Design/Methodology/Approach: Guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study followed a correlational design and survey data were conveniently collected from 200 farmers of Trinidad.

Findings: Findings showed most farmers of the sample knew how to send and receive text messages, and many owned Internet-enabled smartphones. In addition, most farmers were willing to communicate with extension officers through text messages.

Practical Implications: Ministry Extension should revisit and revise their policies of communicating with farmers. Administrators should encourage extension officers to use SMS to respond to farmers’ requests and information needs.

Theoretical Implications: While the UTAUT provided an appropriate framework for understanding farmers’ use of text messaging, researchers should tailor the moderator variables to the country’s context.

Originality/Value: This study is the first to look at farmers’ willingness to use two-way information communication technologies in Trinidad. Results showed there is potential for Ministry Extension to use text messaging to communicate with farmers.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a model of four reflective practice modules conceived as successive building blocks in the professional development of a reflective agricultural advisor and examines the model through the lens of theory and the lens of experience of the first cohort of students to complete the programme.

Findings: Experiential learning with structured critical reflection is shown to support the integration of knowledge gained into new professional identities as agricultural advisors.

Practical Implications: Curricula for higher education in agricultural extension need to be revitalised and refreshed to address the mismatch between the emphasis on the social dimensions of extension in the literature and the general lack of attention to this in the education and formation of agricultural advisors.

Theoretical Implications: The paper presents a model of reflective practice that draws on experiences in other professions that could be applied to early career and continuing professional development for agricultural advisors.

Originality/Value: By presenting a model for reflective practice, the author intends to stimulate a wider discussion on the importance of the different levels of reflection in agricultural extension higher education.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: FFSs that are commonly used in guiding rural development processes involve a long process of preparation, weekly meetings and dissemination of new technologies with a greater knowledge flows from researchers or institutions to farmers than contrariwise. We have simplified FFS components and modified its curriculum focusing on extracting and integrating farmers’ feedback into adaptation measures. Surveys were conducted and their results were validated through focus group discussions, which provided an adequate database to simplify the steps in the FFS approach.

Findings: Only four meetings for agroecosystems analysis that emphasised an analytical and reflective learning cycle generated suitable adaptation measures selected from farmers’ feedback. Repetition of the shortened FFS over several rice cropping cycles proved more effective than the frequent meetings within one cropping cycle.

Practical implications: The modified FFS could be considered as a promising approach to training farmers, whilst simultaneously identifying and discovering adaptations of agricultural innovations and monitoring the evolution of complex polycultures like CRSs, under diverse conditions.

Theoretical implications: The modified FFS provides participants additional time to reflect on the training topics, resulting in a significant improvement in their knowledge and the performance of the CRS.

Originality/value: The modified FFS approach is focused on reflexive learning cycles and adaptation of innovations. Therefore, it is highly suitable for management of complex polycultures such as CRSs.  相似文献   

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a mediational model providing the factors accounting for Taiwanese junior high school adolescents’ science learning self-efficacy (SLSE), especially from the perspectives of both interpersonal and intrapersonal factors.

Design: We therefore proposed a mediational model to delineate the relationships among students’ perceived responses to capitalization attempts – science learning (PRCA-SL), science learning hardiness (SLH) and SLSE by conducting structural equation modeling (SEM).

Sample: A total of 1,170 junior high school students in Taiwan were invited to take part in the study.

Results: The results confirmed our hypothesis that students’ PRCA-SL fostered their science learning hardiness, which in turn contributed to their science learning self-efficacy.

Conclusions: The findings confirmed the mediational model wherein science learning hardiness completely mediated the relationship between PRCA-SL and science learning self-efficacy.  相似文献   

Purpose: This study examined Grades 5 and 9 students’ views of uncertainty in their personal scientific research and the formal scientific research of professionals.

Sample: This study included 33 students in Grade 5 (n = 17) and Grade 9 (n = 16). The students were recruited from a charter school that emphasised inquiry instruction.

Design and methods: Data were collected through interviews. Students were asked their views of their inquiry-based projects and their views of professional science.

Results: Interview data and statistical analyses indicated that students recognized uncertainty in personal science, which varied across elements of the scientific process. Additionally, their views of uncertainty in formal science tended to change across grades and knowledge of uncertainty in personal and formal science were positively correlated.

