ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Exploring Relationships between Goal Orientation and Conflict Management Capacity Development in Agricultural Leadership Development Program Participants
Author: Lamm, Kevan W.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Goal Orientation,Conflict Resolution,Capacity Building,Agricultural Education,Leadership Training,College Administration

Motivational dispositions behind how learners approach, interpret, and respond to challenging goals can serve as beneficial foundations to conflict management training and implementation. There is a dearth of research connecting the constructs of goal orientation and conflict management and this study does so, for the first time in an agricultural leadership context. Using The Conflict Management Scale and The Work Domain Goal Orientation Instrument, 80 members of a LEAD21 agricultural leadership development cohort exhibited a 15.2% increase in conflict management capacity. Learning goal orientation was predictive of conflict management capacity prior to the start of LEAD21. Both learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation-prove were found to have predictive qualities after LEAD21 conflict management training. In addition to a discussion on future research directions, educators, as well as learners, are encouraged to incorporate goal orientation into curriculum development and planning for the enhancement of learning environments.
Elevating Mental Health Disparities and Building Psychosocial Resilience among BIPOC Children and Youth to Broaden the Climate and Health Discourse
Author: Patel, Surili Sutaria
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Resilience (Psychology),Mental Health,Minority Group Children,Climate,Anxiety,Disproportionate Representation,Natural Disasters,Early Experience,Research

The co-occurring crises of climate change, a global pandemic, and the social justice movement has put demands on psychosocial resilience. The country and global community has witnessed that those who contribute the least to climate change are the most impacted, and that black, indigenous, and people of color bear the health and financial burdens brought on by a changing climate. Given that eco-anxiety is on the rise amongst young people, such increases in awareness building have not yielded action at the speed and scale necessary to protect the most climate-sensitive among us: children and youth. Raising healthy children and youth is not divorced from nurturing mental health and wellness. Through a literature review of peer reviewed and gray literature, as well as expert interviews, the paper demonstrates the imperative to acknowledge and address contemporary needs of mental health in children and youth due to the co-occurring crises. It is time for a national effort to prioritize building psychosocial resilience in children and youth. It is essential to center psychosocial resilience through these various levers on the lives of BIPOC children and youth who experience disproportionate negative effects of one or more crises exacerbated by historic, structural and current environmental injustices. Not only is it imperative to expedite just and equitable actions to protect a world borrowed from children and generations to come, it is a responsibility to ensure those generations have the social and emotional tools to thrive.
Winning an External Teaching Award in Higher Education: Teacher Identity and Recipient Characteristics
Author: Bethel, Kerrie
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Awards,College Faculty,Professional Identity,Teacher Characteristics,Agriculture Teachers,Teacher Behavior,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Attitudes,Mentors

Many universities and professional associations recognize excellence in teaching with awards; however, research findings on the impact of an award on teaching identity are mixed. The objective of this study was to qualify the impact of receiving a National or Regional United States Department of Agriculture Teaching, Extension, and Research Award (TERA) on teaching identity. Secondarily, this study explored how well award-winning teachers' self-identities and behaviors corresponded with recognized characteristics of excellent teaching. A phenomenological approach utilizing semi-structured interviews and researcher reflexivity was used to gather information from 12 TERA recipients. Findings indicate that faculty members recognized for excellence in teaching demonstrate known characteristics of effective teachers, seek guidance from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and feel that teaching continues to be less valued than research in their institutional cultures. Results suggest that departmental and college level administrators can foster subcultures that promote teaching excellence through access to professional development opportunities, support for peer mentoring and evaluation, and revised promotion and tenure policies that recognize teaching effectiveness as a productivity metric.
&quot;Gen Z Will Save Us:&quot; Applauded and Dismissed as a Gen Z Climate Activist (Perspective from the Field)
Author: Hess, Tobias
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Climate,Activism,Youth,Power Structure,Generational Differences

