A novel framework for identifying the interactions between biophysical and social components of an agricultural system: a guide for improving wheat production in Haryana,NW India

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework with related analysis methodologies that identifies the influence of social environment on an established cropping system.

Design/methodology/approach: A stratified survey including 103 villages and 823 farmers was conducted in all districts of Haryana (India). Firstly, technical efficiency (TE) was modeled using biophysical data including grain yield, seeding rate, wheat varieties, tillage, sowing date, seed source, harvesting method and the application of fertilizer, herbicide and irrigation. The relationship between TE and social community factors such as farm size, farmer age, level of education and agricultural support programs was analyzed by regression tree.

Findings: TE was lower with the farmers who only have education to a primary standard. Farmers with high TE scores were mostly between 35 and 40 years of age, and a higher TE association was common for farmers who use technical publications. Social individual factors such as farmers’ views on the future of farming were also analyzed across different TE levels.

Practical implications: Farmers with lower TE are an obvious target for production improvement, particularly given the understanding that the overall production yield gap is small in Haryana.

Theoretical implications: Our conceptual framework shows a quantitative way to establish the socio-ecological linkage, and to identify the opportunities for changes in management with extension services leading to productivity improvement.

Originality/value: This paper provides a novel framework with detailed methodology to effectively identify the socio-economic factors that limit the biophysical production in an agricultural system.     

Making a Neighbourhood the Sesame Street Way: developing a methodology to evaluate children's understanding of race

Since its inception, Sesame Street has modelled racial harmony; however, as a result of the rising racial unrest in the United States in 1989, we launched a four-year race relations curriculum initiative designed to be more explicit about physical and cultural differences, and to encourage friendship between people of different races and cultures. To assess children's basic knowledge and attitudes about diverse children living and playing together a variety of methods were developed, including a game 'Make a Neighborhood', to assess how living in a segregated environment influences preschoolers' understanding of race relations. The game allowed us to observe how preschoolers sort drawings of children who differ by race, clothing and hairstyle into places in the neighbourhood. Results indicated that Chinese American, African American, Puerto Rican and Crow Indian preschoolers integrated homes, schools, playgrounds, churches and stores when given drawings of children from their own groups and White children. White preschoolers integrated Chinese American and White, Puerto Rican and White and Crow Indian and White children in every structure. However, White preschoolers were significantly more likely to segregate African American and White children in the homes, schools, playgrounds, churches and stores. Based on these results, segments were produced which show White children visiting an African American friend's home.     

Irreconcilable Differences: Black Teachers’ Lives and K-12 Schools

The Urban Review - University-based teacher education programs struggle with recruitment and retention of Black teachers. While the enrollment of children of color in K-12 public schools has held...     

“UNIFIED”: Bridging the Researcher–Practitioner Divide in Mind,Brain, and Education

Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) science is by definition transdisciplinary. However, the communication and collaboration between constituent disciplines needed for true transdisciplinarity remains relatively rare. Consequently, many of the potential benefits of MBE science remain unrealized for parties on all sides of the discipline. The present commentary first conducts an analysis of the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of transdisciplinary partnerships in MBE. A new, free, and international web platform (“UNIFIED”) is then proposed to broker relationships between researchers and teachers within schools. This website would allow users to form collaborations based on a system of tags indexing their research interests as well as practicalities such as their location. Such a website appears well placed to realize many of the opportunities, and mitigate the threats and weaknesses, of transdisciplinary MBE research. The article concludes with an appeal to interested researchers and schools to contribute to the development of the project.     

Equity in access? The number of the books available in grade 1, 3 and 5 classroom libraries

Learning Environments Research - In this study, we examined students’ access to text, defined as the number of texts freely available to children in their classrooms. From 60 elementary...     

