In recent years, Animal Science demographics have been shifting from many students having an abundance of animal experience towards a majority of students having little to no prior animal experience. It's important to note this demographic shift and to consider how this shift could be impacting student mental health. Throughout a semester long…

Teacher recruitment and retention in the United States has been deemed an issue across all disciplines and grade-levels. School-based agricultural education (SBAE) is no exception to this issue, where for decades a national shortage of qualified agriculture teachers has persisted. According to the 2021 Illinois Agricultural Education Annual…

This unique thought experiment invites the field of agricultural education to a critical dialogue on issues related to making teaching a career. Leveraging elicitation techniques, we introduce a series of nine letters on agriculture teacher retention. Written by agriculture teacher education faculty with expertise in teacher retention, these…

As beef industry trends have evolved, beef producers are looking for value-added beef practices and marketing strategies. To ensure that a new value-added beef Extension program framework at Iowa State University aligns with beef producers' needs, a needs assessment instrument was created. We developed a needs assessment tool focused on program…

Teachers may be hesitant to implement STEM-based agriculture programs due to their perceived low self-efficacy in the subject area. More deliberate professional development resources for educators can be refined by understanding how their beliefs impact students' learning and interest. The objective of this study was to determine how teachers'…

Purpose: Many environmental problems are due to the unfavorable environmental intentions and cultural-behavioral weaknesses in the relationship between man and nature. This study aims to adopt an environmental psychological perspective to green intention (GI) and green behavior (GB) of agricultural students; to this end, protection motivation…

School-Based agricultural education increasingly depends upon alternatively certified (AC) teachers to teach agriculture across the United States. Understanding why these individuals become teachers is an important step to better recruit and retain educators who do not complete traditional preparation programs. The purpose of our study was to…

Currently, nations grapple with a noticeable shortage of STEM talent, particularly within fields like agroforestry. The study applied the structural equation modelling and the mediation effect model to analyze the mechanisms through which STEM value perception influences STEM career preferences, as well as the roles played by STEM self-efficacy…

This paper investigated the determinant of youth participation in agricultural training programs using the case of Fadama program. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 977 respondents comprising of 455 participants and 522 non-participants. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The…

Purpose: Agriculture globally is undergoing a period of change driven by policy and environmental factors. This study focuses on further education in England, defined as a study after secondary education that is not part of higher education. Specifically, it explores how changes in the agricultural sector impact the practice of agriculture…

The lack of real-life experiences, such as handling livestock at a production facility (e.g., ranch), exists for a variety of reasons such as availability, liability, time, and cost, amongst others. As more students enter undergraduate animal science programs without prior exposure to animal handling, the necessity for more hands-on, real-life…

Agricultural education is critical in addressing complex problems around food and agriculture systems. One such method for educating citizens about agriculture is postsecondary agricultural education programming. Specifically, experiential learning is widely used at the post-secondary level to achieve powerful, goal-oriented, academic learning.…

Online postgraduate courses for professionals often use discussion forums to promote engagement and interaction. Equivalency theorem suggests that student-student interaction may increase satisfaction but is not necessary for achieving desired learning outcomes. Therefore, costs, as well as benefits, should be ascertained. We used data from…

Significant numbers of studies declare the effectiveness of "active learning" and numerous universities develop programs to support the incorporation of active learning methods, yet despite various incentives, adoption is met with resistance. This work shares the results of a study of instructor perceptions about active learning at a…

The purpose of the study was to examine the confluence of agricultural literacy, what it means to be agriculturally literate, and if a gap between agricultural literacy and being agriculturally literate existed. Two primary research questions framed this study: 1) How do agriculture professionals define agricultural literacy? 2) What does it mean…