If one looks up the words &quot;Gen Z will&quot; on Google, the first two results that appear are &quot;Gen Z will save the world&quot; and &quot;Gen Z will change the world.&quot; Regardless of the veracity of these claims, the notion that Gen Z has a unique ability to shape global culture and politics runs rampant in mainstream media ecosystems. The idea has taken on unique prescience with activist Greta Thunberg and the global school climate strikes. Even as Thunberg, in speech after speech, claims that she does not want to be praised for giving older generations &quot;hope&quot; and instead wants meaningful policy change, the cultural discourse at large is still addicted to pedalling the idea that Gen Z and youth climate activists will change society for the better. While this may seem like a compliment to Gen Z, this notion is actually deeply destabilizing. The claim that Gen Z activists are inspiring and will save the world works to obscure and avoid the substance of youth climate activists' claims who want policy change now, not in the future once members of Gen Z are leaders. I will track the various ways that media outlets and public figures celebrate Gen Z climate protests and analyze the ways that celebrating the use of Gen Z voices is a means of avoiding the substance of youth activist demands. I will then put these observations in conversation with the words of New York Times writer Charlie Warzel who wrote the following in a June 2020 article titled &quot;Gen Z Will Not Save Us:&quot; &quot;Generation Z is disillusioned by a country and its myriad institutions whose moral arc seems to bend toward corruption and stagnation. It is also, like any generation, not monolithic. And the way that its justified disillusion will play politically, culturally and socially is unknown.&quot; Bringing in this incisive analysis from Warzel will center the fact that much of Gen Z activism is an earnest response to a destabilizing culture and political landscape. Warzel also helps us see that any grand narrative surrounding Gen Z political heroism is reductive, unhelpful and ultimately shifts the onus of enacting change onto Gen Z.
Item Dimensionality Exploration by Means of Construct Map and Categorical Principal Components Analysis
Author: Deliu, Gabriela
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Multiple Choice Tests,Test Items,Achievement Tests,Science Tests,Foreign Countries,Item Response Theory,Grade 6,Secondary School Students,Factor Analysis

The aim of this research is to study the merits and complementarity of Construct Mapping and Categorical Principal Components Analysis as two approaches that explore the dimensionality of multiple-choice items in achievement tests. Data from the two forms of the Romanian National Assessment Tests on Science were used to explore the dimensionality of items and to identify potentially problematic items that affect the equivalence of the two parallel forms. The findings confirm that the two tests have at best partial equivalence, but while the two methods both agree on test unidimensionality, they flag in part different items as potentially problematic. The results enable researchers and practitioners to make coherent data-driven decision regarding the use of unidimensional vs multidimensional IRT models.
Mental Representations of Light Propagation Time for 10- and 14-Year-Old Students: Didactical Perspectives
Author: Ravanis, Konstantinos
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Light,Scientific Concepts,Concept Formation,Age Differences,Time,Schemata (Cognition),Elementary School Students,Grade 5,Secondary School Students,Grade 9,Foreign Countries

Student's mental representations of physical concepts are often different from those of scientists. The research aimed to identify and compare mental representations of light propagation time by school children aged 10 (132 subjects), and 14 (109 subjects) years old. This research was conducted through individual interviews in which the students were asked to locate light propagation time in various tasks-experimental situations. The results of this research show that even though the students of two groups face difficulties in understanding light propagation time, as they grow older, they make statistically significant progress in constructing the conception of light propagation time. These findings allow to seek out educational perspectives on the understanding of the conception of light propagation time in organised scholastic environments.
Primary School Students&apos; Conceptions about Owls, Experiences with Owls and Their Sources of Information
Author: Gnidovec, Tanja
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Elementary School Students,Student Attitudes,Knowledge Level,Scientific Concepts,Concept Formation,Misconceptions,Information Sources,Freehand Drawing,Ecology,Physical Characteristics,Animals,Experience,Preadolescents,Grade 4,Grade 5,Foreign Countries

The present research explores benefits of using young students' drawings in combination with written responses for gathering information about science concepts. Younger students are still very limited in their verbal expression and less biologically literate than older students. The aim was to determine primary school students' conceptions about owls, experiences with owls and their sources of information, and to then determine how beneficial it is to combine information gathered from drawings and written responses in comparison to previous research done with lower secondary school students. Altogether, 280 students attending fourth and fifth grades from schools in Slovenia participated in the research. Students knew well the specific features of owls. Drawings provided more clear information about body parts and proportions, while owls' specific habitats, behaviours and diet were more thoroughly described in their written responses. Students without experiences with living owls represented owls less thoroughly. Comparison of frequencies of responses in main categories of conceptions about owls showed that using drawings and written responses is equally beneficial for younger and older students. Gathering primary school students' conceptions about science concepts with both drawings and written responses enables better assessment of a student's knowledge than using just drawings or written responses.
The Voices of African American Agriculture Teachers in One Southern State Regarding the NFA/FFA Merger
Author: Jones, Wash A.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: African American Teachers,Agriculture Teachers,Agricultural Education,Teacher Attitudes,Public Schools,Agricultural Occupations,Leadership Training,African Americans,Youth Programs,Racial Bias,Teacher Shortage,Organizational Change,National Organizations,Teacher Role,Teaching Conditions

