Author: mmulder

Midterm Research Review Report of ECS received

Last week ECS received the Midterm Research Review Report of the International Advisory Board of the Wageningen Graduate School of Social Sciences. Staff of ECS was very pleased to read:

  • The level of achievements in 2009 was assessed as very good, and since then the group has made remarkable progress in research.
  • The group’s productivity has continued to be strong in all areas of action, and the earning capacity is good.
  • To select competences as key interest and research target will guarantee the further development.
  • Strategic and visionary planning, high developed communication and successful networking establish a combination to strengthen the group.
  • The group has all the capacity to make the future they want, and to reach outstanding results.

We were expecting a very good review result since the global Citation Impact and the global Relative Impact of ECS publications fall in the top 2.5% of the population of competing groups in the social sciences worldwide. Nevertheless, it is rewarding to receive a positive Research Review Report like this.

 

Course on Competence-Based Curriculum Development in Kenya successfully implemented

The course on Competence-Based Curriculum Development in Nuffic project 126 in Kenya, which took place on January 30 and 31, 2013, was successfully implemented. Representatives of KARI, FPEAK, JKUAT and Africa React actively participated in the two-day programme. Trainers were Renate Wesselink, Hansje Eppink and myself. In total 10 participants received a certificate of successful completion. See pictures for an impression. Interested in a course on Competence-Based Curriculum Development? Constact us.

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Europea conference in Wageningen: April 17, 2013

Europea Netherlands exists 20 years. To celebrate that an international conference will be organized in Wageningen on April 17, 2013. Europea is the European Association of Agricultural Educators and is chaired by Mr Ton Stok. Secretay is Mrs Evelien Kist. Further information can be obtained from A. Stok, (a.stok@wellant.nl). The theme of the conference is: International focus on the region. Topics will be regional development in Europe, alignment of green education and top sectors and the position of the Netherlands in Europe.

Omid Noroozi Doctor Cum Laude

On January 11, 2013, Omid Noroozi successfully defended his dissertation ‘Fostering Argumentation-Based Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education’. The promotion committee decided to grant Omid the distinction ‘Cum Laude’, which is very special, because only 3% of all PhD candidates of Wageningen University get this disctinction. Congratulations Omid.

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WBREN meeting October 2012 Wageningen

On October 8-10, 2012, the WBREN project partners met in Wageningen. ECS hosted the meeting. The basic purpose of the meeting was to get the group of partners acquainted with rural development and the place of education and training in that in the Netherlands. The group reported good progress with the project, but a lot still had to be done. We are fortunate that the EU granted and extension of the project of one year. I am a bit late with this post. But here it is, pictures included.

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Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension (JAEE) was analyzed by bibliometricians for possible submission to Thomson and Reuters for inclusion in the Social Science Citation Index. The ‘mock’ 2011 Impact Factor is 0,55, which is just below the middle of the journal list in the field of Education and Educational Research, thus being a Q3 journal. We will wait until this Impact Factor is a bit higher so that the JAEE will be a Q2 journal. This will probably take a year. Then we will resubmit the journal.

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Paper on Inquiry-Based Science Education Competencies printed

The article of Alake-Tuenter, E.; Biemans, H. J. A.; Tobi, H.; Wals, A.E.J., Oosterheert, I. & Mulder, M. (2012).  Inquiry-Based Science Education Competencies of Primary School Teachers: A literature study and critical review of the American National Science Education Standards. International journal of science education, 34, 17, pp. 2609-2640 is now printed and published. For the abstract go to http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500693.2012.669076?prevSearch=alake&searchHistoryKey=

Pedagogy of interdisciplinary teaching

For many years integral approaches of curriculum development have been popular. The complaint was that school subjects were too isolated, universities suffered from overspecialisation and fragmentation, and that interdisciplinary education was badly needed. Examples of interdisciplinary approaches were social science in secondary and world orientation in elementary education. New subjects like beta and technology and design and research are more recent examples. In higher education there is a lot of attention for interdisciplinarity as problems in reality do not present themselves according to disciplinary lines. There are even a very limited higher education study programs which can be named mono-disciplinary. However, the empirical foundation of the pedagogy of interdisciplinary education is lacking. Elsbeth Spelt was among the first researchers who noted that. She started to study pedagogical rules for interdisciplinary education. Her first publication  Teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education: A systematic review (Elisabeth JH Spelt,  Harm JA Biemans,  Hilde Tobi,  Pieternel A Luning,  Martin Mulder) (2009). Educational Psychology Review. Volume 21, Issue 4, Pages 365-378, investigated research on this issue, and concluded with a model for interdisciplinary education analysis. We are waiting to see more from her since she has analysed a course on Food Quality Management at Wageningen University. From this research it is expected that the efficacy of design rules for interdisciplinary education are tested.