Realizing Relevance: The Influence of Domain‐Specific Information on Generation of New Knowledge Through Integration in 4‐ to 8‐Year‐Old Children

In accumulating knowledge, direct modes of learning are complemented by productive processes, including self‐generation based on integration of separate episodes. Effects of the number of potentially relevant episodes on integration were examined in 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds (N = 121; racially/ethnically heterogeneous sample, English speakers, from large metropolitan area). Information was presented along with unrelated or related episodes; the latter challenged children to identify the relevant subset of episodes for integration. In Experiment 1, 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds integrated in the unrelated context. Six‐year‐olds also succeeded in the related context in forced‐choice testing. In Experiment 2, 8‐year‐olds succeeded in open‐ended and forced‐choice testing. Results illustrate a developmental progression in productive extension of knowledge due in part to age‐related increases in identification of relevant information.     

Competencies for rural development professionals in the era of HIV/AIDS

The impact of HIV/AIDS on food security and rural livelihoods is still insufficiently understood. It is evident, however, that rural development professionals need to respond to the changes that have taken place in rural areas due to the pandemic. This article explores competencies that they need in order to deal with the complex HIV/AIDS issues related to their work with farming families. Initially 45 rural development professionals from developing countries in the southern hemisphere were interviewed about these competencies, using case stories and questionnaires. Subsequently, 34 individual in‐depth interviews were conducted with rural development professionals from East Africa and Zambian government officials. A focus group discussion with 15 Zambian agricultural extension workers completed the empirical part of the research. The study reveals that there is an urgent need to complement the technical competencies of rural development professionals with more social competencies, such as counselling and communication, lobbying and networking. Recommendations are formulated for competence development of rural development professionals who have to deal with the consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in rural areas.     

Improving Factor Score Estimation Through the Use of Observed Background Characteristics

A challenge facing nearly all studies in the psychological sciences is how to best combine multiple items into a valid and reliable score to be used in subsequent modeling. The most ubiquitous method is to compute a mean of items, but more contemporary approaches use various forms of latent score estimation. Regardless of approach, outside of large-scale testing applications, scoring models rarely include background characteristics to improve score quality. This article used a Monte Carlo simulation design to study score quality for different psychometric models that did and did not include covariates across levels of sample size, number of items, and degree of measurement invariance. The inclusion of covariates improved score quality for nearly all design factors, and in no case did the covariates degrade score quality relative to not considering the influences at all. Results suggest that the inclusion of observed covariates can improve factor score estimation.     

Affirmative action at Virginia Tech: The tail that wagged the dog

Editor's Note: A pair of articles in the Spring 1992Academic Questions received considerable attention. Printed under the rubric “The Trivialization of Sexual Harassment,” one detailed the case of Allan Mandelstamm at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the other the case of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Both were stories of extraordinary abuses of power by midlevel administrators who vigorously promoted charges of sexual harassment against professors wholly and obviously innocent of harassment. The following articles attempt to explain how these same two institutions reached the point where such abuses of power and violations of elemental justice became possible.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Cross‐national differences in participating in tertiary science,technology, engineering and mathematics education

In many western countries attention is currently being given to the participation of students in tertiary Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. This is a result of internationally competing economic ambitions, coupled with acute shortages on the STEM labour market, a declining interest among students for STEM education and a long‐lasting under‐representation of women. However, despite similarities concerning policy attitudes and identified problems, western countries differ considerably from each other concerning the percentages of students that choose STEM education and the proportion of female students included here. Based on an in‐depth study in Sweden, the UK, the US and the Netherlands, this article investigates the reasons for these cross‐national differences. At the heart of the explanations lie the accessibility of the STEM pipeline, the level of broad‐based interdisciplinary studies as opposed to compartmentalization and early specialization, labour market characteristics, social traditions and government policies.