The three articles included in this dissertation are connected through theory and practice. Study one identifies the factors influencing Extension agents' participation in supplemental professional development opportunities using Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior. Study two was a systematic investigation of Extension personnel's…

With the establishment of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, communities have depended on Extension Agents to address relevant needs. Extension Agents have used different approaches such as the Texas Community Futures Forum to obtain information on issues affecting people. The problem was that Texas Community Futures Forums have never…

This article describes the curriculum and program development process that was used to create the North Carolina Extension Master Food Volunteer program. We used a rigorous program development process, including conducting a needs assessment, piloting and evaluating the program, incorporating revisions based on feedback, and receiving external…

Extension has recently begun delivering physical activity programs, but delivering evidence-based interventions is a challenge. To increase adoption of evidence-based interventions, a better understanding of agents' perceptions and needs is necessary. The purpose of this research was to conduct a readiness assessment to identify organizational…

This article describes how Extension professionals and university faculty collaborated on the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a conference to address a key societal issue. Needs assessment and evaluation results are presented as well as an explanation of how results were used in planning future conferences. With limited Extension…

New Extension educators experience a steep learning curve when attempting to develop effective Extension programs. Formative evaluation is helpful to new, and experienced, Extension educators in determining the changes necessary for making programs more effective. Formative evaluation is an essential part of program evaluation. However, its use…

As states face tough economic times, extension organizations are increasingly emphasizing the importance of evaluation data to show program value. However, little is known about the evaluation skills and abilities of extension professionals expected to collect such data. This knowledge would help inform professional development opportunities…

Raising evaluation capacity is not an easy task unless the evaluation competence of Extension professionals in each program area is identified. The study reported here identified whether level of knowledge and skills and needs for further training in program evaluation vary for Extension educators based on their program area. A total of 752…

A module on disease prevention was created for 4-H volunteer leaders who work with livestock projects in Washington to better prepare them to teach youth about bio-security and its importance in 4-H livestock projects. Evaluation of the module and usage statistics since the module's debut were collected and evaluated. The module increases…

Pennsylvania extension educators (n=228) find it increasingly difficult to participate in inservice education, desire more distance delivery and an active voice in program planning, and would like inservice to be integrated into their plan of work. Past inservice experiences lacked quality in content and instruction. (SK)

A study of the training needs of extension specialists in 1890 land-grant institutions concludes with the finding that the greatest need for training is in the area of evaluating and reporting extension programs. Data were collected from questionnaires returned by 81 extension specialists and 14 extension administrators. (Author/EC)

Two land-grant universities cooperated with the Extension Service and the National Agricultural Library to identify the knowledge and research base of Extension 4-H Youth Development education and to abstract/compile the foundation materials to strengthen research-based 4-H youth development education throughout the United States. The resources…

Measurement of the organizational effectiveness of the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) could be enhanced by utilizing a multidimensional perspective in measuring outcomes of various organizational activities, particularly the Extension educational system of program development. Because multiple and conflicting environmental constraints, goals,…

During the summer of 1986, two groups of 25 agriculture teachers from Central America participated in 1-month training programs designed to improve their knowledge and use of effective teaching methods, to develop agricultural skills appropriate to Central America, and to provide a thorough understanding of Louisiana agricultural enterprises and…

These proceedings contain 48 presentations and 15 poster abstracts. Papers include "Computer Tasks Required in Selected Undergraduate Agriculture Courses" (Johnson, Ferguson, Vokinnns, Lester); "College of Agriculture Faculty Perceptions of Electronic Technologies in Teaching" (Dooley, Murphy); "Steering Through Turbulent…