Assessing visual literacy: a case study of developing a rubric for identifying and applying criteria to undergraduate student learning

Higher education has traditionally privileged language-based text as evidence of students’ levels of critical thinking and literacy. Twenty-first century education at all levels however, has focused on multimodal literacies and how educators can engage students who are seeing the world through diverse representations and a myriad of forms. Many scholars maintain that we live in a visual culture where we are becoming increasingly proficient at reading images of all kinds. However, our criteria for assessing student learning and measures of assessment have not moved much beyond the traditional written texts outside art and design disciplines. While much has been written about the role of visual literacy, there is little research on assessing visual literacy competencies. This paper proposes a Visual Literacy Competency (VLC) rubric based on the Biggs and Collis (1982. Evaluating the Quality of Learning: The SOLO Taxonomy (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome). New York: Academic Press) SOLO taxonomy and describes applications for assessing assignments in two undergraduate communications courses with a focus on further developing and shaping student learning.     

Modeling Collaboration for Middle-Level Teacher Candidates Through Co-Teaching

The purpose of this analysis was to determine if the implementation of co-teaching was an effective instructional practice for graduate-level teacher candidates (hence forth referred to as candidates) in a Middle Childhood Education cohort. The goals were to determine (1) if co-teaching promoted candidate learning and (2) if co-teaching provided effective modeling for the candidates so they would be able to utilize it in their own future classrooms. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed from course evaluations and pre- and post-surveys. Results indicated that candidates' educational experiences were enhanced as a result of the co-teaching experience, particularly with the use of team teaching, parallel teaching, and station teaching strategies. Additionally, evidence suggests that the use of co-teaching provided effective modeling for the candidates.     

Stressors and Supports for Adult Online Learners: Comparing First- and Continuing-Generation College Students

A mixed-methods approach was used to examine the perceptions that adult online learners have about their ability to succeed in their educational pursuits, the barriers that they face, and the institutional supports that help them to persist. Particular attention was paid to the differences between first-generation and continuing-generation adult online learners. Survey findings show that the majority of adult online learners—both first- and continuing-generation—are confident in their abilities to succeed in school. First-generation adult online learners are more likely to cite highly demanding work environments, which may impede their ability to balance school with other commitments. Both groups make use of the supports offered by their schools, especially those related to curriculum and technical guidance, but first-generation adult online learners have higher rates of usage overall. In interviews, both groups cite the importance of advisors, whereas first-generation adult online learners are more likely to cite problems with teachers as obstacles to their success. These findings imply that it is important to consider students' generational status when developing programs and services for the adult online student population.     

The evaluation of a school science syllabus through objectives and attitudes

The School Science Curriculum Review (SSCR), sponsored in part by the Department of Education and Science itself, was established in the United Kingdom in September 1981 at a cost of £1 m. Its brief was, amongst other things ‘to provide a framework of science courses ... that will [provide] an appropriate education for all young people growing up in an advanced scientific and technological society’. The units for development work are groups of practising science teachers organized on a ‘periphery to centre’ model.

The study reported here is an evaluation of a science syllabus which is claimed by the authors to be typical of many such syllabuses in use in UK secondary schools today. It finds confusion between course objectives and the teacher's perceptions of what they see as the important objectives of science education. It is suggested that there are reasons to doubt the efficacy of the course in terms of its effect on children's attitudes to science.

The objectives model of curriculum development has had only marginal impact in the United Kingdom. The argument is put that whilst it is clear from a theoretical standpoint that content of a syllabus should be consequent upon derived objectives, and this is explicitly recognized by the hierarchy of the SSCR, such an approach will not come easily to practising science teachers. There is a distinct possibility that too strict an adherence to the ‘periphery to centre’ model propounded by the review will result in continued curriculum intransigence.     

Welfare regimes and educational inequality: a cross‐national exploration

Research on welfare state regimes and research on educational policy share a common concern for the reduction of social inequality. On one hand, welfare state research is typically designed within a comparative approach where scholars investigate similarities and differences in social institutions across selected countries. On the other hand, the basic model of educational policy research is usually country specific and seldom identifies why and how we are to understand cross‐national differences pertaining to social inequality. The goal of the research is to bridge these two areas by testing socio‐economic gradients and educational outcomes among 15 industrialised countries (using 2003 PISA data) from a welfare state perspective. Results support Esping‐Andersen's ‘three worlds’ typology in that the level of between‐school educational inequality is the highest in conservative welfare states and is the lowest in social‐democratic countries.