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)     

Testing Inequality Constrained Hypotheses in SEM Models

Researchers often have expectations that can be expressed in the form of inequality constraints among the parameters of a structural equation model. It is currently not possible to test these so-called informative hypotheses in structural equation modeling software. We offer a solution to this problem using Mplus. The hypotheses are evaluated using plug-in p values with a calibrated alpha level. The method is introduced and its utility is illustrated by means of an example.     

Modeling Ability Differentiation in the Second-Order Factor Model

In this article we present factor models to test for ability differentiation. Ability differentiation predicts that the size of IQ subtest correlations decreases as a function of the general intelligence factor. In the Schmid–Leiman decomposition of the second-order factor model, we model differentiation by introducing heteroscedastic residuals, nonlinear factor loadings, and a skew-normal second-order factor distribution. Using marginal maximum likelihood, we fit this model to Spanish standardization data of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (3rd ed.) to test the differentiation hypothesis.     

Modeling the Growth of Word-Decoding Skills: Evidence From Dutch

This study investigated the growth of word-decoding skills throughout the elementary school years for a representative sample of 2,819 Dutch children. Children's decoding abilities for (a) regular consonant-vowel-consonant words, (b) complex monosyllabic words with consonant clusters in prevocalic and postvocalic position, and (c) polysyllabic words were assessed on two occasions in each school year (Grades 1–6). The growth of word-decoding skills was found to be largely a matter of increased speed. Growth curve analyses showed a gradual curvilinear model to be superior to a step-model for all word-decoding skills. Furthermore, the three measures of word decoding define a common factor and show strong longitudinal stability. Some unique variance for the three word-decoding skills also emerged suggesting that the development of fully proficient word-decoding skills requires the learning of orthographic complexities.