The impact that ‘connection to agriculture’ has on children’s
motivation to engage in an agricultural learning
Hideyuki Fujiu

Mie Katsuno
Painted by Mayumi, K.

Doctoral Program in Lifespan DevelopmentalSciences, Graduate School of Comprehensive HumanSciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Introduction
Despite Society for the Promotion of National Rural
Youth Education (2009) reported that about 80% of theelementary school in Japan engages in an agricultural learning
experience, there is no sufficient research about that.

Figure 1. Implementation of agriculturallearning experience in elementaryschools in Japan (n = 527)
Source: Society for the Promotion ofNational Rural Youth Education (2009)

Figure 2. Implementation of agriculturallearning experience in each grade in elementary schools in Japan (n = 527)
Source: Society for the Promotion of
National Rural Youth Education (2009)

Objection
The objective of this study was to investigate how
children’s motivation to engage in an agricultural learning
experience of rice farming changed before and after thislearning experience, as well as what effects their ‘connection
to agriculture’ had on their engagement with it.

Methods
The research subjects were 883 fifth graders (542 validresponses) at an elementary school that provides experienceof rice farming for its students in an agricultural area in Japan.
The surveys were conducted twice, before and after theexperience of rice farming in April to May and in Septemberto October, 2012.

Division of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences,
University of Tsukuba, JapanResults
The results of the surveys, variables of 'connection toagriculture' (created by applying the ‘connection to nature’ ofCheng & Monroe(2011)) showed a significant positive
correlation with intrinsic motivation and high autonomous
extrinsic motivation to experience of rice farming (‘motivation
to experience of rice farming’ created by applying the‘motivation to learn’ of Andou et al.(2008)), in both of pre-test
and post-test of experience of rice farming . From theseresults, the mixed-model analysis of variance was applied to‘connection to agriculture’ which was divided into three groupsof low, middle, high group, and each variable of motivation toexperience of rice farming in pre-test and post-test. A
significant improvement was shown in intrinsic motivation (F(1,539)=29.96, p<.001, ηG2= .053, F (1,539)=4.41, p<.05, ηG2 =.008) (ηG2 was calculated using the method of Bakeman(2005))
and high autonomous extrinsic motivation (F (1,539)=24.24,p<.001, ηG2= .043, F (1,539)=4.23, p<.05, ηG2= .008) toexperience of rice farming to post-test from pre-test among
the groups of children with low and medium ‘connections toagriculture’. Furthermore, the group with a high ‘connection toagriculture’ maintained their high levels of intrinsic motivationand high autonomous motivation, while their low autonomous
extrinsic motivation significantly decreased (F (1,539)=16.39,p<.001, ηG2= .030).
Table 1. Confirmatory factor analysis ofconnection to agriculture
Factorloadings

Table 2. Measure of motivation to experience
rice farming
Intrinsic motivation
Because I like learning new things.
Because I am happy when I learn something new.

Enjoyment of agriculture
Being in a rice field or vegetable garden makes me happy.

.82

Because I think rice farming is interesting.

I like to be in a rice field or vegetable garden.

.81

Because it is interesting to learn new things through the experience of rice

I like to see rice fields or vegetable gardens.

.80

farming.

I like to hear the wind in the rice field or vegetable garden.

.74

Because I enjoy the experience of rice farming.

When I feel sad, I like to go to a rice field or vegetable garden.

.73

High autonomous extrinsic motivation

I like to garden.

.72

Because I think the experience of rice farming is important to maintain life.

I enjoy seeing crops grow.

.72

Because I think the experience of rice farming will be useful in the future.

Empathy for creatures

Because we could be in trouble in the future if we don't gain experience in rice

I like to see creatures in the rice field.

.86

farming now.

I want to catch the creatures in the rice field.

.71

Low autonomous extrinsic motivation

I feel sad when creatures in the rice field die.

.74

Because I will be scolded if I don’t take the experience of rice farming

I enjoy touching creatures and plants in the rice field.

.82

seriously.

Sense of onenessBecause I would like to be thought of as doing my best for my classmates.

People cannot live without farmers.

.49

Humans are part of the natural world.

.59

Sense of responsibility
We have a responsibility to maintain the rice fields and vegetable.70

gardens in our area for the next generation.
Eating agricultural products from our region leads to supporting the.74

Because I don’t want to be scolded by my parents or teacher.
Because I will be praised if I excel at rice farming.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and α of motivation
to experience rice farming
Mean

local agriculture.

pretest

GFI= .91, AGFI= .88, CFI= .93, TLI= .91, RMSEA= .08
Riceplanting

posttest

Intrinsic motivation
Hihg autonomous extrinsic motivation
Low autonomous extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation
Hihg autonomous extrinsic motivation
Low autonomous extrinsic motivation

3.02
2.80
1.46
3.20
2.95
1.41

SD
0.86
0.89
0.53
0.82
0.86
0.53

α
0.87
0.76
0.62
0.88
0.77
0.64

Weeding,
Observation

soil
pudding

ScarecrowmakingPaddy
seeding

Tadpole in the rice field,
Painted by Imamura

Threshing
Polishingrice

Pre-test

Ricereaping

Post-test

Cooking,
Harvestfestival

Figure 3. Flow of rice farming lesson (Image).

Figure 4. Changes in intrinsic
motivation to experience rice
farming at each level of conn
ection to agriculture

Figure 5. Changes in high autonomous extrinsic motivation toexperience rice farming at eachlevel of connection to agriculture

Figure 6. Changes in low autonomous extrinsic motivation toexperience rice farming at eachlevel of connection to agriculture

Discussion
These results suggest that the children’s motivation of
the experience of rice farming was increased by the experienceof rice farming and that their connection to agriculture affected
their willingness to engage in this experience.

AcknowledgmentsThanks to students, teachers, farmers, and all others whohave cooperated in this study.