Conclusion: These findings offer insights into the processes by which students come to understand uncertainty in science and point to ways of fostering such knowledge through teaching practices.  相似文献   

Objective: This study aimed at testing a hypothesized model of achievement in CS in terms of the learner and the learning environment characteristics.

Method: Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a random sample of 315 eleventh and twelfth-grade advanced CS students (28% girls). Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was utilized to test the proposed structural model.

Findings: The hypothesized structural model fits the data reasonably, yet five of the 17 assumed effects were not significant. A modified model with only significant effects fit the data well and accounted for 41% of the variance. Mathematics achievement, self-efficacy and classroom learning environment are the most influential variables on achievement in CS.

Implications: The findings bear important implication for helping students by resolving obstacles that obstruct their learning and achievement.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: To identify sustainability perspectives, this research uses Q-methodology which analyzes individual perspectives on sustainability, their differences, and similarities. This research also employs focus group discussions and interviews. In three regions in Indonesia.

Findings: Q-method resulted in two perspectives. The technologists perceive sustainable agriculture as food security and the use of organic pesticides. They also believe that the responsibility for sustainable agriculture lies with extension workers and governments. The environmentalists believe the concept of sustainability implies the active prevention of environmental degradation. They also believe that everybody should take responsibility for sustainability. The paper determines that boundary work needs highly motivated extension workers; the ability to gain trust from farmers; and government support.

Theoretical implication: This paper contributes to the literature on boundary work by connecting the concept of boundary work to agricultural extension.

Practical implication: The results may be used as inputs for Indonesian policymakers to develop a guideline on sustainable agriculture for extension workers.

Originality/value: In current studies on extension workers in developing countries, an analytical framework which employs the concept of boundary work is hardly found. Boundary work is a relevant concept to depict challenges extension workers are confronted with when brokering. Q-methodology aims to obtain individual perspective on a particular issue. This research provides insight on individual perspectives of extension workers on sustainable agriculture.  相似文献   

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify preservice teachers’ ideas about how to increase students’ long-term interest in science.

Sample: The participants were 235 preservice primary teachers and 33 preservice secondary science teachers.

Design and Methods: Data collection was by questionnaire, interview and classroom observations.

Results: It was found that participants in both primary and secondary groups had very similar ideas about how to develop pupils’ long-term interest in science. These ideas mainly involved the use of hands-on activities, making science relevant, and using student-centred strategies or electronic media to make lessons fun and to enhance engagement. These can be interpreted as representing sources of situational interest (i.e. short-term interest arousal). These ideas broadly parallel the current theory on interest development, such that long-term individual interest is thought to develop from repeated experiences of short-term, situational interest.

Conclusion: The participants’ ideas in this study were intuitive, because they were not derived from an understanding of theory, but rather from their personal experiences of interest arousal at university, school and practicum. Nevertheless, their ideas were workable for a practitioner, because they broadly paralleled current theory on interest development.  相似文献   

Purpose The study examined how an interactive theatre performance, where professional actors deliver a performance but invite regular audience participation as a way to promote active learning, benefited both understanding of plant reproduction and attitudes towards plants. Perceptions of the play and the way in which specific elements influenced learning and emotions were examined in detail and placed in a theoretical context.

Sample Opportunity sampling was used to recruit participants from five public primary schools in Devon, UK. One hundred and forty-four students (aged 9–11 years) participated in the study.

Design and methods A mixed methods approach was adopted. Quantitative analysis of pre- and post-intervention knowledge tests involved t-tests and repeated measures ANCOVA. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews made use of an emerging theme analysis with a priori categories.

Results Pre- and post-intervention tests indicated an increase in both knowledge of plant reproduction and positive attitudes towards plants. Follow-up interviews identified elements that were particularly beneficial for learning and enjoyment, including the thematic singing, humour, novelty of the play, visual elements and participatory art activities.

Conclusions This case study demonstrates the potential that an interactive theatre production offers for enhancing appreciation and interest in school science while improving knowledge.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: A review of the literature highlights that entry to a working life in agriculture has been characterised by protracted farm succession processes; a strong association between being a farmer and owning land in the family name; lingering male identities esteeming manual labour; and a pragmatic need at farm level for manual work. The abolition of milk quota in 2015 was predicted to catalyse expansion of production on dairy farms with an increase in milk production; accompanied by a demand for qualified personnel. The BNIM method was employed.