Sustaining human capital in the agricultural industry is critical to the United States' ability to maintain preeminence in the global economy. This goal has become a greater challenge due to declining participation in agricultural academic programs, particularly at 1890 institutions. Although the anticipated outcome of the 1965 &quot;merger&quot; of the New Farmers of America (NFA) and the Future Farmers of America (FFA) was to achieve synergy in this effort, the outcome was counterproductive in terms of the participation by people of color. This qualitative study utilized interviews, guided by 7 questions, to examine 22 African American teachers' perceptions of the impact of the merger. Participants taught agriculture in public schools in one southern state and/or were members and/or advisors in the NFA. Participants perceived that the merger was a &quot;takeover&quot; that led to a critical absence of participation and leadership development among African American youths. Participants agreed that the merger had a drastic, negative impact on the number of African American agriculture teachers produced and the number of individuals in the pipeline for agriculture-related careers, thus, a negative impact on building the industry's human capital. Findings from this study should induce innovative strategies to overcome the shortage of African Americans pursuing agriculture-related careers.
Using STEM Applications for Supporting Integrated Teaching Knowledge of Pre-Service Science Teachers
Author: Alan, Burcu
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Science Teachers,Problem Solving,STEM Education,Computer Uses in Education,Computer Simulation,Integrated Activities,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries

In this research the effects of STEM applications, which are aimed to support the integrated teaching knowledge of pre-service science teachers on the problem solving skills of pre-service science teachers were examined. The research was carried out in scope of the mixed method design of convergent parallel design. The research was conducted with pre-service science teachers of experimental group (n=31) and control group (n=31) who were studying at Firat University. STEM applications including Algodoo were carried out with the pre-service teachers in the experimental group for one term. The data of the research were collected through the problem solving inventory test (PSIT), prospects diaries during the process of the pre-service science teachers in the experiment group. Quantitative data were analyzed using unpaired samples t-test. Statistically significant differences were found in favor of the experimental group when the PSIT post-test scores of the pre-service teachers in the experimental and control groups were analyzed. They said that STEM education is necessary and important for them, much better products arise as a result of gathering different disciplines, but integration of four disciplines is not easy.
The Masks We Wear: A Quantitative Analysis of Motivational Factors of School Based Agriculture Education Teachers during a Pandemic
Author: Clemons, Christopher A.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teacher Motivation,Agriculture Teachers,COVID-19,Pandemics,Secondary School Teachers,Distance Education,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Attitudes,Self Concept

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, school-based agriculture education (SBAE) was framed within a traditional approach to teaching and learning; teachers and students shared classrooms, met learning objectives, and promoted their local FFA programs. This study address the degrees of personal and professional motivation experienced by secondary agriscience teachers transition to remote/distance education instruction during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The theoretical framework for this study was structured within expectancy value theory (Atkinson, 1957) and bound by Weiner's attribution theory (1972). Atkinson (1957) postulated that individual decisions dictate a person's role in behaviors associated with a defined task. Three research objectives guided this investigation to more clearly understand teachers' perceptions of personal and professional motivation: identify the characteristics of Alabama SBAE teachers during the pandemic, articulate how COVID-19 affected SBAE teacher's personal dispositions toward teaching agriscience education, and understand SBAE teachers' professional motivation during COVID-19. The questionnaire invitation was sent to 115 (n = 115) middle/secondary school agriscience education teachers in Alabama with 64 (n = 64) respondents attempting the questionnaire. Respondents indicated positive motivation in addressing their professional duties as a classroom teacher even as they lack the traditional classroom or lab. Teachers were motivated to make positive changes in their program with regards to FFA and SAE but are less than positive about their ability to make those changes in the online learning modality. This is consistent with existing understandings of online learning and the embrace of novel experiences.
State FFA Association Use of Instagram to Promote Membership Diversity
Author: Lawson, Cara
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Agricultural Education,Student Organizations,State Programs,Photography,Social Media,Diversity,Group Membership,Inclusion,Student Participation,Handheld Devices

