1 - 4 of 4
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Construction and validation of a psychometric scale to assess extension agents’ beliefs about extension and innovation
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Landini, Fernando (author), Beramendi, Maite (author), and University of La Cuenca del Plata Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2019-07-24
- Published:
- Argentina: Taylor and Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 101 Document Number: D10880
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 25(5) : 318-399
- Notes:
- 18 pages, online journal article, Purpose This article aims at designing and validating a psychometric scale to assess extensionists’ and advisors’ beliefs about extension and innovation. Design/Methodology/approach The scale was developed by drawing upon results from a previous empirical research as well as insights from a literature review on extension and innovation approaches. The theoretical framework used to write the items was validated by 12 international experts from 11 countries. 608 Argentine extension workers completed the questionnaire. Replies were analysed using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Findings The scale has a good fit and satisfactory level of internal consistency. Five factors were identified: Dialogue and horizontal coordination; Transfer of technology; Blame on farmers; Participatory, farmer-led extension; and Self-critical attitude. Practical implications The scale has multiple and different uses, including research, theory development, institutional practice, diagnosis, and teaching. Theoretical implications Results show that a horizontal, facilitative extension approach shares a common epistemology, as well as underlying values and assumptions, with territorial development and with an innovation systems perspective, and that both contrast with a traditional transfer of technology approach. Nonetheless, practitioners would not tend to see these two contrasting perspectives as contradictory but as complementary. Originality/Value The scale is the first validated psychometric instrument, based on an ample theoretical framework, that allows for a quantitative assessment of beliefs about extension and innovation.
3. Evaluation and impact of a reflective training process for rural extension agents
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Landini, Fernando (author), Brites, Walter (author), and University of La Cuenca del Plata
- Format:
- Online journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2018-07-18
- Published:
- Argentina: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 106 Document Number: D10931
- Journal Title:
- The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 25(5) : 457-472
- Notes:
- 15 pages, via online journal, Purpose: This article assesses a non-traditional training methodology for extension agents, focused on the exchange of experiences among peers and the reflection on practice, with the aim of exploring its potential as a training strategy. Design/Methodology/approach: A quali-quantitative investigation was conducted, which included interviews with extension agents, the use of different questionnaires, and recordings of the evaluation sessions carried out during each workshop. Findings: This research allowed us to understand the importance of effective group coordination, a participatory climate, working in small groups, and the feedback loop between theory and practice for processes of experience sharing and reflection on practice. Some of the positive effects of the training observed were that extension agents acquired new knowledge and methodologies, reflected critically upon their practice, and put into question their own extension approach. Practical Implications: Given its potentialities, implementing training processes focused on experience sharing and reflection on practice for rural extension workers, seems advisable. Theoretical Implications: This article contributes to the understanding of how experience sharing and reflection on practice can generate transformations in rural extension agents’ approaches and positioning. Originality/Value: This study systematically assesses the impacts that training has on extension workers, as well as the underlying processes that made it possible to generate them.
4. Examining the reach of public and private agricultural advisory services and farmers’ perceptions of their quality: the case of county Laois in Ireland
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Dunne, Andy (author), Markey, Anne (author), and Kinsella, Jim (author)
- Format:
- Abstract
- Publication Date:
- 2018-11-14
- Published:
- Ireland: Taylor & Francis
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 101 Document Number: D10878
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- 29(5) : 404-419
- Notes:
- 13 pages, online journal, This article examines the reach, the amount, the content and the quality of agricultural extension in County Laois in Ireland as reported by farmers. It seeks to better understand extension interaction in an Irish county case.