Findings: Results confirm that agricultural education is perceived and experienced as offering new pathways for young farmers to enter the occupational category of ‘farmer’, helping to manoeuvre around the constraints of non-inheritance. The students’ narratives evidenced managerial identities, being strongly influenced by encountering management approaches through their agricultural education. All students desired to eventually own a farm someday and to be to employed as a professional dairy farm manager was a perceived as an intermediary goal.

Practical implication: Discontinuation of the traditional family farming model based on family farm/land ownership is not imminent even among a cohort qualified to become employed dairy farm managers.

Theoretical implication: This paper contributes to theoretical framework which highlights the shift in farmer masculine identity and the career trajectory of graduates of specialised agricultural education programmes.  相似文献   

Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by 283 school and district leaders to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Interview data were provided by 23 school leaders. Variables in the model included Network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, and outcomes.

Findings: Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data and, as a whole, explained 51% of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes, followed closely by the effects of Network Health and Network Connectivity. Interview data confirmed the nature of variables measured by the survey and added additional features for future research. Most results replicated the previous study.

Research Limitation: The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organised within districts, not networks organised by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalised to other types of networks.

Practical implication: In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Originality: Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.  相似文献   

Methodology: Relevance and knowledge levels were tested through a teaching competency questionnaire developed and run on 292 respondents fitting into administrator, faculty and student groups. Needs Assessment Model by Borich [1980. “A Needs Assessment Model for Conducting Follow-up Studies.” Journal of Teacher Education 31 (3): 39–42] is used to identify training needs.

Findings: Results indicate differences in perceptions among groups towards teaching competencies. Prioritized training needs were identified which provide the content and direction for the development of faculty in-service educational programmes.

Practical implications: Faculty of agricultural universities need periodic in-service training programmes in order to improve their teaching competencies so that they become effective and competent teachers in the present educational environment.

Theoretical implications: The statistically validated methodological framework provides for capturing the perception of all stakeholders on the teaching competencies among the faculty members of Agricultural Universities in India, and offers a scope for scaling up the study for similar educational setting in the region.

Originality/value: The perception of students and administrators was also considered along with the self-perception of faculty about the relevance and knowledge levels of teaching competencies.  相似文献   

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study engaged 30 farmers’ children in high school level from the provinces of Pangasinan, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Bukidnon, and Davao del Norte from November 2016 to October 2017. They interacted with the research team (the authors) and the RCM-SMS platform that sends text messages regarding fertilizer recommendations. A staff member from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) also called the students for some follow-up questions. The research team conducted three rounds of interviews with the students concerning the messages and calls that they received and what they did with the information.

Findings: This study finds that farmers’ children can perform infomediary roles quite effectively. Academically excellent children and those involved in farm work performed best.

Practical Implications: The study provides guidance on similar initiatives tapping young people in agricultural development.

Theoretical Implications: This paper finds that while Community Youth Development (CYD) Theory provides a powerful lens in understanding community and youth development intersections, some identified outcomes may overlap and may not be very easy to observe. Hence, the identified outcomes may be revisited for clarity and to make them more all-encompassing.

Originality/Value: The paper documents actual parent-child interaction when the latter is mobilized to serve as an infomediary to access nutrient management-related information on rice.  相似文献   

Design/Methodology/approach: A detailed ethnographic account is presented of three multi-actor co-design cases, supporting diverse readers’ interpretations and learnings.

Findings: Three paradoxes were identifiable from the multi-actor processes: (1) outputs can be orphaned when they lack strong identifiers and affiliations with discrete professional communities outside of the co-design team; (2) combining diverse knowledges co-design can generate outputs that are new and strange (rather than familiar and acceptable) to end-users; (3) for Responsible Research and Innovation, co-creating interventions that are challenging (rather than popular) to society may be required.

Practical implications: Awareness of dynamics and paradoxes arising in the implementation of multi-actor co-design supports enhanced facilitation of processes and impacts of outcomes. Together, the paradoxes highlight the critical importance of communications and engagement initiatives across diverse communities in the aftermath of co-design efforts.

