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…

Forest landowners are an important target audience for many state Extension programs. Acknowledging the differences and associations between landownership values, characteristics, and educational preferences of forest landowners should lead to improvement of educational programs and ensuring that educational needs are being met. Through an…

The provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) include (1) the requirement for states to periodically review resource allocation in local education agencies (LEAs) serving a significant number of schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement (CSI),…

This report by Paul Woodgates explores change initiatives in higher education institutions, considering why they are needed and why they are difficult to deliver. He outlines how universities should carefully design change projects to maximise impact and likelihood of success.

The Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC) is federally funded to provide high-impact, customized, and responsive capacity-building technical assistance to state educational agencies (SEAs) in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. In 2022, R15CC established a regional Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Collaborative for SEA leaders in…

Producing local materials is a challenge to mother tongue education programs especially in linguistically diverse contexts. To address this, a five-day teacher training program on materials localization for K-3 teachers in a linguistically diverse area in the Philippines was designed and implemented. The program was based on frameworks about…

Due to the nature of Extension, work across counties differs because efforts are grounded in the needs of a community and intentional programming helps address these needs. A common competency required for entry-stage Extension professionals is program development, which includes planning, design, implementation, and evaluation. Understanding a…

In response to the needs of an international workforce, English for Specific Purpose courses are being promoted in higher education, and instructors are turning to learning technology to help design the instruction. In this paper, a needs analysis was conducted to guide the design of the system, materials and activities for context-aware…

This qualitative study describes and interprets how two educational leadership programs, participants in the UCEA (University Council for Educational Administration) Program Design Network Improvement Community, identified and responded to a problem of practice by focusing on the needs of each program regarding the recruitment, selection,…

The purpose of this research is to design an educational effectiveness model for the employees of the selected organization with a system dynamics approach in Iran. In order to achieve the research goal, a sequential mixed method has been used, which includes two qualitative and quantitative parts. In the qualitative part of the research,…

Our nation's economy and global competitiveness depend on an educated, skilled workforce that can quickly adapt to changes in technology and business processes. Adult educators understand that adult learners need opportunities to obtain workplace and career management skills through work-based learning experiences that prepare them for the complex…

Across the nation, many outdoor adventure education programs are becoming shorter in duration. The purpose of this study was to determine if instructors alter targeted course outcomes and course processes because of shorter amounts of student field time. Data collection involved interviews with staff from the Colorado Outward Bound School. Results…

Due to an increasing number of children under the age of three attending early childhood education and care (ECEC), there is an increasing need for high-quality care settings. In addition to primary caregivers, ECEC teachers are important socializers of children's emotional development and may become children's attachment figures. Early preventive…

This report presents the activity systems analysis of the general MOOC design process adopted by a multidisciplinary team for delivering edX courses to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This report builds on Freire's (2020) exploratory case study [EJ1275469], which applied work-based learning theory and activity systems theory to determine…

Children face increased demands for interpersonal as well as learning-related social skills, especially by the vulnerable stage of school entry, due to the more structured setting, new academic requirements, and the fact that children are supposed to interact successfully within a larger and heterogeneous peer group. Although a plethora of…