Effects of a Cooperative Learning Program on the Elaborations of Students Working in Dyads

In this study, the effects of a school improvement program on cooperative learning (CL) with respect to the elaborations of 6th-grade students working in mixed-ability and mixed-sex dyads on 2 cooperative tasks were examined. A posttest-only design with a control group was used to investigate the provision and receipt of elaborations within the dyads and the performance of the dyads working on cooperative mathematics and language tasks. Treatment dyads were found to exchange significantly more high-level elaborations during the language task than the control dyads. The treatment dyads also tended to produce higher performance scores on the 2 tasks.     

Metacognitive activities in text-studying and problem-solving: Development of a taxonomy

This article describes the construction of a hierarchical taxonomy of metacognitive activities for the interpretation of thinking-aloud protocols of students in secondary education, who studied texts on history and physics. After testing an initial elaborate taxonomy on a restricted number of protocols by multiple raters, it appeared that the interrater correspondence was well below par. The categories in the taxonomy were too highly specified. Categories were combined and tested on new protocols in a cyclic fashion. The revised taxonomy was then used for coding 16 history protocols and 16 physics protocols. Frequencies of occurrence of metacognitive activities were obtained, as well as judgements of the quality of the metacognitive activities of the participants. There is a reasonable correlation between the frequency method and the quality method for coding thinking-aloud protocols. Also, there is a substantial covariation of the number of metacognitive activities across both tasks.     

Schematising activities in early childhood education

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of introducing schematising to children in early childhood and to determine whether schematising can be taught to children. This was done using a longitudinal, quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design (N = 133). In this study, the use of schematising was taught to an experimental group of children to determine if it is possible to realise significantly improved results in schematising tasks for an experimental group in comparison to a control group of children who were not taught schematising. Pupils in the experimental group demonstrated significantly better results on schematising, which cannot be explained by maturation. In our future research, we will investigate the mathematical performances of these experimental and control groups in the next grade of the primary school curriculum.     

Book review

Gender & Technology: Empowering Women, Engendering Development** London and New York: Zed Books Ltd. . By Everts, Saskia (1998)

Privatising Agricultural Extension in India** Policy Paper 10, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, P.O. Box 11305, New Delhi 110 012, India, February 2000. 95 p. 64 . By Rasheed Sulaiman V and V.V. Sadamate.     

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.     

Farmers’ reasons for changing or not changing to more sustainable practices: An exploratory study of arable farming in the Netherlands

Abstract

The paper describes the results of an exploratory study of farmers’ reasons for changing or not changing to more sustainable production methods in arable farming in the Netherlands. The background of the research is the disappointing adoption of Integrated Arable Farming Systems (iafs). Perceived production risk was expected to be an important factor constraining adoption. This study suggests, however, that perceived risk is not a satisfactory explanation. One reason is that iafs as it has become in Dutch practice cannot be easily distinguished from conventional arable farming systems. A continuum of gradual adoption of iafs methods, mainly for economic reasons, was observed. A real watershed difference was observed between partial adopters of iafs and organic farmers who used no chemicals at all. Secondly, dealing with production risks, such as weather‐dependent problems with weeds, pests and diseases, is considered part of professionalism of both conventional and iafs farmers and hence not a reason for avoiding a specific crop husbandry technique. However, uncertainties emanating from market conditions and environmental policy were found to be important considerations. JAgr Educ Ext (2001, 7, 3, pp 153–166)