Agroecology Education: Action-oriented Learning and Research     

Geir Lieblein  Tor Arvid Breland  Charles Francis  Edvin Østergaard 《The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension》2013,19(1):27-40

Abstract

Purpose: This article examines and evaluates the potential contributions from action learning and action research with stakeholders to higher education in agriculture and food systems.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on our experiences over the past two decades of running PhD courses and an MSc degree programme in Agroecology in Norway that have attracted students from the Nordic region and other countries.

Findings: We conclude that collaborating with non-university stakeholders as an integral part of a university course or programme serves four main purposes, two directly related to learning and two that can be considered as practical implications. Firstly, it enables learning about complex topics, a learning that cannot be achieved by merely reading or listening. Secondly, the real-life flare of such activities provides the students with enthusiasm and energy to delve into theory.

Practical Implications: Thirdly, students collaborating with non-university stakeholders connect university and society. Fourthly, this process builds social relevance and civic engagement not found in conventional courses or curricula.

Originality/Value: The article presents conceptual foundations and practical implementation of a unique educational programme in agriculture and food systems.  相似文献   

New Model Naturalism     

Øystein Linnebo 《Metascience》2009,18(3):433-436

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Peregrinatio sive expeditio: Why the First Crusade was not a Pilgrimage     

JANUS MØLLER JENSEN 《Al-Masaq: Islam & the Medieval Mediterranean》2003,15(2):119-137

Introduction Since Hans Eberhard Mayer published his Geschichte der Kreuzzüge in 1965 in which he called for a definition of the concept of crusade the issue has been much debated. I was not personally present at the first conference of The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East that was held in Cardiff in 1983, but according to one eye-witness account the issue was “hotly debated”, and has indeed continued to be so. Central to the discussion has been the question of whether or not crusades only went to the Holy Land or should the term be more generally applied to all papally proclaimed wars, that is between a traditionalist view and a pluralist view. Recently the debate has taken a d0ifferent turn and it has increasingly become a debate about whether the definitions given by modern historians are at all congruous to the medieval phenomenon. In the twelfth century at least there did not exist a term that is congruous to the modern construct of crusade and as John Gilchrist has pointed out, the elements that we are told constituted a crusade – indulgence, pilgrimage, the vow, the remission of sin, an enemy defined by the church – are absent from the canonical collections of the twelfth century. I would not like to say if this modern construct has become “tyrannical”, but it has led at least one English historian, Christopher Tyerman, to ask the question: “Were there any crusades in the twelfth century?” and then conclude in the negative. His conclusions are in fact parallel to the conclusions reached within the study of feudalism, where it has been argued that the concept of feudalism was “invented” by lawyers at the end of the twelfth century under the influence of new-style bureaucratic governments. Historians of the twentieth century, it is possible to argue, used the legal definitions that emerged towards the end of the twelfth century to create the modern concept of crusade. It is, however, obvious from the contemporary sources that people believed that something new was initiated by Urban II (1088–1099) at the council of Clermont in 1095. It is also apparent that the call to arms against the infidels made by Urban II contained some sort of institutional characteristic in the form of new privileges granted to people who wanted to embark upon the expedition to the Holy Land. This, I believe, should be ample reason for us, as historians, to use a word like crusade. But the main conclusion we have to draw from the work of Christopher Tyerman, I think, is to keep in mind that it is not possible to create a matrix of a crusade that applies to the whole crusading period: “The crusade cannot be adequately defined in its own terms because it only existed in relation to the dictates of its shifting western context”.  相似文献   

A Metamodel of Central Inferences in Empirical Research   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：0  

Thorleif Lund 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(4):385-398

The purpose of the present paper is to emphasise the importance of inferences in an empirical study and to demonstrate how the inferences depend on a wider context. For that purpose a metamodel of central inferences is proposed, where each inference is characterised according to three dimensions: relevance, legitimacy, and validity. The relevance of an inference is a function of the research problem and general aim of the study, as well as of the philosophy of science; its legitimacy is given by the philosophy of science, whereas its validity is determined by the empirical methods and data within the study as well as by knowledge outside the study. Moreover, the metamodel includes combinations of the relevant inferences, together with the validities of such combinations, as answers to the research problem. The metamodel is meant to be an appropriate frame for both quantitative and qualitative research.  相似文献   

Academic Self‐concept,Implicit Theories of Ability,and Self‐regulation Strategies     

Yngvar Ommundsen  Richard Haugen  Thorleif Lund 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(5):461-474