Theoretical implications: Although co-design processes are case-dependent, reflexive accounts of how they play out contribute to the body of knowledge of how co-design may be better understood. The cases in this paper identify paradoxes with implications for principles and theory of multi-actor co-design.

Originality/Value: This paper presents a detailed account of three unique co-design processes. Practical and theoretical implications of the cases are identified.  相似文献   

Design and methodology: We used participatory action research (PAR) in a programme building sustainable farming practices for nutrition and income in Solomon Islands as our case study. Two qualitative PAR data streams were analysed: (i) documentation of community activities over three years including action planning, learning activities, training workshops, focus group discussions, key informant and informal interviews and (ii) documentation of the research teams’ own learning and reflection sessions.

Findings: Agricultural research and learning activities facilitated through PAR can help researchers and extension officers see, understand and challenge processes that cause social exclusion and marginalisation and lead to inequitable access to agricultural opportunities. A combination of (i) starting with a collective vision; (ii) facilitating systematic reflection exercises; and (iii) having locally tuned facilitators creating safe spaces; makes processes of social exclusion tangible, discussable and ultimately actionable, illustrating the potential of the research and extension processes to facilitate social change in real time.

Theoretical Implications: The paper makes a contribution to the growing body of theory and literature on innovation systems and people-centred approaches to agricultural development, by highlighting the facilitation challenges and opportunities that can create more learning focused and power-aware agricultural programming.

Practical Implications: Our approach, examined in this paper, can improve implementation of policies such as the Solomon Islands Agriculture and Livestock Sector Policy (2015–2019), which aims for active participation of women and youth in agricultural development.

Originality: Using a PAR approach to discover how agricultural research and extension activities can help transform the processes that cause social exclusion and create disadvantage and marginalisation.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: We applied principles of Transformative Learning and Communicative Action theories to design a learning process structured by the Qualitative Expert Assessment Tool for Conservation Agriculture Adoption in Africa (QAToCA). Elements of the process include: agroecosystem health exploration, stakeholder mapping, innovation timeline, participatory video, the QAToCA exercise, and specifying change promotion. We tested this approach with a group of farmers and experts in Koumbia, Burkina Faso.

Findings: The agroecosystem in Koumbia is under demographic, economic, and climatic pressure. Conservation Agriculture has not been successfully integrated into socio-economic realities or implemented beyond a trial scale. The stakeholder mapping showed that dominant economic players and traditional means of communicating are essential to achieve innovation. Past interventions were not coordinated and focused on technical challenges. The participatory videos were rich in contextual information and created process ownership for research participants. The QAToCA provided a structure for lessons learned and suggestions for change.

Practical implications: The learning process may be applied to initiate innovation initiatives in an efficient manner.

Theoretical implications: The study shows how Transformative Learning and Communicative Action theories can be used for agricultural innovation. It also underlines the need for further work on how to address the implicit superiority of the process initiator and the integration of learning in institutional practice.

Originality: Few studies have attempted to design and test learning processes on agricultural innovation based on theories of learning and Communicative Action.  相似文献   

Design/methodology/approach: Thirty one respondents from the public and private sector were interviewed using a qualitative approach. Data were analyzed using the Atlas ti qualitative software version 7.5.18 to generate themes for information sources, types and channels. Social network analysis was used to measure the actor centrality positions and influence in the IP network.

Findings: Results revealed seven main categories of actors in the Coffee IPs who shared information on coffee inputs, agronomic practices, processing and markets through three main channels. Level of cohesion was less than 10% which had negative implications on the knowledge flow, trust and collaboration among the actors. Influential positions were occupied by the processors and farmer leaders in IPs in the southern districts of Luwero and Rakai, while nursery operators were most influential in IPs of the western districts of Ntungamo and Bushenyi. Weak linkages within the social networks indicated that initiatives of the actors were fragmented, as each actor acted as an individual detached from the platform activities limiting inter-actor knowledge sharing.

Practical implications: Innovation intermediaries should focus on integrated systemic and innovative approaches to strengthen actor social linkages for knowledge sharing and better platform performance.

Theoretical implications: Actor positions and relationships in innovation networks are critical tenets for fostering knowledge exchange and performance. In an innovation platform, diverse actors are multiple sources for accessing information within a given social and institutional context.

Originality/value: The study contributes to existing debate and knowledge on institutional change in agricultural innovation systems.  相似文献