The educational landscape in America is changing every day. The need for effective teachers, especially those in agricultural education, remains a high priority. This national study sought to identify the human capital (i.e., education, training, skills, and experiences) necessary for effective school-based agricultural education teachers. The…

In the 1990s, higher education institutions began to dedicate substantial resources to support the integration of service-learning (SL) in courses across university campuses. However, a dearth in the knowledge base endures in regard to understanding how faculty members', and especially agricultural education teacher educators', underlying beliefs…

This study investigated the factor structure of the Perceived Costs of Studying Abroad Instrument (PCoSAI), as adapted from the expectancy-value-cost model instrument, with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) from 1 independent sample of students enrolled in a College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at Oklahoma State…

To date, agricultural students' motivations regarding study abroad courses using the expectancy value-cost model of motivation have not been incorporated into study abroad research as potential factors influencing their choices to participate. In this paper, we present agricultural students' conceptualizations of their motivations to participate…

Understanding the teaching and learning paradigm is a relentless search for educators. Because individual students bring their own learning style preferences to the learning environment, teachers are asked to consider and even adjust their teaching to these preferences to improve student learning. In Kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory,…

Service-learning (SL) appears to have influenced school-based, agricultural education (SBAE) since its early inception. And current trends suggest the method may be gaining increased interest in the discipline. However, little is known about the role that agricultural education teacher educators' beliefs and intentions play in deterring SL's use…

Ensuring food security for a growing populace amidst an aging farmer population together with a decline in youth engagement in agriculture remains a global challenge. This is more distressing for developing countries, such as Uganda, that rely on subsistence farming to meet their food production demands, including job-creation for at least 75% of…

The Planning the Community Program in Agricultural Education course exists to provide preservice teachers in agricultural education with knowledge about FFA and supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs). As such, pre-service teachers embarked on a six-week project-based learning experience in Spring 2016 in which they raised a pen of broilers…

Experiential learning is an important pedagogical approach used in secondary agricultural education. Though anecdotal evidence supports the use of experiential learning, a paucity of empirical research exists supporting the effects of this approach when compared to a more conventional teaching method, such as direct instruction. Therefore, the…

The purpose of this photovoice study was to investigate what and how pre-service teachers conceive and make meaning of exploration observations of early field experiences (EFEs). EFEs are vital components of the teacher preparation program and include all activities that occur in pre-service teacher education prior to student teaching, including…

The purpose of this experimental study was to assess the effects of cognitive style, problem complexity, and hypothesis generation on the problem solving ability of school-based agricultural education students. Problem solving ability was defined as time to solution. Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Inventory was employed to assess students' cognitive…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of two contrasting pedagogies (i.e., experiential learning and direct instruction) on students' retention of agricultural knowledge over time. A six-week deferred post-test was employed to assess long-term retention of the subject matter. The results indicated that initially, students who were…

The purpose of this experimental study was to determine the effects of order of abstraction and type of reflection on student knowledge acquisition. Students were assigned randomly to one of four treatment combinations in the completely randomized 2 x 2 design which included either abstraction prior to or directly after an experience, and either…

Several studies in agricultural education have assessed teacher self-efficacy of novice, first-year, and veteran teachers. Likewise, numerous studies have assessed the time students spend at their cooperating centers. However, a need existed to understand the influence of time allocation on teacher self-efficacy in a way that enabled human…

Agriculture is the nation's largest employer with more than 24 million people working in some phase of the agricultural industry; however, the knowledge and skills needed in today's agricultural industry are lacking. Assuring future generations are agriculturally literate and taught the significance of agriculture is crucial. Systematic delivery…