Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2346/521
About: Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) are the graduate research outputs of Texas Tech University. They represent years of work from our Master's and Doctoral graduates. If you find the ThinkTech digital repository useful, please tell us! Share how open access to scholarship benefits you. Your story matters to us.
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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations by Department "Agricultural Communications and Education"
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Item Assessing perceptions of rural South Plains under-served high school students toward agricultural college degrees and careers(2015-05) Hart, Andrew M.; Ritz, Rudy; Akers, Cindy; Burris, Scott; Boleman, Chris T.In order to recruit minority students to consider agricultural related careers there is a need to develop an outreach strategy to reach diverse youth and adult audiences in rural counties. Determining the needs of diverse rural audiences requires evaluation to assess the needs of the population. More specifically, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is seeking to evaluate the overall perception toward agriculture and the idea of pursuing a higher education in agriculture. To effectively reach all populations of the state of Texas, there is a need to employ personnel representing all ethnic groups being educated. Possibly, one of the most significant issues facing Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service today is the task to recruit, train and identify high quality individuals to serve as employees of the system (Kelm, 2014). It is imperative to continue to recognize the importance of exposing youth to agricultural related career and college opportunities to ensure that there is an adequate pool of young people to hire and fill job openings for the future. In order for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to effectively address the “Recruiting a Diverse Workforce” Initiative, we need to focus our recruitment efforts to junior high and high school students and establish an agricultural foundation for youth to explore. The purpose of this study was to understand high school students’ (in a rural diverse county in the South Plains of Texas) level of knowledge and perceptions for agricultural related college degrees and careers.Item Cognitive behavior and active engaged time: The impact of the CASE curriculum(2012-05) Witt, Phillip; Ulmer, Jonathan; Burris, Scott; Brashears, Michael Todd; Burley, Hansel E.Teacher and student behavior in the classroom have both been linked to student achievement. The hands on, real world experiences which students are offered through career and technical education courses provide an opportunity for agricultural education to make contributions to student achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact the CASE curriculum has on the academic engagement of students enrolled in animal science courses and the cognitive behavior of agriculture teachers. The target population for this study consisted of secondary agriculture teachers who teach animal science courses and the students enrolled in those courses. The study employed a quasi-experimental, static-group comparison design. Nine CASE certified teachers represented the treatment group, which were matched with nine traditional agriculture teachers on selected criteria. Teachers’ cognitive behavior was measured using the Florida Taxonomy of Cognitive Behavior while student engagement was measured using the Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools. Matched-pairs t tests were used to compare the CASE group and the traditional group on cognitive behavior and student engagement. Students in the CASE group were found to spend significantly more time actively engaged that those in traditional agriculture courses. This difference represents a large practical difference as well. No significant differences were found between the two groups on the measures of teachers’ cognitive behavior. From the findings it was concluded that the CASE curriculum and professional development can impact the active engagement of students in the classroom and potentially affect student achievement.Item Exploring the integration of science into agricultural education(2015-05) Carraway, Candis; Ulmer, Jonathan; Burris, Scott; Irlbeck, Erica; Price, Margaret A.This three article dissertation explored the integration of science into agricultural education through three phases.The first phase investigated the science and animal science content knowledge of preservice teachers enrolled in Integrating Science in Agricultural Education. A one group pretest-posttest design was used to determine the science and animal science knowledge of the twenty participants. A paired samples t-test was utilized to compare the means of the scores on the pretests and posttests which indicated a significant difference in the mean of scores on the science pretest and posttest as well as the animal science pretest and posttest. Bivariate correlations found moderate correlations between preservice teachers’ grade point average and science pretest scores and science posttest scores; between the number of postsecondary core science credits a preservice teacher earned and science pretest scores and change in science test scores; as well as between the number of postsecondary animal science credits a preservice teacher earned and science posttest scores. Phase two was a qualitative case study focused on 20 preservice teachers enrolled in a course that focused on the integration of science in agricultural education. The course used the scope and sequence of a Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) Institute thus providing the preservice teachers with the 65 hours of required professional development to be CASE certified. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used to explore the participants’ intentions for integrating science in agricultural education through the use of CASE curriculum. The three factors that Ajzen (1991) claims to impact a person’s intentions to perform a behavior were explored through classroom observations, preservice teachers’ journals, and one-on-one interviews. Participants showed a positive attitude toward science integration and the CASE curriculum. The participants had mixed opinions about how much science is currently being integrated in agricultural education and identified some barriers (mainly the expense of supplies and equipment needed to teach the CASE curriculum) that could impact their perceived behavioral control. The students had high intentions to integrate science in their instruction and to use CASE curriculum in the future. Phase three explored science teachers’ perceptions of the Principles of Agriculture – Animal curriculum developed by Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE). A convenience sample of Texas science teachers attending the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching resulted in collecting data from 119 participants. Participants agreed that CASE curriculum includes science concepts, applies scientific principles to real world concepts, and accurately teaches science concepts. They also agreed that an agriculture teacher could teach lessons in the CASE curriculum. The science teachers felt confident that they could teach the lessons, they have the equipment needed to teach the lessons, they would be willing to loan this equipment to agriculture teachers, they would be willing to co-teach this curriculum with an agriculture teacher, and they would be willing to assist agriculture teachers in preparing to teach this curriculum. They did not agree that their school would allocate funds for an agriculture class that is structured in the nature of the CASE curriculum. A correlation between the summated score for science teachers’ perceptions of implementing the CASE curriculum was found with whether or not the science teacher taught at a school that had an existing agricultural education program and their agriculture connectedness score.