Field Note: Standard Web Application for Information Exchange on Agroforestry in India

Abstract

Purpose

To explain how training and education events (TEEs) can be designed to increase the likelihood of achieving behavioural objectives.     

Farmers' Adoption of Soil Conservation Technologies: A Case Study from Osun State,Nigeria

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to determine the attitude of farmers towards erosion and the adoption of appropriate soil conservation technologies (SCTs). For the survey, farmers were selected from the communities Esa Oke, Elwure and Owode-Ede and Akoda in Osun State in Nigeria. In the first three communities farmers did receive training on soil conservation, in the fourth not. About 60 farmers were interviewed to obtain information on personal and socio-economic characteristics, awareness of environmental problems, attitude towards erosion control and experiences with SCTs. Statistical data analyses (analyses of frequencies, correlation, t-test, χ²-test) were made to examine possible relationships among parameters and the influence of factors on adoption.

Most respondents were advanced in years, responsible for large households and characterized by low levels of income and literacy. Soil erosion was seen as a problem confronting agricultural production only to a small extent. The adoption rate of SCTs was low, as only mulching, cover cropping, contour tillage and cut-off drainage were practised and often rejected. Low labour-demand, the availability of common equipment, low costs of application, ease of practice and compatibility with the existing farming system influenced adoption.

The observed positive correlation between level of education, knowledge of appropriate technologies, farming experience and the number of SCTs adopted emphasizes the importance for farmers of education and training. Strengthening agricultural extension agencies for capacity building is an important tool for improving soil conservation in Nigeria.

The paper clarifies with specific examples the causes of the low rates of adoption of available technologies, with a reduced impact of research and of efforts to achieve food security and sustainable production at village level.     

Collaborative Teaching and Learning through Multi‐Institutional Integrated Group Projects

This teaching brief describes an innovative multi‐institutional initiative through which integrated student groups from different courses collaborate on a common course project. In this integrated group project, students are asked to design a decentralized manufacturing organization for a company that will manufacture industrial Proton‐Exchange Membrane fuel cells. The groups include students from supply chain management, production planning and scheduling, and facility layout and design courses. Empirical results from the implementation suggest that students responded positively to the integrated experience. Lastly, the article presents implementation strategies for multi‐institutional group projects based on the experiences gained through the collaborative experience.     

Using Student Samples in Criminological Research

Professors have long relied on the assistance of their students in various aspects of the research process. For example, students often contribute in their role as research assistants and as co‐authors on scholarly papers and presentations. They also participate in another important way—as samples in their professors’ research projects. In criminology and criminal justice, student samples are often used in behavioral studies, tests of criminological theories, pilot tests of methodologies, and in evaluating attitudes toward crime and justice issues. This article provides an overview of the types of studies that have used students as samples in criminological research. Attention is given to the strengths and weaknesses of using such an approach, and implications for continuing to use students in criminological research are discussed.     

Considerations for Faculty Preparing to Develop and Teach Online Criminal Justice Courses at Traditional Institutions of Higher Learning

Criminal justice programs at traditional institutions of higher learning have been moving toward offering courses online and, in some cases, placing entire programs online for the better part of the past decade. In competition with for‐profit institutions, many traditional colleges and universities have expanded their distance education programming to include online courses and programs to attract students. As a result, the number of criminal justice students has increased, as have the profits for home institutions. With this growth in the online education market, the criminal justice faculty member has been thrust, willingly or unwillingly, into the world of online teaching—a method of instruction foreign to many instructors. From the authors’ experience at their current (and in the case of the lead author a second) institution, this paper addresses many issues that must be considered by faculty members before embarking on this type of time‐intensive initiative.     

Ethical Issues Affecting Human Participants in Community College Research

Reverse transfer students, those students who matriculated at four-year colleges and then transferred to two-year colleges, have been enrolling in community colleges since at least the 1960s. Consisting of both undergraduate reverse transfers and post-baccalaureate reverse transfers (individuals who already have at least a bachelor s degree), these students represent at least 16 % of community college enrollments nation-wide. A concern about the admission of reverse transfers is that they may take enrollment spaces, particularly in selective programs, at the expense of potential students with no previous college experience and with weaker academic backgrounds. Analysis of documents written about reverse transfers indicates that their enrollment has been justified under a variety of rationales, including providing a second chance for these individuals in school and in the job market.     

Invisible and Indispensable: Parttime Teachers in California Community Colleges

Abstract

Although parttime instructors constitute a substantial portion—often a majority—of community college faculties, they are accorded a low status on campus, with less than half the salary and none of the benefits of fulltime faculty members. This study points up a number of misconceptions that administrators have been using to justify discriminatory treatment of parttime teachers.     

Diagnosing Global Case Influence on MAR Versus MNAR Model Comparisons

When missingness is suspected to be not at random (MNAR) in longitudinal studies, researchers sometimes compare the fit of a target model that assumes missingness at random (here termed a MAR model) and a model that accommodates a hypothesized MNAR missingness mechanism (here termed a MNAR model). It is well known that such comparisons are only interpretable conditional on the validity of the chosen MNAR model’s assumptions about the missingness mechanism. For that reason, researchers often perform a sensitivity analysis comparing the MAR model to not one, but several, plausible alternative MNAR models. In the social sciences, it is not widely known that such model comparisons can be particularly sensitive to case influence, such that conclusions drawn could depend on a single case. This article describes two convenient diagnostics suited for detecting case influence on MAR–MNAR model comparisons. Both diagnostics require much less computational burden than global influence diagnostics that have been used in other disciplines for MNAR sensitivity analyses. We illustrate the interpretation and implementation of these diagnostics with simulated and empirical latent growth modeling examples. It is hoped that this article increases awareness of the potential for case influence on MAR–MNAR model comparisons and how it could be detected in longitudinal social science applications.