Agricultural and science education: a socio-analysis of their intersection and positions within the educational field

It can be argued that agricultural science is one of the original forms of science education. However, over the past century, agricultural science education has habitually been perceived as an educational venue meant solely for production agriculturalists. When examining modern agricultural education we find it to be a minority within the broader field of science education, contradicting its historically stout scientific standing within the sciences. This educational shift leaves one to ponder the historic development of contemporary agricultural education. To gain deeper insight into these questions we reviewed the historical evolution of agricultural education within the United States. We then examined the professional habitus, or cultural nuances, associated with contemporary agricultural education. Next, we considered potential outcomes associated with the profession embracing post-modern perspectives within mainstream science and community-based education. Finally, we call for critical venues within agriculture education to question the status quo and challenge the acceptance of commonly held views.     

The organic chemicals industry of the USSR: a case-study in the measurement of comparative technological sophistication by means of kilogram-prices

The comparative kilogram-price of an equivalent product group in international trade is a rough indication of underlying technological capability. Although there are many theoretical and practical difficulties involved in applying this approach to East-West trade, these difficulties can be minimised by a careful selection of product groups. In this connection, advanced chemical products are particularly suitable because the chemical industry is one in which both kilogram-prices and technological sophistication tend to increase hand-in-hand at successive stages of manufacture. The results of this enquiry are quite striking. From the standpoint of bilateral trade, the kilogram-prices of Soviet and East European exports to the EEC countries are consistently lower than those of corresponding imports from the EEC. Throughout the period 1960–1972 these differentials appears to be closing either very slowly or not at all, while the Soviet and East European share of the EEC marked has remained more or less constant or has declined since the mid-1960's. From the alternative perspective of the “neutral” Yugoslavian market, the kilogram-prices of EEC exports are again consistently higher than those obtained by the Comecon coun tries. Moreover, there has been a considerable eroson in the market share of the Comecon countries since the mid-1960's. These general findings are broadly in line with other kinds of estimates and suggest that in these relatively advanced and dynamic sectors of industry, Soviet and East European technology is at present substantially inferior to that of the Common Market countries.     

Measuring scientific contributions with modified fractional counting

We develop and propose a new counting method at the aggregate level for contributions to scientific publications called modified fractional counting (MFC). We show that, compared to traditional complete-normalized fractional counting, it eliminates the extreme differences in contributions over time that otherwise occur between scientists that mainly publish alone or in small groups and those that publish with large groups of co-authors. As an extra benefit we find that scientists in different areas of research turn out to have comparable average contributions to scientific articles. We test the method on scientists at Norway’s largest universities and find that, at an aggregate level, it indeed supports comparability across different co-authorship practices as well as between areas of research. MFC is thereby useful whenever the research output from institutions with different research profiles are compared, as e.g., in the Leiden Ranking. Finally, as MFC is actually a family of indicators, depending on a sensitivity parameter, it can be adapted to the circumstances.     

Is procedure acquisition as unstable as it seems?

Are students’ mathematical procedures as unstable as they seem? Students often produce different errors in response to the same kind of problems on different testing occasions. This finding is puzzling. Past research has shown that students induce overly general procedures from worked-out examples during learning, which lead to a host of predictable errors on new problems. Do students create rule-based errors only to then switch between them at random? In this paper, we show that seemingly diverse errors on two different testing episodes may result from the same underlying stable procedure and are part of the same error category. These findings suggest that students’ errors are more stable on a category vs. on an individual level. The current study consists of teaching students addition in a new number system, called NewRoman, and analyzing students’ solution strategies in detail. Implications for teaching are discussed.     

Content Validity Studies of Licensing Examinations

Can measurement specialists’current ideas about content validation be implemented with licensure examinations? Does pressure of litigation facilitate or inhibit conducting validity studies?     

Individual differences in memory: Theory,data, and educational implications

This paper examines two theoretical perspectives from which the issue of individual differences in memory can be viewed and relates the perspectives to evidence available in the literature. The paper also reports the results of two studies which bear upon the issue of whether there are individual differences in the retention of learned material. The last section of the paper examines the educational implications of one of the theories presented in the paper.     

The Rise and Fall of Criterion Referenced Measurement?

How frequently have articles about CRT appeared? What advances in measurement have been influenced by the CRT movement? What has been the lasting contribution of the CRT movement?