ propensity to discontinue the adoption of agricultural technologies in southwestern Nigeria. This is predicated on the fact that extension education process should be proactive in addressing farmers in order to sustain the adoption process. Empirical studies looking at diffusion processes from an ex post perspective have failed to deliver in terms of effective ex ante policies and intervention strategies, and the transfer of the technology model has lost much of its lustre. Following a survey of arable crop farmers in two states of southwestern Nigeria, a Tobit model was estimated on the data collected during the 2002 growing season in order to identify variables significant in the farmers’ discontinuance behaviour. The variables identified are: attitude, extension visit, feedback provision, marketability and input availability. From the estimation, foremost among the significant variables leading to discontinuance of improved maize and cowpea varieties is extension visits.     

Quality of extension advice: a gendered case study from Ghana and Sri Lanka

Purpose: Women farmers have less access to extension services than male farmers, even though they make up almost half of the global agricultural workforce. Gender-focused international development programmes have focused on how ensuring women receive better access to advice. However, the quality of the technical advice and the service women receive in comparison to male farmers needs better understanding. Study design/methodology/approach: Five thousand interactions between male and female extension workers (‘plant doctors’) and farmers attending Plantwise plant clinics in Ghana and Sri Lanka are assessed for gender-based differences on quality of advice and service provided at clinics. Findings: The overall quality of technical advice given to male and female farmers at plant clinics in both countries did not differ. The quality of the advice given by male and female plant doctors for a specific pest/crop complex was different, and can be linked to results from the quality of service surveys that revealed women’s main negative feedback was the impracticality of advice. Practical implications: Whilst the advice given is technically sound, results highlight the importance of appropriate advice, according to farmer gender and crop grown. Theoretical implications: A greater focus on plant doctors using their knowledge about women’s role in agriculture would help to achieve more tailored advice. Originality/Value: This study leads the way in assessing the quality of the advice given according to gender. With large datasets, this research should help decision makers and future researchers to contemplate advice delivery according to gender.     

Cultural capital,habitus and reading futures: middle-class adolescent students’ cultivation of reading dispositions in Singapore

Abstract

The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students and a survey of 5,779 students from six Singapore secondary schools, we analyze how reading as a form of cultural capital is distributed among High-SES, Mid-SES and Low-SES students in Singapore. We show how middle-class practices of intensive immersion in school-valued reading practices is a form of habitus that prepare some students better than others for engaged reading. The findings highlight how reading as a form of cultural capital is operationalized through students’ familial habitus and argues that making visible familial habitus provides insights for transforming institutional habitus for students’ reading futures.     

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.     

Claims and counterclaims: institutional arrangements and farmers’ response to the delivery and adoption of innovations in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

Purpose: This article examined how institutional factors influencing the promotion of two elephant crop-raiding deterrent innovations (ECDIs) introduced to farmers through a ministry-based extension system in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, have impacted farmers’ adoption behaviour. Methodology: A standardised interview schedule was used to elicit responses from 388 randomly sampled subsistence arable farmers on how institutions influenced the adoption of ECDIs in five communities in the study area. This was complemented by focus group discussions to obtain in-depth information on the subject-matter. Key informants interviews were also conducted with purposively selected extension agents, village project committee chairpersons and village dikgosi. Findings: Four institutional factors were found to be critical for the adoption of ECDIs. These include institutional relations, availability and/or supply of deterrent innovation inputs, farmers’ contact with extension agents and government support for extension services. Theoretical Implications: Immediate and widespread adoption of ECDIs in the ever-changing socio-economic and political environment can be enhanced by context-specific institutional arrangements in addressing social and organisational constraints to innovation adoption. Originality: This paper invoked organisational theory to contribute to the scholarly debate on how agricultural extension systems influence farming clientele’s behaviour and social change. It offers the first attempt in the investigation of the role of extension and associated institutions/organisations in promoting adoption of ECDIs among subsistence farmers in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Findings indicate that local farmers do not perceive extension agencies to hold monopoly of ideas and solutions to their unique problems.     

Unfolding the knowledge and power dynamics of the ‘farmers–rural extensionists’ interface in North-Eastern Argentina

ABSTRACT

Purpose: In this paper, the knowledge dynamics of the farmer–rural extensionist’ interface were explored from extensionists’ perspective with the aim of understanding the matchmaking processes between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level. Design/methodology/approach: Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with extensionists whom work in the North-Eastern, Argentine provinces. Findings: Two different, general types of knowledge dynamics were identified: one moderately diffusionist, based on a hierarchical relationship and the prioritisation of experts’ knowledge, and the other constructivist, based on horizontal processes of co-construction. Interestingly, some extensionists support beliefs pertaining to both approaches. They also highlight the importance of unceremonious trainings, interpersonal trust and making recommendations that take into account farmers’ rationale. Practical implications: Results show the persistence of diffusionist rural extension and that extensionists have different, even contradictory, extension approaches, which renders inappropriate any attempt to generalise their perspectives. Theoretical implications: This study suggests that farmers’ demand is the result of a constructive, interactive process, and thus is not prior to the interaction between the demand side (farmers) and the supply side (extensionists). Consequently, the knowledge and power dynamics that take place within the farmer–extensionist interface should be considered the nucleus of demand construction and the matchmaking process. Originality/value: This paper addresses the dynamic matchmaking process between supply and demand of extension services at the micro-level, suggesting it is a constructive process and showing the core role played by power dynamics.     