The purpose of the present study is to explore how academic self‐concept and implicit theories of ability are related to four self‐regulation strategies—motivation/diligence, concentration, information processing, and self‐handicapping. The hypothesis is that academic self‐concept and an incremental theory of ability are (1) positively related to motivation/diligence, concentration, and information processing strategies, and (2) negatively related to self‐handicapping strategies. On the basis of inventories 168 teacher students and 60 sport students (a total of 178 females and 50 males) were scored on academic self‐concept, incremental and fixed theories of ability and the four self‐regulation strategies. Multiple regression analysis was used for each self‐regulation strategy as dependent variable, and with academic self‐concept and the ability theories as independent variables. Results revealed that an incremental theory had, as predicted, a positive relation with motivation/diligence and concentration, but had only trivial relations with information processing and self‐handicapping, whereas a fixed theory had only the predicted relation with self‐handicapping. As hypothesised, a high academic self‐concept was positively related to motivation/diligence, conception, and information processing and negatively to self‐handicapping. The findings may indicate that, in order to promote meta‐theoretical processing and prevent student from self‐handicapping, it is important to strengthen academic self‐concept, and to foster an incremental conception of ability among students.  相似文献   

Problems of Beginning and More Experienced Teachers in Norway     

Karl Øyvind Jordell 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(3):105-121

Jordell, K.Ø.1985. Problems of Beginning and More Experienced Teachers in Norway. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 29, 105‐121. Based on data from 472 Norwegian teachers, this study concludes that beginning teachers do not seem to perceive their problems significantly differently from more experienced teachers. Even though these results may be due to conditions peculiar to Norway, they also raise questions about the validity of claims that beginning to teach is a traumatic experience, as studies where this is claimed rarely compare perceptions of beginning and more experienced teachers.  相似文献   

Motor Development: Exploring the motor competence of 4-year-old Norwegian children   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Hermundur Sigmundsson  Marianne StØlan Rostoft 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(4):451-459

This study set out to explore motor competence in 4-year-old children. This age group has not been previously tested in Norway. Ninety-one 4-year-old children from ten nursery schools were tested using the Movement ABC test. The most striking finding was that only one out of 91 children would be classified as clumsy within the fifth percentile of the USA norms, with seven children being 'borderline'. The study also showed that out of the eight children failing in the motor impaired and borderline groups, seven were boys. Clear sex differences were also apparent in the development of motor skills. On the total scores and in the two of three sections (manual dexterity and balance) boys were significantly worse than girls. There were no significant differences between the sexes with respect to ball skills competence.  相似文献   

The Correlation Between Causal Change and Initial Status: a methodological study     

Thorleif Lund 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(2):107-114

Based on the division of attained change for each treated individual into causal and non‐causal change, the product‐moment correlation between causal change and initial level is studied and compared with the correlation between attained change and initial level. The former correlation coefficient may be greater than, equal to, or smaller than the latter one, and the discrepancy between the two coefficients may be considerable. Some problems involved with the assessment of the former coefficient are discussed, and it is shown how the two coefficients are differently influenced by measurement errors. The alternative of expressing the relation between causal change and initial status explicitly in interactional terms is pointed out. The division of attained change into causal and non‐causal change is compared with the division of attained change into predicted total change from initial level and the corresponding residual change.  相似文献   

Metrical Solutions for Causal Effects     

Thorleif Lund 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2013,57(3):195-204

Four general criteria are proposed for the choice of a metrical solution: the solution should be compatible with the kind of causal effect in question, be easy to communicate, be unbiased by measurement errors, and be stable across subjects and situations. These criteria are illustrated for various randomized and non‐randomized designs. A distinction is drawn between judgement of an isolated effect and comparison of effects. There is no ‘one correct’ solution, and the metrical unit chosen for comparison will often be a pseudo‐common unit. Consequently, the problem of how to choose an appropriate metrical solution can only be resolved in a vague sense in many cases. It follows that several metrical alternatives, if available, should be applied when comparing effects. The problem of the pseudo‐common unit places several limitations on the possibility of attaining general causal laws.  相似文献   

Choice paths in the Swedish upper secondary education – a critical discourse analysis of recent reforms     

Stefan Lund 《教育政策杂志》2013,28(6):633-648

Decentralisation policy in Sweden emphasises school capitation allowance, the local upper secondary schools’ decision‐making and pupils’ choices in contrast to previous bureaucratic governing. The aim of this article is to discuss how pupils’ educational choice paths are a part of the different kinds of integration and differentiation processes within upper secondary education. By doing so, the intention is to make a theoretical contribution to the ongoing discussion in this research field. In the light of Habermas’s theory of communicative action combined with Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, educational choice paths have been studied as a process within three educational practices in a local quasi‐market in Sweden: (1) choice of upper secondary school, (2) choice of upper secondary programme, and (3) choice of courses and subjects within a programme. Some of the results demonstrate that pupils’ choice paths can be vocation‐oriented, career‐oriented and consumption‐oriented. It is argued that these different types of choice paths are related to a market discourse. Other results demonstrate that pupils’ group‐oriented, interest‐oriented and tradition‐oriented choice paths are built upon an active citizenship discourse, which is about creating meaning in terms of seeking knowledge and establishing social relations in upper secondary education. The analysis of these two paramount discourses indicates that pupils’ integration and differentiation processes are ambiguous.  相似文献