While it presents many opportunities, the National FFA Organization faces a variety of obstacles toward achieving a more diverse membership. Research has recognized the role of social identity, or the way a person perceives belongingness to a larger group, in how individuals select groups for hopeful inclusion. Photos indicate who is part of a group and can elicit attitudes and emotions toward an organization. Recent statistics show teenager use of Instagram, a mobile photo sharing application, has increased while other social media applications have declined. This qualitative study analyzed the frequency and themes presented by state FFA associations through their Instagram accounts to promote a diverse membership through an ethnographic approach. A total of 434 Instagram posts featuring diversity were identified throughout the 52 state FFA associations. Of those, state FFA associations with a minimum of 25% overall diversity posts were further analyzed to determine themes. The most common theme within the diversity posts was &quot;participation,&quot; which included student involvement in contests, conventions, or conferences. This study illustrates variability in the diversity efforts of state FFA associations in their Instagram accounts, and the need to highlight and promote a diverse membership on a consistent and intentional basis.
Making the Jump: What Led Agriscience Teachers to Adopt Agriscience Research SAEs?
Author: Thiel, Brooke L.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Agricultural Education,Agriculture Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Secondary School Teachers,Beliefs,Evidence Based Practice,Research Utilization,Decision Making,Student Centered Learning,Faculty Development,Planning,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Student Projects,Experiential Learning

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors, attitudes, and beliefs that led secondary school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers to adopt agriscience research Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs) into their programs. Nine current SBAE teachers from North Dakota participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their experiences with agriscience research SAEs. The interviews were subjected to two rounds of coding and were collapsed into themes during a third round of analysis. A myriad of experiences, beliefs, and factors contributed to teachers' decisions to adopt agriscience research SAEs into their programs. However, the most salient reasons were compatibility with the overall goals of the school district, a commitment to whole-student development, teacher ability and support, multitasking behavior, extensive teacher planning and student support, and positive student buy-in. Though the unique experiences of the participants are not generalizable beyond the present study, we offer recommendations for teacher educators, state staff, and teacher leaders regarding the further adoption and integration of agriscience research SAEs into SBAE programs nationwide.
Extension Organizational Strengths: A Delphi Analysis
Author: Lamm, Keven W.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Agricultural Education,Extension Education,Higher Education,Program Effectiveness,Extension Agents,Youth Programs,Program Content,Teacher Competencies,School Personnel,Educational Resources,Cooperation,Educational Needs,Administrative Organization

Sharing the importance of agriculture, agricultural education, and programmatic efforts through Extension is vital to ensuring policy makers and the general public understand the need for supporting the overall agricultural industry. However, communicating such importance can be challenging without accurate, evidence-based language to describe what makes agricultural initiatives unique and effective. Furthermore, having knowledge of the unique strengths of Extension builds a foundation of resources agricultural staff can use in problem-solving, communication, and education techniques. A Delphi study was conducted to research the unique strengths of University of Georgia Extension in an effort to better educate and communicate with local and state stakeholders. Findings resulted in 11 strengths that gained 100% agreement from research respondents. Six thematic categories covering all agreed-upon strengths document strengths in an explicit way that can also help with internal communication and education efforts within the Extension organization.
School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers Competence of Synchronous Online Instruction Tools during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author: Eck, Christopher J.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,School Closing,Agricultural Education,Teacher Competencies,Online Courses,Educational Technology,Synchronous Communication,Self Efficacy,Knowledge Level,Technological Literacy,Teaching Methods,Teacher Attitudes

The COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to move course delivery to online learning with little or no advanced training. One of the immediate concerns of the online course delivery was readiness in using the synchronous learning tools available to school districts. Additionally, moving all students to online learning environments presented a challenge for those teachers who knew little about accessibility tools. The purpose of this study was to assess the awareness and self-perceived competence levels of SBAE teachers in South Carolina related to synchronous online instruction and application of accessibility tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the teachers indicated they used Google Meet as the institution's synchronous delivery platform. Of those using Google Meet, their ability to use the mobile application to start meetings and use virtual backgrounds was low. The second most used synchronous delivery platform was Zoom. Some of the skill gaps SBAE teachers listed while using Zoom included breakout rooms, the polling feature, and removing unwanted participants. SBAE teachers reported very low competence in using accessibility features provided in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint applications. Recommendations included future in-service training for SBAE teachers in using advanced levels of Zoom, Google Meet, and WebEx features. Also, training for SBAE teachers on the importance of accessibility and the tools provided is warranted. Faculty teaching educational technologies in pre-service programs for SBAE teachers are also encouraged to adapt curricula to support these skills.