Assessment of farmer-oriented agricultural extension intervention in Iran

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of farmer-oriented policies as regards the Iranian agricultural extension system. Methodology: To fulfill this objective, a Delphi technique was utilized. The study used a series of three steps, engaging a panel of experts on farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension system. Finding: The characteristics of farmer-oriented policies in agricultural extension system were classified into six categories including: need-based programs, proper interaction among stakeholders, decentralization and higher stakeholders’ participation, enabling stakeholders with emphasis on smallholder farmers, market-oriented programs and integrated policies. The findings indicated that ‘enabling farmers to solve their technical problems’ and ‘engaging farmers in planning, executing and evaluating of the programs’ had the highest percentage of agreement. Theoretical implication: From a theoretical point of view, the finding of this research has introduced six categories as characteristics of a farmer-oriented policy that could have practical implications for agricultural extension system in Iran. Also, this paper proposes a framework for future studies in the field of farmer-oriented policies in agricultural extension system. Practical implications: Recognizing the characteristics of farmer-oriented intervention of agricultural extension shows that targeted extension approaches are needed to pay attention to these characteristics in various stages of planning, delivering and evaluation of extension programs. Originality/value: This paper provides a comprehensive list of characteristics of farmer-oriented policies of agricultural extension that can be helpful for agricultural policy-makers in devising programs of extension services.     

The perceived impact of agricultural advice in Ethiopia

Purpose: We examine the impact of advice given by extension agents to Ethiopian farmers, as perceived by the farmers themselves. Design/methodology/approach: Using survey data from 2014, we analyze the perceived impact of advice on farmers’ incomes and crop yields. We use a bootstrapped instrumental variable (IV) estimator and the conditional mixed process estimator. Theoretical implications: The impact of advice will depend upon its relevance and whether and how efficiently it is implemented by the farmer. This in part depends upon the farmer’s ability and on the impact of fully implemented advice on output, which will vary from farm to farm. Findings: There is a positive perceived impact of most advice on both crop yields and income. However, some advice works better in drought-affected areas and other in non-drought-affected areas. Fertilizers have more impact on crop yields than income, possibly reflecting cost factors. There is evidence that the farmers’ ability to implement the advice increases with their level of education and that advice is being tailored to the needs of the individual. Practical implications: Advice has a positive impact on both crop yields and income. However, not all advice is equally effective and effectiveness varies according to farmer and farm characteristics. There is little evidence of credit advice having a positive impact. Originality/value: The paper is one of only a few to analyze farmers’ perceptions of advice impact and, as far as we are aware, is the first to analyze how advice effectiveness varies according to farmer and farm characteristics.     

Agricultural development; Opportunities and threats for farmers and implications for extension organisations

Abstract

In many countries agriculture is in a process of rapid change,

• - it has to meet a growing demand for food in a sustainable way,

• - the international competition is increasing,

• - the increase in labour productivity is decreasing the employment opportunities in agriculture,

• - agricultural research is offering many new opportunities to increase productivity,

• - government price support for agricultural products in industrial countries is decreasing.

These changes have many implications for agricultural extension, such as:

• - the knowledge and capabilities of farmers has become a major factor in their ability to compete in national and international markets,

• - advice is not only needed on the adoption of new technologies, but also on many other decisions farmers have to make, such as the choice of their farming system and the decision whether or not to earn an income from outside agriculture,

• - this requires a change in extension methods and in the information sources extension agents use,

• - agricultural development demands painful changes in the way of farming and of living for many farm families. It is a challenge for extension agencies to help farm families to realise this,

• - a major task for leaders of extension organisations is to manage a process of change in agricultural extension. Often the role extension has to play in agricultural development can not be performed by one extension organisation, but only by a pluralistic extension system.

Agricultural extension is often expected to contribute to a reduction of poverty among farmers and farm labourers. One has to think seriously how one can realise this objective.     

Shifting Challenges in Teacher-Education Research and Accreditation: Lessons Learned from Limitations on Studying Program Impact

ABSTRACT

A critical issue in educator preparation is how to ascertain if program graduates are sufficiently prepared to be effective through the acquisition of meaningful evidence of graduates’ impact on their students. Challenges to proving specific impact of educator-preparation programs on student learning include identifying and following program completers as they move into diverse teaching environments. Barriers include lack of access to measures such as students’ achievement scores and work samples. This article puts the research on educator-preparation-program accountability into perspective and provides a discussion about whether or not we have the capacity at this moment in time to access meaningful data about and proof of teacher impact.     

An interprofessional education initiative between psychology and dentistry: an exploration of students’ perceptions of confidence

ABSTRACT

Part of preparing future health professionals for multidisciplinary work environments involves interprofessional education (IPE). We explore students’ perceptions of confidence during IPE and how this impacts their ability to contribute to interprofessional learning. The written reflections of 115 undergraduate Psychology (n?=?58) and Dentistry (n?=?57) students aged 19–47 years (median?=?22 years) who participated in two sessions of IPE utilising motivational interviewing to encourage health behaviour change were analysed. Six themes were identified: Concerns about Confidence Resulted in Additional Prior Preparation, Lack of Confidence as an Impediment to Contribution, An Increase in Confidence as a Result of Doing, Recognising the Value of Confidence, Confidence as an Area for Further Development, and Confidence from the Outset. The importance of confidence in impacting students’ ability to actively contribute in IPE should not be underestimated. Educators should seek to maximise student confidence and to create a safe learning environment where further confidence can be built. Further research is needed to determine factors that may boost confidence including the optimal time to incorporate IPE in degree programmes, the best format in which to deliver IPE, and how much IPE to deliver.